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 Rh and a death-struggle ensues with the victim. Such scenes are terrible. And when the victim is at last brought by force into the chair, other scenes no less atrocious must follow when the final preparations are being made. Then, again, if in his excitement the executioner forgets some connection, he will turn on the current in vain. It will have no effect, and the whole programme must be recommenced. The authorities have no right, either in a legal point of view or in the point of view of humanity, to prolong in that manner the agony of a condemned man. I could understand that kind of death, if the cul prit was not made aware of the preparations be forehand, and if they simply made him step upon a trap where the electric current would kill him. What I do not like in the New York system is the preparation at which the doomed man is obliged to assist. "In my opinion, executions by electricity will not last long in America. After one or two trials the Americans will come back to hanging." But to get at the opinion of an interested party, a man condemned to death, the reporter went to Vodable, the assassin recently sentenced at the Assizes of the Seine, and made him read the description of the American electric system. "B-r-r-r! " exclaimed Vodable. " I vote for the guillotine!" According to the " Asiatic Researches," a very curious mode of trying titles is practised in Hindostan. Two holes are dug in the disputed spot, in each of which the plaintiff's and defendant's lawyers put one of their legs, and remain there until one of them is tired or complains of being stung by the insects, in which case his client is defeated. Mr. Crisp, from whom we extract this, says : " In this country it is the client and not the lawyer who puts his foot into it." The learned "Conveyancer's Guide " does not say the duty devolving on the lawyer could be performed by deputy. Quaere, also, whether the insects were of the order of legal sinecurists which in other places as well as Hindostan tire both lawyer and client. Common as the expression to " dun " a debtor is, but few persons are, perhaps, aware of the origin of the word. It owes its birth to one Joe Dun, a famous bailiff in the town of Lincoln, 43

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England, so extremely active and so dexterous in his business that it became a proverb, when a man refused to pay, " Why do you not Dun him? " — that is, Why do you not set Dun to arrest him? Hence it became a cant word, and is now as old as the days of Henry VII.

REVIEWS. The Harvard Law Review for May contains, as its leading article, "The Burden of Proof," by Prof. James B. Thayer. Edward A. Hibbard contributes a timely paper on " Elevated Road Litigation;" and Joseph H. Beals, Jr., discusses "Taxation of Pipes in Public Streets." The next number will not be issued until October. We have received from Mr. Eugene D. Haw kins, of the New York Bar, a copy of his exhaus tive paper on "The Rights of Minority Stock holders, and what Legislation, if any, is needed for their Protection," which was awarded the prize of $250 by the New York State Bar Asso ciation. The subject is one of unusual interest, and is most ably treated by Mr. Hawkins. The Political Science Quarterly, for June, opens with a defence of " National Sovereignty" in the United States, by John A. Jameson, against the theories of the "analytical jurists." E. I. Renick, of the Treasury Department, dis cusses the relations of " The Comptrollers and the Courts " in the settlement of claims against the government; Dr. Charles B. Elliott, writing of " The Legislatures and the Courts," gives an interesting history of the origin and development of the power to declare a law unconstitutional. Prof. R. M. Smith, in a timely paper •" On Census Methods," shows the scientific impor tance of the census, and suggests improvements in the methods of taking it; Professor Seligman contributes the first of a series of articles on "The Taxation of Corporations," containing an exhaustive review of all the legislation on the subject in the United States; and Horace White replies to Professor Patten's criticism of Wells's Recent Economic Changes. There are the usual number of reviews, and a " Record of Political Events" for the six months ending May 1.