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This work is too well known to need any introduc tion to the profession. It is, so far as we are aware, the only treatise fully covering the subject; and whi'e having the field to itself in this respect, it is also a most valuable and reliable book. Since the publica tion of the first edition in 1877, the changes in the Statutes of the several States and the late judicial decisions respecting Notaries Public have made a new edition desirable. The editors of the work in its present form have evidently performed their duties in a careful and conscientious manner, and enlarged and improved, as it now is, the book will be found to be of material aid to the profession and of practical benefit to Notaries Public and Commissioners of Deeds

the increased attention, that it is receiving from ju rists have caused the profession to extract out of its vast treasury of learning new precedents and new il lustrations of legal principles adapted to the growing wants of higher civilization, and thus further enrich the common law, especially on the subject-matter of testamentary dispositions, the law of which depends in a great measure on judicial decisions and but little on statutes." The work will prove a valuable addi tion to legal literature.

Contractual Limitations, including Trade Strikes and Conspiracies, and Corporate Trusts and Combinations. By Charles A. Ray, LL.D. of the New York Bar. Lawyers Co-Operative Publishing Co., Rochester, N. Y., 1891. Law sheep, $4.50 net.

An exceedingly interesting and readable book, in which Mr. Donovan has collected a number of inci dents demonstrating the advocate's skill in the con duct of trials. Stories are told of such eminent legal lights as Webster, Choate, Beach, Butler. Curtis, Davis, and others; and the lesson taught is that how ever desperate a case may appear, the advocate's skill is equal to overcoming seemingly insurmountable difficulties.

In these days of social disturbances caused by the differences arising between employers and employees, this work of Judge Ray's will be found to be both timely and useful. In a thorough and exhaustive manner the learned author covers the law embraced within the scope of his subject, and while devoting particular attention to Contracts in Restraint of Trade. Monopolies, Trade Trusts, Strikes and Con spiracies, he by no means neglects any other limita tion upon the power to contract. The treatise as a whole is one of very great value to the profession, and will, we doubt not, meet with the appreciation which its merits justly deserve.

The Roman Law of Testaments, Codicils, and Gifts, in the Event of Death (Mortis Causa Donationes). By Moses A. Dropsie. T. & J. W. Johnson & Co., Philadelphia, 1892. Cloth, $3.00 net. The author's preface well describes the scope of this interesting work, and we cannot do better than to quote therefrom. " This work is based on the Cor pusjuris Civilis for its chief authority Though the Pandects or Digest have contributed the most of the material, yet the Institutes and Code have furnished a considerable share, and the Novels have in a less degree also contributed to the subject-matter. The author is not aware that there is any work in the English language occupying the same field as this book. The growing importance of the Roman law, and

Skill in Trials containing a Variety of Civil and Criminal Cases won by the art of Advocates. By J. W. Donovan. Williamson Law Book Co., Rochester, N. Y., 1891. Law sheep. $1.00.

A Dictionary of English Synonymes and Sy nonymous or Parallel Expressions designed as a Practical Guide to Aptness and Vari ety of Phraseology. By Richard Soule. New Edition, revised and enlarged, by George H. Howison, LL.D. J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, 1892. Cloth, S2.25. A new edition of this work which has long been recognized as a standard will be gladly welcomed. While of value to every one who has occasion to write or speak, it is almost indispensable to the legal pro fession. Even practised and skilful writers and speakers are often embarrassed in the endeavor to make a sentence more clear, simple, terse, and rhyth mical, by the substitution of one form of diction for another, and this work will be found eminently useful in providing a ready means of assistance where one is at a loss for a word or expression best suited for a particular turn of thought or mood of the mind. It Came to Pass. By Mary Farley Sanborn, author of " Sweet and Twenty." Lee and Shepard, Publishers, Boston, 1892. Paper, 50 c.; Cloth. $1.00. The cordial reception given Mrs. Sanborn's first book, " Sweet and Twenty," will be extended to this