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 Rh BOOK NOTICES.

A TREATISE ON THE ADMISSIBILITY OF PAROL EVIDENCE IN RESPECT то WRITTEN INSTRU MENTS. By IRVING BROWNE. L. K. Strouse and Company, New York. 1893. Law sheep. $5.00 net Mr. Browne is one of the few legal writers who has the power to state clearly and succinctly principles of law in the fewest possible words. One may be sure, in his work, to find the wheat thoroughly sifted from the chaff. In the present volume, which is intended both as a book for busy practitioners, and as a text book for scholars and teachers, the author gives a distinct, thorough, and comprehensive treatment of this important branch of the law of evidence, which, by the way, has never been fully treated by other writers. To the active practitioner the work cannot fail to prove of exceeding value, while the student will find it of the greatest aid and assistance. That it will re ceive a cordial welcome there can be no doubt, and we sincerely trust that Mr. Browne will follow this treatise up with similar works on other subordinate branches of the law of evidence.

A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THE LAW OF CHAT TEL MORTGAGES, AS ADMINISTERED BY THE COURTS OF THE UNITED STATES. Complete and exhaustive. By J. E. COBBEY. West Pub lishing Co., St. Paul, Minn., 1893. Two vols. I,aw sheep. $10.50.

Company, Boston, 1893. sheep. $12.00 net.

Two vols.

Law

For nearly fifty years this sterling work of Mr. Jarman's has easily maintained its position as the most complete and exhaustive authority upon the subject of which it treats. No other writers have undertaken to cover so broad a field; and it is no disparagement to the other excellent works upon the subject, to say that none of them have never equalled Mr. Jarman's treatise in exliaustiveness. The present edition is published under the new International Copyright Law of this country, and the publishers have been fortunate in again securing the services of Mr. Bigelow as American editor. The English text and notes are left intact, the notes of American law being kept entirely separate from the English work. Some change has been made by the English editor by the omission of some unimportant portions of the original text, and by breaking up the several chapters into sections and sub-sections. The result is a decided improvement, and one which will be appreciated by the profession. A vast amount of new matter has been introduced, and yet the bulk of the volumes has not been appre ciably increased. The work is now brought down to a very recent date, and in its present form leaves nothing to be desired. We see no reason why lor the next fifty years it should not continue to be, as it has been for the past half-century, ike standard work upon the subject of Wills.

THE AMERICAN STATE REPORTS. Containing the cases of general value and authority decided in the Courts of Last Resort of the several States. Selected, Reported, and Annotated by A. C. FREEMAN. Vol. XXVIII. Bancroft-Whitney Company, San Francisco. 1893. £4-00 net.

This treatise, unlike that of Mr. Browne's (noticed above) is not succinct and terse, but two large volumes are required as a receptacle for matter which could easily have been condensed into one of moderate size. The law of Chattel Mortgages is so purely statutory that the work is of necessity made up prin This volume contains decisions of the Courts of cipally of selections from State Statutes, with citations California, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, of decisions bearing upon those statutes. The Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New York, North trjatise is certainly exhaustive in this respect. Of Carolina. Oregon, Pennsylvania. South Carolina, course the subject is one which is so entirely a Texas, and Washington. Mr Freeman's annotations "local issue" in each of the several States, that it! are as full and valuable as ever. H perhaps impossible to make a work upon it of gen eral utility to the profession : and the fault is to be at SUPERSTITION AND FORCE. Essays on THE tributed to this fact rather than to the author. As WAGER OF LAW, THE WAGER OF BATTLE, THE we said before, its principal demerit in our eyes is the ORDEAL, TORTURE. By HENRY CHARLES LEA, lack of condensation. Law books are too numerous LL.D. Fourth edition, revised. Lea Brothers and too ponderous, and the hard-worked lawyer wants & Co., Philadelphia, 1892. Cloth. $2.75. conciseness and brevity

A TREATISE ON WILLS. By THOMAS JARMAN, ESQ. The fifth edition, by Leopold George Gordon Robbins, Esq., of Lincoln's Inn, Barrister-at-Law. Sixth American Edition, by Mel ville M. Bigelow, Ph. D. Little, Brown, and

This work of Mr. Lea's is of absorbing interest and of great historical value. As the author says, " the history of jurisprudence is the history of civilization. The labors of the law-giver embody not only the manners and customs of his time, but also its inner most thoughts and beliefs, laid bare for our examina