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A TREATISE ON MARINE, FIRE, LIFE, ACCIDENT, AND ALL OTHER INSURANCES, including Mutual

Benefit Societies; covering, also, General Aver age, and, so far as applicable, Rights, Reme dies, Pleading, Practice and Evidence. By JOSEPH A. JOYCE. Bancroft-Whitney Co., San Francisco, 1897. 4 vols. Law sheep. §24.00. Almost anyone can make a fairly satisfactory "Digest" of cases, but when it comes to making clear the " why and wherefore" of legal decisions, and presenting satisfactorily the principles upon which the law to which such decisions relate is founded, then a clear, logical and reasoning mind is necessary. That Mr. Joyce possesses such a mind is demon strated beyond doubt in this treatise on the law of insurances. The work is one of the most important legal publications of the year, and covers fully the whole law upon the subject and its practice before the courts. Eight years have been spent by the author in collecting and arranging the material, and so thoroughly and conscientiously has this been done that, after a rigid test, we can fully endorse Mr. Joyce's statement that "it is believed that no errors exist as to the authorities relied upon." The system of arrangement adopted is admirable, and the index unusually full and satisfactory. The practitioner will find the work of the greatest aid, and we heartily commend it to the profession as worthy their entire confidence. It certainly is one of the ablest text books which has appeared for many a year.

MASSACHUSETTS YEAR BOOK, and City and Town Register, No. 3, June i, 1897 -June i, 1898. Compiled by ALFRED S. ROWE. F. S. Blanchard & Co., Worcester. Map. Cloth. $1.75. While not coming properly under the head of Law Hooks, this volume furnishes much of value and in terest to the lawyer. Nowhere can so much data pertaining to the commonwealth of Massachusetts be found as in this compilation of Mr. Rowe's. Information upon every conceivable subject relating to State affairs is contained therein. A complete list is given of the cities and towns, their officers, population, valuation, debt, tax rate, election re turns; National and State governments; courts, banks, insurance companies, railroads, newspapers, professional directory, etc. In addition to mere data, much interesting historical information is given.

AN OUTLINE OF THE LAW OF LIBEL. Six lec tures delivered in Middle Temple Hall during Michaelmas term, 1896. By W. BLAKE OCHEN of the Middle Temple. Macmillan Company, New York, 1897. Cloth. $1.00.

the laymen as well as the lawyer, and the book will prove a source of entertainment while at the same time imparting much valuable information.

SELECTED CASES ON THE LAW OF SALES OF PER SONAL PROPERTY. Arranged to accompany Burdick's Law of Sales. By FRANCIS M. BURDICK, Dwight Professor of Law in Columbia UniversitySchool of law. Little, Brown & Co., Boston, 1897. Cloth. $4.50 net. In compiling this new volume in the very useful set of Case Books accompanying the Students' Series, Professor Hurdick follows the arrangement of the topics which makes his text-book on the law of sales of personal property a most desirable book on the subject for the student. His design has been to give the cases needed to make clear the law of sales in a form in which they can be available at a small expense, that all the students of a class may get access to the needed cases at the same time, which is not possible, even in the best libraries, when the cases must be studied in the official re ports. Three principal considerations have been borne in mind in the selection of the cases : First, to secure at least one case on «ach question involved in the law of sales upon which the instructor would feel that he ought to give his class information. Second, to select cases which present the principles of the subject by way of adjudication of actual controversies before the court, and not merely by way of dictum or argument in laying down the general propositions of law on the subject. Third, to choose cases which state what is believed to be the correct or prepon derating rule as to any particular question where there is a conflict. The 262 cases are taken from the re ported decisions of the Federal courts, from the courts of thirty-four States, and (about one-fourth of them onlv) from the English courts. Among them will be found very late cases on interesting points, given sometimes in advance of the official publication. The appendix also gives the English Sale of Goods Act and a proposed redraft of Section 17 of the "Statute of Frauds."

NEW LAW-BOOKS RECEIVED.

A TREATISE ON FRAUDULENT CONVEYANCES. Ry FREDERICK S. WAIT. Baker, Voorhis & Co., New York. Law sheep. $6.00, net. GENERAL DIGEST. Vol. 3, New Series. Lawyer's Cooperative Publishing Co., Rochester, N. Y. Law sheep. FREE BANKING. By JAMES A. B. DILWORTH. Con tinental Publishing 'Co., New York. Cloth. ¿I.OO.

In this compact little volume Mr. Ogden gives an exceedingly clear and succinct exposition of the law of libel. The writer's style is well adapted to interest

CELEBRATED TRIALS. By HENRY LAUREN CLIN TON. Harper & Brothers, New York. Cloth.