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Tlic Green Bag. NEW LAW BOOKS.

THE LAW OF SALES OF PERSONAL PROPERTY. By Francis M. Burdick. Second edition. Bos ton : Little, Brown & Company. 1901. Buck ram : $3.00. (299 pp.) This work has been written especially for law students and seems admirably suited for their needs. To say that a law-book is " handy" would seem, in these days, when educators are more and more impressing upon the student the necessity of being his own investigator, to be sufficient commendation of a law text-book, which best justifies its existence if, like the guidepost, it carefully and correctly points the way to the student journeying through his sub ject. The great part of knowledge being to know where to look for it, the student of law will most gratefully use that text-book which, leaving out lengthy treatises by the author, most systematically and directly takes him to those cases which are the law upon the principle stated. This book well satisfies these requirements and cannot fail to be welcome in the student's hand. It has seemed to the reviewer that some text-books there are which cite too many cases and sacrifice " handiness " to voluminousness. The citation of one leading case is in most in stances a key to the storehouse of legal knowl edge on that principle. The eminent jurist handing down the decision which has settled the law, has taken pains to fortify himself be hind bulwarks of cited cases in order to render his position impregnable. The author has wisely left out of this volume the discussion of such subjects as consideration, mutual assent, the capacity of parties, illegality and fraud, which belong more properly to the study of pure contracts and torts. In every work on sales the Statute of Frauds must be constantly on the stage, and the author's treatment of the provisions of the Statute in con nection with the common-law topics to which they relate is good arrangement. The conditional sale, so-called, has recently taken such prominence in commercial transac tions, that a more comprehensive treatment than our author has given of the law appertain ing to this kind of sale would have been welcome. In the appendix are found the English, New

York, and Massachusetts " Factors' Acts" together with brief historical sketches of the "Factors' Acts " in England and in the United States.

THE LAW OF CONTRACTS. By Edward ATfry Harriman. Second edition. Boston : Little, Brown & Co. 1901. Buckram, $3.00; law sheep, $3.50. (xiv+410 pp.) Although this book is primarily intended for students, it is so accurate and thorough, and at the same time so original in arrangement and in expression, that it is full of interest for the practitioner. A rather careful examination of the work has failed to disclose any substantial defect, although probably in a new edition it might be advisable to amend Chapters II and XXX in such manner as to point out more minutely the distinction between Contracts and Quasi-Contracts.

THE TAX LAW OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. BY H. Noyes Greene. With a chapter on the Powers and Duties of Assessors, by J. Newton Fiero. Second edition. Albany, N. Y.: Matthew Bender. 1901. Law sheep: $3.00 net. (xv-f349 pp.) THE LAW OF TAXABLE TRANSFERS, STATE OF NEW YORK. BY H. Noyes Greene. Second edition. Revised and enlarged by Andrnv J. Nellis. Albany, N. Y.: Matthew Bender. 1901. Buckram: $2.00 net. (204 pp.) These two volumes cover in a full and satis factory way the matter of taxation under the laws of New York. The many important amendments to the general tax law which have been passed within the last three years, espe cially the Special Franchise Tax Law enacted in 1899, make apparent the need of new edi tions of both of these treatises, which in the volumes before us are brought "up to date." A valuable part of the first of these volumes is the chapter on the Powers and Duties of As sessors, by Mr. Fiero, counsel for the State Board of Tax Commissioners. The volume on Taxable Transfers, while dealing primarily with the taxation of inheritancies under the state laws, contains also so much of the text of the Federal War Revenue Law as is applicable.