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Rh other story, Henry Bourland, is one of Virginia life, in the time of the " Crisis," and in it is related once again the oft-told tale of the struggle between North and South, and of the dark clays of reconstruction. If one had left the preface unread, one would say that the author's treatment of the war and of the negro question, and his seeming insistence on the es sential trickery and vulgarity of all Yankee set tlers in the South, showed the extreme bias of an unreconstructed Southern mind — if any such mind exists; but from the preface it appears that the author is Northern bred, and that he has attempted to write wholly from the Southern point of view. The result is not altogether satisfactory. His desire to do justice to " the other side " has been carried to an undue length; his standpoint is so extreme as to be unfair to both sides. Perhaps to this forced point of view of the writer should be attributed also his cock-sure way of treating vital social questions and settling them off-hand; still it is a bit irritating to the reader. It is only right to say that the men in the story are well drawn — along conventional lines; the women, however, are neither attractive nor interesting. AMONG the attractive holiday publications is a new illustrated edition of Drake's New Eng land Legends? The first edition was published nearly twenty years ago, and it is high time for a new one — especially for the sake of the present generation of boys and girls; for this is one of the books with which every New Eng land bred youth should be familiar, for New England is a most fertile and interesting field of legendary lore, and Mr. Drake is well fitted to till it. The illustrations are many and, for the most part, good; though one can but wish that the sea-serpent on page 157 might have been a bit more terrible, and can but wonder that Harry Frankland fell in love with Agnes Surriage at first sight, if her face were that with which, on page 222, the artist has inflicted her.

"NEW ENGLAND LEGENDS AND FOLK LORE, in 1'rose and Poetry. By Samuel Adams Drakt. New and revised edition. With numerous illustrations. Boston : Little, Brown & Co. 1901. (xvi + 477 pp.)

NEW

6o i LAW

BOOKS.

THE LIABILITY OF MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS FOR TORT. By Waterman L. Williams, A.B., LL.B. Boston : Little, Brown and Com pany. 1901. Sheep : $3.50 net. (345 pp.) As a general survey of the common law liabil ity of municipal corporations for tort, this work is a welcome addition to the library of law text books. So clearly and interestingly is the subject treated, that the academic value of the work to the mere student of municipal government is not less than its direct usefulness to the working lawyer referring to it for business reasons. Members of city councils and boards of select men with a spark of municipal science in them would read such a work with no little pleasure and profit, as from its pages can be gathered a clear idea of the legal status of the municipality in its various activities as a legislative, executive, or even socialistic, entity. The work sets forth the distinction between the quasi corporations, or those " territorial and political sections of the state, created by the sovereign power without reference to the wish of the inhabitants and solely for public and governmental purposes," and municipal corpora tions proper, created by special charter or vol untarily organized under general laws. The former embrace such political divisions as counties, townships, school districts and the like, and, as they are mere auxiliaries in the work of carrying on the governmental duties of the state, the rule of liability is not applied to them as to private corporations. Municipal corporations proper, on the other hand, such as cities, incorporated at the request of, or with the assent of, their inhabitants and for the purpose of securing peculiar local advantages, occupy a dual position in relation to the law of liability. So far as municipal corporations proper repre sent the state in the discharge of governmental functions, that is, "duties relating to the public peace, health, safety, and education, and as well duties growing out of the exercise of legislative and judicial or discretionary powers," immunity from common law liability is enjoyed. When, however, municipal corporations perform " duties that pertain to the exercise of those private franchises, powers and privileges which belong to them for their own corporate benefit, or are dealing with property held by them for their own