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 Reviews of Books all proﬁts made through loaning money, yet few realize the far-reaching and interesting development, commercially

251

Court, and even the pawnbroker him self have in this volume a touchstone,

and historically, which resulted from

which will elucidate the law of pawn broking in all its manifold phases.

this. Nowhere has its inﬂuence been greater or more lasting than on the busi

HUGHES’ EQUITY IN PROCEDURE

ness of the money lender. The Jews and the Pope, through his agents the Caorsini, were the only ones who dared

to engage in the trade of money.

In

continental Europe, in the middle ages, the Church founded montes-de-piété, which were charitable pawn banks for the relief of the poor. These have gradually developed into government and municipal pawnshops. By the sixteenth century laws were

framed which looked upon pawnbroking as legal. By that time the value of

Equity: Its Principles in Procedure. Codes and Practice Acts; the prescriptive constitution; limi tations of legislative power. By William T. Hughes, author of "Contracts," “Procedure.” and "Grounds and Rudiments of Law." Central Law

Journal Co., St. Louis.

Pp. 610 (indar).

CRITIC of Mr. Hughes’ work has pungently said that he has forced the members of the legal profession into two classes, "Those who see in his

writings the life, blood and spirit of the law, and those who see naught in them except the emanations of a disordered intellect.” It is not diﬂicult for any

money had come to be recognized. The

reader to choose his class.

proﬁt for its use became interest and it

starts with the proposition that our

became legal to charge a fair rate of

law as written and taught exceeds human capacity and that our two hundred

interest. The author has given a rapid and interesting presentation of this his tory and of the subsequent legislation which followed it with a discussion of the charitable, economic and statistical aspects of the subject, not only in the different European countries but in the different states of the United States. The second part is an exposition of the law of pawnbroking. First as to what a pawnbroker is, and then what

are his rights and duties, and then the disposal and receiving stolen property. A wide range of legal problems are explained and the law carefully and clearly set forth. A large number of authorities are collected from different jurisdictions and cited with discretion and discrimination. Any one who has to deal with the daily problems of pawnbroking cannot fail to get assistance here on most of the questions which present themselves for solution. The police, the charity worker, the legislator, the lawyer. the

The author

years’ growth of American Law is a house founded in the sands with rains

descending, ﬂoods coming and winds blowing.

It is his ambitious purpose

in this volume to uplift the legal pro fession from the ruts of blind and stupid conservatism—to guide it from the present "legal jungle" and demonstrate that "our books are wrong, that our schools are wrong, that our decisions

are a ‘legal jungle’; that the condition is ‘deplorable,’ ‘appalling,’ ‘foreboding,’ and that the ‘future is calling’ to those who can see and act.” Mr. Hughes offers a legal philosophy that will at least make all legal jungles broad open highways to its disciples. The average practitioner is too busy and the law student too young to follow

Mr. Hughes.

Most of us will accept

on faith and decline a controversy with

the author that “the heart and vitals of the six subjects of law-— procedure, equity, contract, crime, tort and con