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The Green Bag

WRIGHTINGTON AND ROLLINS' TAX-EXEMPT SECURITIES Tax-Exempt and Taxable Investment Securities: a summary of the laws of all the states and the District of Columbia relating to the taxation of securities, from the standpoint of the banker and investor. By Sidney R. Wrightington and Weld A. Rollins, of the Boston bar. Financial Publishing Co., Boston. Pp. 234. (Flexible leather, thumbindexed, $5.) THIS is a short reference manual presenting its information in item ized form rather than in that of a treatise. A uniform basis of classification is adopted, which is easy to comprehend and which gives the key to the facts desired, the matter of the book being grouped by states in alphabetical order under the headings Stocks, Bonds, Notes, and Bank Deposits. In their preface the authors explain some of the diffi culties of reducing to simplicity a com plex subject upon which the law is not clearly settled in all respects, and in which actual practice does not always conform to the directions of the statute. The authors, in offering their work to the public, thus make certain reservations which render the high value they set upon accurate construction of the law and accurate technical definitions all the more conspicuous. They have evid ently consulted many judicial deci sions, though the scope of the work excludes citations, and have been in com munication with taxing officials through out the country, and their synopsis is the outcome of more painstaking labor than might be apparent at a first glance. The work is worthy of the excellent professional standing of its authors and should prove highly useful.

JENKS' SHORT HISTORY OF ENG LISH LAW A Short History of English Law from the Earliest Times to the End of the Year 1911. By Edward Jenks, M.A.. B.C.L., of the Middle Temple, Barrister-at-Law, Principal and Director of Legal Studies

of the Law Society. Little, Brown & Co., Boston. Pp. xxxviii, 379+ 11 (index). ($3 net.) THE field of English legal history is so vast, and its literature has been enriched by so much brilliant writing on the problems presented by particular periods, that we see only a limited use for a short treatise in a single volume of less than four hundred pages. The great standard books remain the best as well as the most inviting means of introducing the historical student to the subjects of which they treat. The chief interest of Professor Jenks' volume, for us, lies in its treatment of recent develop ment subsequent to the periods covered by Maitland and Holdsworth. It is convenient to have a clear summary of the nineteenth century, especially of the recent evolution in civil and criminal procedure and court organization. In the chronological treatment of the earlier development admirable symmetry has been preserved, lucidity of statement is a conspicuous merit, and the author has shown ability to think for himself as well as wide learning. The hurried reader will be assisted to gain at once what he needs, and the curious reader will be tempted by the attractive pres entation to study more widely. As a college text-book the volume had better be used only in conjunction with fuller histories. On the side of constitutional development it is purposely superficial. As a book of reference it is well arranged. HERSHEY'S INTERNATIONAL LAW The Essentials of International Public Law. By Amos S. Hershey, Ph.D., Professor of Political Science and International Law in Indiana Univer sity, author of The International Law and Diplo macy of the Russo-Japanese War. Macmillan Co., New York. Pp. xlviii, 523 + 26 (index). ($3 net.) UP-to-dateness is not a distinctive merit at a time when new revised editions of standard treatises on inter national law are constantly appearing.