of Northampton, within a little more than a year, of cold, hunger, and privation (pp. 79-81). A vivid notion of mediaeval student life may be obtained from the presentments growing out of student brawls at Oxford (pp. 87-91).
But though chiefly interesting historically, these rolls, though only records of presentments, contain much of interest to the lawyer. We see here the machinery of appeal in four county courts and the operation of the hue and cry. A man who in felling a tree had accidentally killed a girl, was ordered arrested, because he had not raised the hue (p. 38). Felons abjured the realm before coroners: we have instances here where such a felon, having fled from the highway, was followed by a vill and be- headed as he ran (pp. 37, 76). A survival of a very old form of deodand is discoverable in passages where a well in which a boy had been drowned was ordered closed (p. 42), and a ditch in which a girl had been drowned was ordered filled up (p. 82.) In an interesting presentment it appeared that a man had been wounded in another county, but had died within the hundred where the inquest was held. The inquest was not able to speak of his chattels (p. 74).
This volume is, both in contents and in its editorial work, one of the most satisfactory publications of the Seldon Society. We may properly take pride in the fact that we owe it to American scholarship.
HANDBOOK OF THE LAW OF BAILMENTS AND CARRIERS. Hale, LL.B. St. Paul: West Publishing Co. 1896. (Hornbook Series.) pp. xii, 663.
This new "Hornbook" has the same general characteristics and scope as its predecessors. Meant primarily for students, it loses no value be- cause of the numerous citations of authorities, both English and American, while for the very same reason it is a more satisfactory reference book for the practitioner. Careful study and systematic compilation are manifested-throughout the book. Every question is squarely met. Where the decisions are conflicting or unsettled, the author boldly asserts his own views, at the same time explaining the exact state of the law. It is a practical work, for it holds closely to the decisions, and does not present original theories. In fact, to originality the author does not pretend. He acknowledges careful study and frequent use of the works of Judge Story and subsequent writers on bailments and carriers. A comprehensive index has made reference easy. The new " Hornbook" is well worth the room which a lawyer can find for it on his shelves, and will be in demand among law students.
H. C. L.
A TREATISE ON THE LAW OF EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY Acts. By Conrad Reno. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 1886. pp. xiv, 423.
Though Employers' Liability Acts exist in only four of our States, and two of these acts have been in force for only three years, enough cases seem to have arisen under them to justify a textbook on this practically important subject. The very numerous questions which have arisen in the interpretation of these acts, and the frequent references that must be made to the common law on the subject, although the statutory right of action is distinct from the right at common law, have given Mr. Reno
