REVIEWS. 183 this book. Within a comparatively small space is here presented the various phases of jury trial, existing at different times and under differ- ent circumstances, in Athens, in Rome, in Ancient Germany, and in England, past and present. In the treatment of such a subject, one which has been so carefully and thoroughly investigated, new material was hardly to be expected ; nor, indeed, does our author pretend to any originality of research, but predicates his claim for consideration rather on originnHty in the treat- ment and presentation of data already at hand, than on bringing to light any new historical facts. It is upon old and reliable books that he has built his labor, rather than upun the original multi-perplexed sources, — sometimes, we fear, to the exclusion of more recent, if not, as well, accepted authorites, which might better have been consulted, such as Aristotle's recently discovered treatise on the Athenian constitution. These well-established writers, before referred to, are quoted extensively, while the author's own boiling down of the information he has digested, is given a less prominent posi- tion. Occasionally, this system of excerpting leads to his falling into some slight errors, usually of collateral matter, which he had, perhaps unconsciously, transcribed from some well-known, though, in this instance, faulty authority. The book is, on the whole, a good one, well arranged, readable and interesting, especially the last chapter, " The Present Aspect of the Jury, " and giving a very satisfactory and clear notion of what is regarded, according to the most widely accepted theory, as the origin and develop- ment of the English Jury, d. a. e. Principles of Contracts. By Sir Frederick Pollock, Bart. Sixth Edi- tion. London : Stevens and Sons. 1894. 7V0. pp. xlviii. 760. While new editions of law books are very apt in many cases to consist of the old material, with insertions and notes by the editor which hardly add to the value of the text, in this, the sixth edition of Sir Frederick Pollock's work on contracts, a book too well known to require comment, we have a;efreshing exception to the usual rule. The passages on the history of the action of Assumpsit and the doctrine of Consideration, although substantially the same as in the past, have been both revised and improved, while the paragraphs on agreements in restraint of trade have been to some extent rewritten, " in consequence, " our author ex- plains, "of the series of important judgements delivered in the court of appeals within the last {cwf years, in cases of that class. " As no part of the law of contracts is more transitional and prone to new development than that which deals with agreements against public policy, those in restraint of trade in particular, this addition to the book is both valuable and necessary, showing as it does the expansion of that doctrine in the past few years. The other changes, too, although made in a more settled part of the law, and presenting rather new treatment of old subjects than any recent legal development, are both interesting and instructive. The history of the action of Assumpsit is laid down ac- rording to the best and most recent research, and various decisions and doctrines in the law of Consideration have been reconsidered in the light of more recent criticism. These improvements, although necessarily re- 25
