REVIEWS.
A Review In Law And Equity, For Law Students, together with a Summary of the Rules regulating admission to Practice throughout the United States. A Hand-Book for Law Studenits. By George E. Gardner of the Massachusetts Bar. New York: Baker, Voorhis & Co. 1895. 8vo. pp. xvi, 299.
This little book, as its title indicates, is designed as a help to students making their final preparations for admission to the Bar. It encleavors to cover in less than three hundred pages "the leading principles of those branches of the law wlhich are seriously taught in the law schools of the country, anid which form the subjects of Bar examinations."
Where conciseness is so much insisted on, a prominent place must necessarily be given to definition, division, and sub-division. Tohis method of treatment, as might be expected, is more nearly satisfactory in the ob- solete and highly technical parts of the law of real property than in such subjects as contracts or criminal law where the boiling down process is occasionally carried so far as to be misleading. Thus on page 219 we are told that ignorance of the fact that an act is unlawful is not an excuse for crime, and in illustration the case is put of selling adulterated milk contrary to statute, where ignorance that the milk is adulterated is no defence. "But there must be an intent to make the sale." Altholugh the proposition of law is undoubtedly correct, it would seem better not to confuse the subject of general criminal intent with intent in a few classes of stattitory crimes. In the great majority of cases, however, the meaning is sufficiently clear, and there are frequent useful reminders of points likely to trip the unwary.
The rules regulating admission to the Bar in the various States and territories are appended to the book, and there is also an index and table of text-books cited. On the whole, the author's object has been accomplished as well or better than could have been expected within the very narrow limits which he has prescribed for himself and which he considers essential to the value of a book of this class.
A. K. G.
Handbook Of The Law Contracts. By William L. West Publ. Co. 1894. (Hornbook Series.)
This is a concise and, on the whole, good statement of the law of con- tracts. The object of the author, "to present the general principles of contracts clearly and concisely, with proper illustrations and explanations — not to make a digest," has been attained with considerable sticcess. Extensive use has been made of standard works like Leake and Anson, and Professor Keener's recent treatise on Quasi-Contracts lhas received its share of attention. No attempt at originality has been ma(le, and wisely so, in a book of this character. Over 10,000 cases are cited, and the author states that extreme care has been used in their collection. The work seems to be the best done so far in this series. As a " horn- book," it is well worth the attention of those who seek a brief but conipre- hensive view of the subject, or any branch of it.
F. B. W.
