l62 HARVARD LAW REVIEW. But assuming the worst to be true, and that these and perhaps other important cases have been overlooked, Mr. Bishop, while occasionally omitting an authority, is far more accurate, useful, and trustworthy than most writers who point with pride to the fact that their book cites every decided case on the subject. No law book to-day ought to omit references to the National Series of Reporters. Without discussing their intrinsic value, its wide use among lawyers renders such a course proper. It is a serious defect in this vol- ume that there seems not to be a reference to that series ; even the Federal Reporter is neglected. j. h. b. Adoption and Amendment of Constitutions in Europe and America. By Charles Borgeaud. Translated by Charles D. Hazen, Professor of History in Smith College, with an Introduction by John M. Vin- cent, Associate of the Johns Hopkins University. New York and London : Macmillan & Co. 1895. pp. xxi, 353. Price, ^2.00. It is a good thing thus to present to our people a translation of Dr. Borgeaud's accurate and valuable treatise, — ouvrage coiironiie par la faculte de droit de Paris, Prix P.ossi, 1892. The Introduction states that " the co-operation of the author has been freely given in bringing up to date the changes which have taken place since 1892." ** The Origin, Growth, and Character of Written Constitutions " is considered in forty- three pages. " Royal Charters and Constitutional Compacts : I. The German Group ; II. The Latin-Scandinavian Group," in eighty-two pages. "Democratic Constitutions: I. United States of America; IL France; III. Switzerland," in two hundred pages. And there is interesting mat- ter in a "Preface" and a "Conclusion." Dr. Borgeaud's constitutional writings rank among the most careful, the best-informed, and the most instructive for American readers that are to be found anywhere. This translation seems to be generally good. It is odd, however, to see the famous " Council of Revision " of the first New York Constitution filtering back into English as the " Committee on Amendments," through Dr. Borgeaud's accurate enough " Comite de 7-evisiony An American translator should not have repeated Dr. Bor- geaud's slip in citing the case of Woods's Appeal from 75 Penn. State Records. And when Dr. Borgeaud says that ^' la jurisprudence des faits" has vindicated a certain opinion, " the course of events " seems but a faint equivalent for the striking phrase of the original. Select Pleas in the Court of Admiralty. Vol. I. Being Vol. VI. of the Publications of the Selden Society. Edited by Reginald G. Marsden. London: Bernard Quaritch. 1894. After a delay of more than two years the publications of the Selden Society are continued, and the series will, we are assured, within a few months be brought up to date. The present volume, while less interesting perhaps to American lawyers than the preceding publications, or those immediately to follow, nevertheless contains much of value. An elaborate introduction discusses satisfactorily the origin of the Admiral's jurisdic- tion. It appears to have arisen out of the inability of the common law to deal with matters which happened beyond the knowledge of "the country." That jurors could not usually pass on facts happening out-
