REVIEWS. 229 The Road Rights and Liabilities of Wheelmen. By George B. Clementson. Chicago : Callaghan & Co. 1895. ^^o. pp. xxvi, 208. The primary object of this book is to put the present bicycle law in a shape that will attract the lay reader. The author also hopes that it may be helpful to lawyers in the preparation of their briefs. The veiy features, however, that recommend it to the general reader — a departuie from a condensed legal style and the introduction of matter extraneous to a discussion of questions of law — will somewhat lessen its value for the lawyer who seeks the most concise statement of mooted ] oints. In its primary object, despite a tendency towards repetition, and a notice- able looseness of expression in places, the book should be successful. Its handiness — it is published inconvenient pocket size — is greatly in its favor. The existing cases on bicycle law appear to have been well utilized ; and little exception can be taken to the writer's correctness of statement. The bicycle, it seems, has come pretty clearly to be regarded, in the eye of the law, as a carriage or other vehicle ; but it is to be noted that the standard of care required of a city in the repair of roads is not measured by the bicyclist's needs, so that accidents due to small stones or slight unevennesses are not causes of action. The city is not liable unless the defects threaten the safety of "carriages" in the ordinary sense of that word. To know his duties in detail, a bicyclist should take Mr. Clementson's advice to acquaint himself with the ordinances of the city in which he rides. e. r. c. New York Railroad Laws. By George A. Benham, of the Troy Bar. Albany : W. C. Lit le & Co. pp. xli, 604. This volume aims to compile the New York laws up to 1894, bearing on the building, management, and operation of railroads, and to furnish a reference manual for the use of lawyers and business men connected with railroads and other corporations. As such, it includes not only the Gen- eral Railroad Act, but those sections from the laws on Taxation, Receivers, Penal Code, and Codes of Civil and Criminal Procedure, which apply to railroads and to corporations in general. The best features of the book are its careful arrangement and facilities for reference. While, perhaps, chiefly useful because it puts into handy form all New York statutes bear- ing on railroads, it is of value also for the citation of cases and occasional notes of decisions on those laws. The scope of the work is not confined to New York law alone, but has elements which may recommend it to the profession at large. h. c. l. American Elecfrical Cases, with annotations. Edited by William W. Morrill. Albany: Matthew Bender. 1895. Vol. IIL 1889-1892. 8vo. pp. xxi, 893. The third volume of this series, which aims to collect the cases on electricity, brings the work down to 1892. It follows in all respects the plan of the first two volumes noticed in 9 Harvard Law Review, 166, and like them is well arranged and carefully prepared. The large num- ber of cases — nearly twenty-five per cent of the whole — in which elec- tric railways are concerned, is, as the editor says, worth remarking, when it is remembered how recently such railways had come into general use at the time the cases arose. a. k. g.
