been for more than eighty years, and if the organization of the States should lose its existing vigor, the central government, and especially the Executive Power, would be proportionately augmented. It is entirely true, also, to say that a change in the foreign policy of the United States and great territorial expansion would lead, by different reasons, to an analogous transformation. In a word, the political machine of the United States was constructed in such a way that should one of its principal springs change it would break down."

E. B. S., Jr.

POWELL'S PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICe of the Law of EviDENCE. Edited by JOHN CUTLER and CHARLES F. CAGNEY, Barristers-at-Law. London: Butterworth & Co., 1898.

The seventh edition of this excellent English treatise on Evidence presents an admirable example of the work of its famous editors. While they hesitate to extend unduly the length of the volume, they still retain the greater part of the principles discussed by the author and refrain from turning the work into a mere digest. The plan adopted by them resembles very much the general plan of the Hornbooks published by the West Company, namely, a general rule in large type at the head of each chapter and division, which rule is discussed at length in the text. Their method of confining the foot-notes to the citation of cases only is welcome to one who reads the book through and who does not use it as a digest in searching for a single point.

Turning to the text, we find that the author adopts Taylor's definition of Evidence in preference to the illogical and clumsy one of Stephen, and he makes the rather curious divisions of the subject as follows: (1) primary and secondary, (2) sufficient and satisfactory, (3) direct and inferential, (4) original and second-hand, or hearsay, (5) oral, documentary and real. These divisions are not carried out with any great degree of regularity; in fact, one of the few faults of the work is the lack of some definite plan of arrangement, such as is adopted by Stephen in his Digest of the Law of Evidence, although perhaps carried to an extreme by him.

In the second chapter, "The Functions of the Judge and Jury," we find an interesting discussion of the scintilla rule, which seems to have been repudiated by the English courts before it was declared exploded in Pennsylvania. Under "The Competency of Witnesses," in the third chapter, we are reminded that in England the fact that the defendant in a criminal case refuses to testify may be made the legitimate source of comment by counsel and court. On page 88, under "Presumptive Evidence," the case of Wing v. Angrave, 8 H. L. C. 183, is cited under the proposition that where two persons have perished in the same disaster, a presumption arises that they have

died at the same moment. It would seem that the case goes no further than to apply the modern rule that under such circumstances the burden of proving survivorship is upon the party alleging it.

Chap. 7, § 2, on "Privilege of Counsel," pp. 107-124, contains a most exhaustive discussion of the subject, in length almost disproportionate to the scope of the work. In opposition to this, the important subject of Res Gesta is disposed of in the utterly inadequate space of two and one-half pages (pp. 136-139). No mention whatever is made of the famous case of R. v. Bedingfield, 14 C. C. C. 341, although it has always been regarded as leading, even by those who have dissented from the decision. The discussion of the Conspiracy rule is also meagre (pp. 141, 473), and no distinction is made between evidence of the acts of the conspirators and that of declarations by them after the execution of their common purpose. See R. v. Blake, 6 Q. B. 137, a case not cited.

The chapters on Admissions and Confessions are excellent, while the subject of Relevancy is contracted into a single chapter (Chap. 5), which is devoted to a discussion of the effect of the pleadings upon the evidence. The work closes with a reprint of all the English statutes which have any bearing, however remote, upon the subject. Upon the whole, the book being devoted to discussion, rather than to bald statements of the law, furnishes most interesting and instructive reading, and, it would seem, might repay the trouble and expense of an American edition.

A. E. W.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

[Acknowledgment will be made, under this title, of all books received, and reviews will be given, as near as possible, in the order of their receipt. Those, however, marked * will not be reviewed. Books should be sent to the Editor-in-Chief, Department of Law, University of Pennsylvania, Sixth and Chestnut Sts., Philadelphia, Pa.]

THE LAW OF Debtor and CREDITOR. By RUFUS WAPLES. Chicago: T. H. Flood & Co.

1898.

EXPERIENCE IN THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT. By A. H. GARLAND. Washington, D. C.: John Byrne & Co. 1898.

The Elements of MERCANTILE LAW. By T. M. STEVENS. London: Butterworth & Co. 1898.

HISTORY OF THE LAW OF Real PropeRTY. BY KENELM EDWARD DIGBY. Fifth Edition. Oxford Press, London and New York: Henry Frowde. 1897.

THE FEDERAL COURTS. BY CHARLES H. SIMONTON. Richmond, Va.: B. F. Johnson Publishing Co. 1898.

COMMENTARIES on the Law of Private CorpORATIONS. Vol. VII. By SEYMOUR THOMPSON, LL.D. San Francisco: Bancroft-Whitney Co. 1899.

GREENLEAF'S TREATISE On the Law oF EVIDENCE. Vol. I. Edited by JOHN HEnry Wigmore. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. 1899.

A TREATISE ON THE LAW Of Trusts anD TRUSTEES. BY JULIUS Ware PERRY. Fifth Edition. Edited by JOHN M. GOULD. Two Volumes. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. 1899.

Compiled by

FORMS OF PLEADING. BY AUSTIN ABBOTT. Volume II.
CARLOS C. ALDEN. New York: Baker, Voorhis & Co. 1899.

A TREATISE ON CRIMINAL Pleading anD PRACTICE. BY JOSEPH Henry BealE, JR. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. 1899.

CIVIL PROCEDURE AT COMMON LAW. By ALEXANDER MARTIN. Boston: The Boston Book Co. 1899.

HANDBOOK ON THE LAW OF NEGLIGENCE. BY MOrton Barrows. St. Paul, Minn.: West Publishing Co. 1900.

The Law of Presumptive EVIDENCE. BY JOHN D. LAWSON. Second Edition. St. Louis: Central Law Journal Co.

1899.

AMERICAN BANKRUPTCY REPORTS ANNOTATED. BY WILLIAM MILLER COLLIER. Albany: Matthew Bender. 1899.

CASES ON CODE PLEADING.

By CHARLES M. HEPBURN. Cincinnati:

W. H. Anderson & Co. 1899.

JOHN SELDEN AND HIS TABLE TALK. BY ROBERT WATERS. New York: Eaton & Mains. 1899.

PRINCIPLES OF PLEADING. By JAMES Gould. New York: Banks & Brothers.

1892.

THE EXECUTIVE POWER IN THE UNITED STATES. BY ADOLPHE DE CHAMBRUN. Paris: Thorin & Sons. 1896. (Written in French.)