Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 5.djvu/171

REVIEWS. 155 The work is a " thoroughly Americanized treatise on the subject of personal property," and, with the standard works of Mr. Williams as a foundation, it cannot fail to be of great value to both students and prac- titioners. The work of the publishers is well done. Studies in Constitutional Law. By Emile Boutmy. Trans- lated from the French, by E. M. Dicey. Macmillan & Co., New York, 1891. i2mo. pp. xi and 183. Price, $1.75. The title of this book is misleading. It does not treat of constitu- tional law from the standpoint of a lawyer. It is rather a theoretical discussion of constitutional government. The book is made up of three essays. The first contains a discussion of the nature and origin of the English constitution. The second deals with the constitutional govern- ment of the United States in the same way. The third is a com- parison of the conceptions of sovereignty in France, England, and the United States, as illustrated by their constitutions. The book has no place in a law library as such. To those interested in theoretical as distinguished from practical ideas of government, it will prove inter- esting. Two editions of the original have already appeared in France. The Interstate Commerce Law Annotated. By John Theo. Wentworth. Chicago: T. H. Flood & Co., 189 1. pp. xxiii and 114. This little volume is intended, as the preface states, to serve the pur- pose of conveying to such as are interested in the " act to regulate commerce " a rapid understanding of its practical workings. Each section of the law as amended is followed by short statements, alpha- betically arranged, of the points made and constructions given by the Commission relative to the subject-matter of the particular section. Then the volume is completed by copies of the rules and forms adopted by the Commission, a table of cases and subjects, and an index. This modest attempt to present in a convenient form the Interstate Commerce Law as it stands to-day appears to be carefully worked out. While, except as a foundation upon which to build, the volume can be of little permanent value, since so much of the act still requires judicial construction, yet for a time at least the railway lawyer, rate-maker, and shipper will be likely to find here " a speedy answer to many annoying questions, and a guide to direct him to more elaborate discussion of the subjects upon which light is sought." Black's Law Dictionary. By Henry Campbell Black, M.A., author of treatises on "Judgments," "Tax Titles," "Constitutional Prohibitions," etc. St. Paul, Minn. : West Publishing Co., 1891. pp. x and 1253. The first canon of lexicography relates to substance : A dictionary must be comprehensive ; the second, to form : A dictionary must be convenient. In respect to the first consideration, Mr. Black's dictionary will not satisfy those who look for a fairly complete statement in a law dictionary of the more fundamental and well-settled points of law collected under the words to which they relate. Mr. Black indeed distinctly disavows