Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 8.djvu/198

1 82 HARVARD LAW REVIEW, an idol, and one's " right to take a cupola to a certain temple and to place it upon the car of the idol, and to take a nandicola with to77i toms from his house to the temple, and to offer the first cocoanut to the idol" are in question on almost the next page to a q lotation from Vanfleet on Col- lateral Attack, and from an opinion of Folger, J. ; and the same principles of law govern all. That a foreigner should deal with so many diverse American authorities as an American would do is not to be expected ; and Judge Chand rightly estimates his authorities only at their intrinsic value. The Supreme Courts of the United States, Nevada, Massachusetts, and New York, the New York Court of Appeals, and the editorial force of the American and Eng- lish Encyclopaedia of Law seem to be stars of equal magnitude in our legal firmament, when seen from the longitude of Hyderabad. And we must thank the author for showing us how slight the difference is, in real weight of legal reasoning, between opinions delivered in our courts of high authority and in those usually less approved. The chief defect of the book seems to be a failure thoroughly to digest the material. We get great light by a comparison of the American and Indian cases ; but the different divisions of the subject do not illuminate each other as much as they might perhaps be made to do. Nor are the author's own conclusions always sufficiently emphasized ; we are left to deal with the cases as best we can, without that help from general knowl- edge of the subject which it is the jurist's chief duty to supply. In some plices apparently contradictory statements of the law are made and sup^ ported by authority, with no attempt to reconcile the cases. This fault seems however to be as rare as is customary in books on the law. In one or two cases when a principle is put forward it is impossi- ble to support it ; as where, for instance (at Sect. 148), the author adopts the continental notion that " the domicile of the debtor (in its wide sense) is generally to give the law of the obligation." This continental doctrine has probably never been adopted by a court of common law, — fortunately, for we have enough trouble with the dispute between lex loci contractus and lex loci solutionis. On the whole, the book is one to be cordially welcomed ; and one that may well find a wide use in our country. The mere fact that the deci- sions of three great nations are brought together is enough to secure the work that place in legal literature which is due to useful originality and broad learning. But besides this, it gives to the American lawyer a col- lection of American authorities equal to that contained in any work on the subject by an author of his own country ; and to the student of law it presents a fascinating picture of the application of the common law to new and strange circumstances. j. h. b. The Historical Development of the Jury System. By Maximus A. Lesser, A.M., LL.B., Rochester : Lawyers' Co-operative Publish- ing Company. 12 mo. pp. 274. The trqje student of the law to-day does not rest contented with a mere acquaintance with so important a legal institution as the jury as it exists in its present form. He demands also a knowledge of the times which gave it birth, and the circumstances under which it was welded into its present shape. To trace this development, to bring clearly before the reader the best views on the history of this institution, is the object of