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REVIEWS. 437 cases from other States, without descending to the collection of '^ all the cases." They have in addition amplified the text in places, as for example by the insertion of a long note condensing Messrs. VVarren and Brandeis's article on Privacy in the Harvard Law Review and the " Notes " which the Review has since published supplementary thereto. The important case of Schuyler v. Curtis, dealing with rights to privacy, was decided after the publication of the book. By this amplification and the addi- tion of American cases, the treatise has been made a fairly complete one, although its six hundred and fifty-eight closely printed pages scarcely seem to justify the claim of the Preface that it is a "short" one. The noteworthy and praiseworthy feature of the book, on the contrary, is that it treats voluminously — the text occupying an extraordinarily large pro- portion of the pages as modern law books go — almost every point in the law of equity which one might wish to turn to. Exactly what must be in a bill in equity, and what used to be necessary but now is not, are questions a full and ready answer to which is to be found at once here ; in like manner the chapter on Mistake is full and valuable, and throughout the book the experience of the lecturer in explaining everything so fully as to make his hearers' understanding certain has been turned to good account for the benefit of the reader. r. w. h. The Origin and History of Contract in the Roman Law. (Yorke Prize Essay for 1893.) By W. H. Buckler, B. A., LL. B., of Trinity College, Cambridge. London: C. J. Clay cSc Sons. 1895. pp. vii, 228. Within the limits of 217 pages the author attempts to outline the history of contract in the Roman law down to the end of the Republic. His work, as he says in the preface, " professes only to be a sketch," and assumes that the reader is '* familiar with the ordinary terms and rules of the Roman law." It is, indeed, a very brief summary, and does not go so deeply into the subject but that the average student of the Institutes may read it without difficulty. The first three chapters on the contracts of the regal period and the early Republic are quite well done, giving in narrow compass the results of the best German thought, and also some clever conjectures of the author. The remaining five chapters on the contracts of the later Republic, and especially on those of the Jus gentium will scarcely be found very attractive or useful. They are full of names, dates, and edictal formulae. Without attempting to get at Roman con- ceptions and theories of contract, the writer undertakes an inquiry into the age of each contract and its probable connection with previous institutions. If one would learn whether societas was actionable in the time of Plautus, or whether Cicero could have recovered in the actio commodati, one may find data for an opinion here. It is good to have these things put together in English, and the student who does not care to read the later chapters continuously will find a good index to guide him to what he seeks. f. b. w. The King's Peace. By F. A. Inderwick, Q. C. London : Swan, Sonnenschein, & Co. Lim. New York : MacMillan & Co. 1S95, pp. xxiv, 254. Whatever a reader might ordinarily expect to find under the title of "The King's Peace," the sub-title in the present case, "A Historical