statutes. ... In March, 1822, the Supreme Court, under the authority given to it by the act of May 8, 1792, promulgated thirtythree rules to be the rules of practice for the courts of equity of the United States. . . . On March 2, 1842, the Supreme Court pro mulgated ninety-one equity rules . . . which, with a few amendments and addi tions, are now in force in the Circuit Court of the United States. . . . Equity rule 90, adopted March 2, 1842, is as follows: 'In all cases where the rules prescribed by this Court or the Circuit Court do not apply, the practice of the Circuit Court shall be re gulated by the present practice of the High Court of Chancery in England as far as the same may reasonably be applied consistently with the local circumstances and the local conveniences of the district where the court is held not as positive rules, but as furnishing just analogies to regulate the practice.' The Supreme Court has interpreted rule 90 in the leading case of Thompson v. Wooster, 114 U. S. 104, 112 (quoted by Mr. Bates, Sec. 17), which shows to what extent English procedure аз existing m 1842 was adopted and the texts (Daniell's ist edition of 1837 and Smith's Practice, 2d edition, 1837) ш which that procedure was recognized as cor rectly and adequately embodied and ex pounded. If we bear in mind the vast extent and importance of the cases in the Federal Courts and if we remember that the present English Equity practice has changed since the promulgation of the rules of 1842, so that English treatises on Equity practice can have no great weight with us, the need of such a book as that of Mr. Bates is readily seen— a need hardly met by more than one Ameri can book on the subject. In two introductory chapters Air. Bates outlines the basis of equity jurisdiction, the system and sources of equity procedure, and passes to a consideration of the parties and places of bringing suit. Then follows a care ful and detailed treatment of each step in the bringing and prosecution of a suit up to and including appeals. In each instance the rule of pleading and practice in the English
Chancery is considered based upon Mitford (cited as Lord Redesdale), Daniell and Smith. Then follows the rule applied in Federal Courts as based upon or modified by statute, rule of court or judicial decision. In this way, step by step, practice and procedure are carefully, authoritatively and in an interesting manner placed before student and practitioner. The work is well planned, admirably exe cuted, and lays both bench and bar under a heavy obligation to this intelligent, indus trious and thoroughly competent and in formed author. A TREATISE ON SPECIAL SUBJECTS OF THE LAW OF REAL PROPERTY. By Alfred G. Reeves. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company. 1904. (lxv+913 pp.) This volume consists of some portions of a treatise which the author hopes to complete within three or four years. The complete work, which is planned to consist of two volumes, will cover the whole of real prop erty. The parts now ready, and presented in this volume, contain, as the sub-title says, "an outline of all real property law, and more elaborate treatment of the subjects of fix tures, incorporeal hereditaments, tenures and alodial holdings, uses, trusts, and powers, qualified estates, mortgages, future estates and interests, perpetuities, and accumula tions. The portions thus taken from vari ous parts of the projected work are complete and useful in themselves and indicate clearly what will be the characteristics of the entire treatise. Either a cursory or a thorough examination of the present volume shows that here is the work of an unusually skilful hand. The materials used are both the old and the new cases, with due recognition of the relative importance today of old and new; and the result is both scholarly and practical. It is quite obvious that the labors of ear'ier writers have been utilized; but it is also obvious that such use has been thoroughly honest, and that this volume is the result of new labor. The clearness of the style and the carefulness of the analvsis and défini
