Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 8.djvu/529

REVIEWS. 513 is nowhere stated. And yet, considering its following in State courts, it represents a tendency important enough to deserve notice, even in a handbook. An Illinois student is entitled to know that a statute re- quiring a flagman at a crossing will be held to deprive the railway com- pany of liberty, however objectionable the reasoning. Mr. Black gives a reference to one New York case in a foot-note, and that is all. When one turns, however, from this somewhat summary disposal of important questions, the dogmatism becomes of the greatest importance and merit, and makes the body of the book most satisfactory, so that it ought to be of great service to any one studying or reviewing constitu- tional law. The neat and accurate language in which the contention that statutes may be bad as against mere public policy or natural justice is disposed of, the terse comment on the Dartmouth College Case, the treatment of the question of the implied powers of the Federal Govern- ment, are a few instances among many possible ones which will show to any one who looks over the book that it is a really good elementary student's work except for the one fault discussed above. r. w. h. American Probate Law and Practice, By Frank S. Rice. Albany: Matthew Bender. 1894. 8vo. pp. 1. 786. The style of text-book, of which this work of Mr. Rice as well as his former ones on Evidence are very good types, seems to be on the in- crease. A digest is a very useful article to have at one's elbow, but we are apt to desire something more when we turn to the text-book. A full and complete discussion of authorities, of course, must precede or follow any dealing with a matter theoretically, but one does like the author's own idea somewhere. It would seem to be much wiser to give us a few thoughts on the subjects which we could not find by glancing through authorities in general, than to increase the size of the volume (as well as of the price) by infinite quotation and repetition. The law of supply and demand governs in most matters, however, and there must exist a demand for books of this character or they would not increase. They seem to be very popular, as we are informed in the Preface of this work that " the very flattering reception accorded to the author's former efforts " makes him hopeful of the success of this. The author has succeeded, however, in giving us what appears to be a very good collection of authorities on a subject that seems to have been neglected. It is rather peculiar that no one has undertaken this task before, but as a whole it is said to be untouched. The book purports to deal with the "general principles governing the execution and proof of wills, the devolution of property, the administration of estates, and the relations subsisting between guardian and ward," and covers these mat- ters quite thoroughly. The selection of authorities is' a very wise one. At page 54 he deduces from Barry v. Butlin — or rather quotes from Baron Parke — the principle that the onus probandi lies on the party producing the will and rests on him all the way through; at page 275, from Re Phenes Trust, the principle that although after seven years a man is presumed to be dead, there is no presumption as to the time of his death. (This statement is then repeated, in the form of quotations, three times on this page.) Examples might be noted at length, but they will hardly make the book and its style plainer. In a word, it is a book which could have told us as much in a few hundred pages less just as wll, and saved our