ishment. ... If anything has been conclusively shown, it is that the miserable and cruel spectacle of excessive punishments does 'not lessen crime, but, on the contrary, only hardens and renders the criminal classes more indifferent to their fate. If all the criminals now confined in our peniten tiaries were taken out and hanged to-morrow, it is doubtful if it would lessen, to an appreciable extent, the number of crimes committed next month." It has been stated that statistics show that in France a public execution is almost invariably fol lowed by an increase in capital crime, a fact which would seem to confirm the position taken by Dr. Moyer.
BOOK NOTICES. Lawyers' Reports, Annotated. Book I. Law yers' Co-operative Publishing Co., Rochester, N. Y., 1888. $5.00. There are but few members of the profession who have not found the voluminous reporter system irksome in the extreme. To be obliged to wade through a mass of useless stuff before reaching a really useful or practical point, involves the expen diture not only of a vast deal of patience but also of much valuable time. This new departure in the sys tem of reports is one which must recommend itself to every lawyer. The cases reported in this series are only those which give judicial form to a new prin ciple of jurisprudence, apply an old principle to a development of new circumstances, or include a valu able discussion of a generally important point. The reports embrace the decisions of every State and the Federal Courts. The annotations are by Robert Desty. whose emi nent fitness for the work guarantees its thorough, accurate, and exhaustive character. It is proposed to issue four books each year, de livered either in semi-monthly parts or in bound book every three months. We wish this new undertaking every success. The Powers and Duties of Police-Officers and Coroners. By R. H. Vickers of the Chi cago Bar. T. H. Flood & Co., Chicago, 1889. Sheep. 52.50 net. This compact little work will be especially service able to those officers whose duties and powers the author has set forth with great clearness and concise ness. It is at the same time of much real value to the profession, and in fact to every citizen. There is much conflict in the minds of the community as
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to the lengths to which the police on the one side and the people at large on the other may legally and properly go. As the author says : " When those duties are better defined and more generally known by all persons, there will be less difficulty in the path of the police." A Treatise on the Law of Benefit Societies. By Frederick H. Bacon of the St. Louis Bar F. H. Thomas Publishing Co., St. Louis, 1889. 55.50 net. This is, we believe, the first work of any import ance which has been published upon this subject, and, in view of the vast amount of litigation to which Benefit Societies have given rise within the past few years, it should meet with a hearty welcome from every lawyer. In addition to an able exposition of the law governing Benefit Societies, the entire law of Life Insurance is covered in this work, giving the latest decisions as to Suicide, Intemperance, and Effect of Misrepresentation. A Dictionary of Law. By William C. Ander son. T. H. Flood & Co., Chicago, 1889. $7.50. This new Dictionary of Law seeks to define and otherwise explain law terms and expressions, to show the application of legal principles, and to present the judicial interpretation of common words and phrases. Mr. Anderson appears to have done his work thoroughly, and the result is a comprehensive, prac tical, and thorough Law Dictionary. All words and phrases of legal significance are given, and some twenty-three thousand cases besides Standard Text books and Law Periodicals are cited. It is an indis pensable work to all members of the legal profession. Our Republic- By Prof. M. B. C. True and Hon. John W. Dickinson. Leach, Shewell, & Sanborn, Publishers, Boston and New York. This little work, which is a text-book upon the civil government of the United States, is designed by the authors to promote a systematic study of civil government in our common schools. The subject is treated under the following heads : The State; Civil Polity; Division of Powers; Relations of the States. To these are added the Declaration of Rights, Articles of Confederation, Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution. The different chapters are subdivided into short sections, each with an appropriate heading. The work seems to be so admirably adapted for its purpose, and the inportance of the subject of which it treats is such, that its usefulness as a text-book in our schools cannot be doubted.
