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The Green Bag.

Oregonian Railway Decision," "How Law is Taught in Italy," "County Councils in Scotland," "The 'Negligence Clause' in Charter Parties," "Local Government in France," "Lord Fraser," and "The Judicial System of Germany." This new Review must commend itself to the profession, and we are confident will meet with the success which it certainly deserves.


Messrs. Warren and Brandeis continue the discussion of "Great Ponds" in the April Harvard Law Review, in an article entitled "The Law of Ponds." The paper is an able reply to the argument of Hon. Thomas M. Stetson, published in the February number of this periodical. Prof. James B. Ames contributes an interesting article on "The Disseisin of Chattels."


The Columbia Law Times for April contains a paper on "Direct Taxes," by Prof. F. M. Burdick. The following statement, made by the writer, will perhaps be novel to many of our readers:—

"Were one, unfamiliar with the Federal decisions on the subject, to be asked what was meant by 'direct taxes' in the United States Constitution, he would undoubtedly answer: 'Taxes assessed upon the property, person, business, income, etc., of those who can pay them.' If his definition were called in question, he would support it not only by quotations from political economists of opposite schools, but from jurists like Judge Cooley (Cooley on Taxation, p. 6). He would be astonished to learn that the Supreme Court had given to these words as used in the Federal Constitution a different—a purely conventional—meaning, limiting them substantially to real estate and poll taxes."


The adoption of electricity as a means of execution in capital cases in the State of New York has naturally called forth much discussion upon the subject. In the March number of the Medico-Legal Journal, Henry Guy Carlton contributes a paper upon the manner of carrying into effect the sentence of death by means of electricity, and there is also an account of an interesting series of experiments with the "Death Current" at the Edison Laboratory. J. Hugo Grimm has an article, in the same number, on "Insanity as a Defence to the Charge of Crime."

BOOK NOTICES.

The American Digest, 1888 (United States Digest, Third Series, Vol. II.). West Publishing Co., St. Paul, 1889. $8.00 net.

This Digest gives full and intelligible statements of all points of law decided in each case, excluding dicta. The whole judicial law of the United States for 1888 is embraced in this volume, and the practitioner can turn to it with a certainty that every case is to be found in it, with full, clear, and reliable statements of all points decided. The work is so well known to the profession through the first volume (1887), that we need only say that the present volume is fully up to the standard of its predecessor, and has even been improved in certain minor respects. The classification of paragraphs is such that reference is made extremely easy, and the lawyer is thus saved a vast amount of valuable time. The Digest is in fact almost indispensable to every member of the legal profession.

Wharton's Law Lexicon (Eighth Edition). Edited by J. M. Lely-Stevens and Son, Publishers. London, 1889.

This admirable Law Lexicon is too well known by the profession to need any formal introduction. Forming, as it does, an epitome of the law of England, and containing full explanations of the technical terms and phrases thereof, both ancient and modern, as well as the various legal terms used in commercial business, it is invaluable to both the student and the practitioner. This last is an improvement over all former editions, the editor having made many additions and alterations, thereby much enhancing the value of the work.

The volume is exceedingly attractive in form; paper, type, and binding being all that could be desired.