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The Green Bag.

tunity for avoiding cases which promise to be more than usually troublesome, says: "Apart from disorganization and particular faults in our administration of justice, there is a want of honest spirited devotion to duty amongst the judges which is detrimental to the public interest. If some of the platitudes about the high-mindedness and courage and the other virtues of bench and bar were dropped, and a little plain thinking, finding expression in plain words, were to take their place, the better it would be for the public and the profession."


The Chicago Law Times for July contains an interesting portrait of Sir Edward Coke, with a biographical sketch. Its other contents are "Joseph Story," by Elizabeth P. Gould; "Springer Amendment to the Federal Constitution," by Charles B. Waite; "The Woman Lawyer," by Dr. Louis Frank; "The Royal Courts of Justice," by Hon. Elliott Anthony, and "A Century of Republicanism," by Austin Bierbower. The Law Times is certainly one of the most readable of our exchanges, and we should be glad to welcome it oftener than four times a year.


The leading article in the Criminal Law Magazine for July is a paper on "Public Indecency," by Solon D. Wilson. M. W. Hopkins contributes an article on "Withdrawal of Plea of Guilty." The "General Notes" and "Humors of Criminal Law" are unusually full and interesting, and we are pleased to see that the editor of our esteemed contemporary has drawn largely on the columns of the "Green Bag," which shows that he appreciates good things when he sees them.


We have received an interesting paper on "The Citizen in Relation to the State," which was read before the American Bar Association by the author, Alexander Porter Morse, Esq., of Washington.


BOOK NOTICES.

A Text-Book of the Patent Laws of the United States of America. By Albert H. Walker, of the Hartford Bar. (Second Edition.) L. K. Strouse & Co., New York, 1889. $6.50 net.

This admirable work has long been considered a standard by the profession, and this new edition will be gladly welcomed. Mr. Walker has made many additions and omissions in the present volume, leaving out many sections which have become obsolete since 1883, and incorporating more than six hundred new decisions. In its present form the work leaves nothing to be desired, and is invaluable to every patent lawyer.

Equity Practice in the United States Courts. By Oliver P. Shiras. Callaghan & Co., Chicago, 1889. $2.00 net.

This little work is not intended to be a treatise upon Equity practice at large, but it brings together in a compact form the provisions found in the rules in Equity prescribed by the Supreme Court, in sections of the Statutes of the United States, and in the decisions of the Supreme Court, which recognize, prescribe, or explain the steps ordinarily required to be taken in carrying through suits in Equity in the Circuit Courts of the United States. It furnishes a manual for ready reference for the busy practitioner, and a guide to the novice.

The Life of the Law: or, Universal Principles of Law. By Overton Howard. J. W. Randolph & English, Richmond, Va., 1889. Paper. 50 cents. Cloth, 75 cents.

This little book is well worth buying and reading Mr. Howard is evidently a deep thinker, and possessed of reasoning powers of more than ordinary capacity. In the 114 pages composing the work the reader will find much calling for the exercise of his own mental faculties, and which will provoke serious reflection on his part. The author has certainly carried out his design, which he declares to be "to write a practical book for use in the affairs of men."