edy is of inestimable value. That Mr. High is a complete master of his subject cannot be doubted on a thorough perusal of his work. The book is care fully prepared, well digested, and almost every sen tence is accompanied by the citation of an authority to sustain it. Thoroughly conversant with his sub ject-matter, Mr. High, when occasion requires, does not hesitate to express his individual opinion, even if it conflicts, as it does in some instances, with judicial decisions. Such independence in a legal writer is truly refreshing in these days, when the authors of our law books seem content to simply cite decisions and pass on without a word of comment. While decisions, right or wrong, undoubtedly establish pre cedents, it by no means follows that they settle ques tions of law; and independent thought and criticism by an author qualified to exercise them, must be of great value, and add much to the merits of his work. We predict for this new edition a reception as flat tering as that accorded to its predecessors. The book is one of the comparatively few really valuable works in legal literature, and no lawyer can afford to be without it. Reports of Cases adjudged and deter mined in the Courts of Chancery in the State of New York. Complete ^edition, co piously annotated by embodying all Equity Jurisprudence with Tables of Cases reported and cited, by Robert Desty. Book VII. Lawyer's Co-operative Publishing Company, Rochester, N. Y. 1889. This volume of New York Chancery Reports, cov ering Clark and Sanford, completes this valuable series of Reports. While nominally reports of New York decisions, the admirable notes of Mr. Desty make the series of great value to the profession at large, covering as they do almost the entire field of Equity Jurisprudence. This work has been received with marked favor, and the publishers ought to reap a substantial reward for the important aid they have rendered the legal profession in its publication. Lawyers' Reports Annotated. Book V. With full Annotations by Robert Desty. The Lawyer's Co-operative Publishing Company, Rochester, 1889. $5.00 net. In entering upon the second year of this series, the publishers have much to congratulate themselves upon. The publication has met with a most gratify ing success, and has received the unqualified com mendation of the bench and bar throughout the country. All promises made have been fulfilled, and the execution of the work has left but little to be de
sired. The selection of cases has been admirable, and the annotations all that might be expected from so efficient an editor as Mr. Desty. Trial by Combat. By George Neilson. Wil liam Hodge & Co., Glasgow, Scotland, 1890. is. 6d. net. This book has been prepared by its author with the greatest care, and is the result of a thorough and exhaustive research into everything bearing upon the subject. Much of its matter is new to all but antiquarian students, and cannot fail to deeply inter est the legal profession. Starting with the revival of this ancient barbarism by Gundobald, King of Burgundy, in a. d. 501, Mr. Neilson traces its history down through thirteen hundred years to 1819, when trial by combat was abolished in England by an Act of Parliament. The book is of great value histori cally, and is as fascinating to a lawyer as a fairy-tale is to a child. Recollections of Mississippi and Mississippians. By Reuben Davis. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co., Boston and New York, 1890. Reminiscences by one who has taken a prominent part in public affairs are always interesting, and we do not know when we have read a more remarkable or entertaining book than this volume of Mr. Davis's. The author, a typical Southerner of the old school, tells us in a most graphic manner about the men and women who formed the society of which he was a part, and describes the scenes and incidents of life in Mis sissippi in the ante-bellum days. H« writes in such a charmingly simple, easy, conversational manner, re calling with such evident delight the story of his ear lier days, that the reader is at once taken as it were into the very midst of the people whom he describes, per sonally introduced, and made to feel at home in their delightful society. While possessed of a most kindly, generous disposition, Mr. Davis seems to have been imbued with a liberal allowance of Southern "fire," and some of the descriptions of his encounters (not strictly legal) with the court are most amazing. Think of a judge and counsel, after an altercation on some point of law, meeting outside and having it out, the one armed with a hammer and the other with a knife, and then making it up and living in perfect friendship ever after. In the closing chapters Mr. Davis gives an inter esting and valuable account of the Secession of the South and the gloomy scenes which followed. It is to be regretted that the book ends with the war of the Rebellion, for the author's views upon the re constructed South would have proved a welcome addition to the volume.
