NEW LAW BOOKS. Commentaries on the Law of Negligence in all Relations. By Seymour D. Thomp son, LL.D. In six volumes. Vols. II, III. Indianapolis : The Bowen-Merrill Company. 1902. Law sheep, (li + 1134 pp.; lvii + 11 18 pp.) Perhaps no questions are more perplexing to the court lawyer than those which have to do with the law of negligence. Naturally the subject has attracted text-book writers. VYe have long had the excellent work of Shearman and Redfield on Negligence, to say nothing of the treatises of some eight or ten other writers : and the twenty or more volumes of American Negli gence Cases and American Negligence Reports have saved many hours of weary research by bring ing together, and classifying, negligence cases from different jurisdictions. Mr. Thompson him self published more than twenty years ago, — to be precise, in 1880, — his well-known two volumes on Negligence, containing leading cases followed by valuable notes; and two years before that time he brought out his Carriers of Passengers. But it is fair to say that there has not yet been a really full treatment of the whole subject by text book writers. However, the call of the profes sion for such a comprehensive treatise will soon be answered — indeed, it has been answered in part already — by the very admirable "Com mentaries " by Mr. Thompson. The two volumes before us — the second and third — mark the completion of half of the work. Few American law writers have done more or better work than Mr. Thompson. His incisive style is well known to the readers of The Ameri can Law Review, and of his articles published elsewhere; and his text-book work has often — and justly — been praised. We think, however, that there can be no question but that his most important work is embodied in the series of volumes now coming from the press. In ques tions of negligence so much depends upon the facts of each particular case that it is essential not only that a large number of cases should be cited but that those cited should be stated with care and precision. These fundamental require ments in a book on negligence are well met in the present Commentaries. But the most impor tant part of Mr. Thompson's work is his clear statement of the underlying principles of the law
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of negligence, and his able discussion of them. He shows, as his long study of this particular branch of law would lead us to expect, a com prehensive grasp of his subject. Volume III is given over wholly to the subject of Carriers of Passengers, which is treated in great detail; Volume II embraces the subject of Railway Negligence in all its relations except that of Carriers of Passengers and that of Master and Servant; it also includes the subject of liability of telegraph companies for negligence in failing to transmit and deliver messages promptly and correctly. Universitv of Pennsvlvania. The Proceed ings at the Dedication of the New Build ing of the Department of Law. Compiled by George Erasmus Nitzsche. Philadelphia. 1901. The University of Pennsylvania has issued, in a limited edition, a handsome volume con taining a full account — with several illustra tions — of the proceedings at the dedication of the new building of the Department of Law. A history of the Department of Law is given in the address of Samuel Dickson, Esq., and in an article by Margaret C. Klingelsmith, while Pro fessor William Draper Lewis speaks on the educational ideal of the School. Mr. Justice Harlan's choice of a subject — " The Public Career of James Wilson, and the Principles of Constitutional Law for which he stood when the present Union was established," — seems most happy, in view of the fact that the opening lecture of the school was delivered, in 1790, by Mr. Justice Wilson. Professor James Barr Ames, of the Harvard Law School, delivered a characteristically able address on " The Voca tion of the Law Professor "; Hon. Sir Charles Arthur Roe, of the University of Oxford, spoke on " The Constitutional Relations of England and her Dependencies"; His Excellency, the Chinese Minister, Wu Ting-fang, on " The Proper Relations of the United States to the Orient "; Professor Hampton L. Carson, on two noted Philadelphia lawyers, Eli K. Price and John Sergeant Price, — father and son; and Gerard Brown Finch, Esq., of the University of Cambridge, on "The Growth of the Ethical Ele ment in our Common Law." Among the shorter addresses should be mentioned those of Mr. Dick
