EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT connective in its nature. In one or two places only, as for instance in the treatment of the so-called " Mecklenburg Declaration," and of the question as to the signing of the original declaration, does the author attempt to add to the literature of the subject, and even then it is merely by way of a simple statement of"his conclusion after an elaborate ex position of its basis. These flashes of the author himself disclose him in such light as to make the reader wish that he appeared more often. On the other hand, the self-restraint and love of his subject which has buried him from sight in his own work has accomplished the useful and perhaps intended result of giving us an understanding of the contemporary atti tude unspoiled by the introduction of a modern view. And this we think is the real value of the book. While its most apparent merit is its thoroughness, its greatest virtue is that, with almost the intimacy of a diary, it enables us to live over with the sages of that day the real problems and conditions which con fronted them. The Declaration of Indepen dence has too often seemed to a thoughtless posterity an obvious step, chiefly remarkable for its literary quality. To its signers it was much more than this. Comparatively unac customed as the world then was to the con ception of popular government, what to-day are but happy phrases of oratory were then daring expressions of novel opinion. The Declaration of Independence was not the work of the reckless or radical, but was debated for months by men who had much at stake personally, and who felt the weight of a grave political responsibility as well. These months were marked not by timid hesitation but by conscientious deliberation; for as the letters show us, the Declaration of Independence was an explanation to the world, a definition of the whole revolutionary movement. The American Revolution was mental as well as martial, and the Declaration of Independence was the decisive victory in the struggle waged in the minds of the colon ists; and the heroes of that struggle were worthy of their task. In their private daily writings we see never self-interest or short sightedness, but always a spirit of large and liberal statesmanship. All this Mr. Hazlcton has made vivid as it
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could have been done in no other way and in this lies the vindication of his method. . The interest is enhanced by the fine reproductions of original manuscripts and documents and the book enriched by a full appendix and notes which might better, by the way, have been included in the text. Except for this fault of arrangement, which detracts somewhat from its fluency, the book is an interesting and highly commendable work. HISTORY (Year Books). In the October Law Quarterly Review (V. xxii, p. 360), W. S. Holdsworth gives the second and final in stallment of his article on " The Year Books." He concludes that they represent the initial stage of the purely professional development of the common law, and show that the strength and weakness of such development is much the same then as now. "Its strength is the logical grouping of con fused facts under general principles, the appli cation of those principles in detail to new states of fact, the ingenuity with which old principles and old remedies are restricted or extended to meet the new needs, physical, commercial, or moral, of another age. We see these qualities most strikingly displayed in the gradual development of new principles of delictual liability, and new principles of contract, in the recognition of the interest of the lessee for years and the copyholder. Its weakness is caused largely by the very defects which are inherent in its virtues. It cannot take large views as to the state of this or that branch of the law. It can only advance step by step from precedent to precedent. It cannot dis regard the logical consequences of its princi ples, though in practice their strict application may be inconvenient. It is loath to admit new principles, and will not do so unless com pelled by such considerations as the loss of business consequent upon the competition of a rival court. If once a rule or a set of rules have become established they cannot be re moved, however great a hindrance they be come. They can only be explained or modified; with the result that the rule with the modifications and exceptions added becomes a greater nuisance than the original rule itself. We can see from ' The Year Books ' that a purely professional development is not good for the health of any legal system."
