EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT Magazitie and Review (V. xxxii, p. 291)., Exposition of a system which " has attained great perfection." CONVEYANCING. A very suggestive article on " Conveyancing Considered as a Progres sive Science," by Charles Wetherill, appears in the May American Law Register (V. lv, p. 297). It is written with special regard to the Pennsylvania law, but its abstracts of various foreign systems which make the transfer of land easier, cheaper, and safer than our meth ods make it interesting for readers everywhere. COPYRIGHT (England). " Some Recent Copyright Decisions," by J. Andrew Strahan, Law Magazine and Review (V. xxxii, p. 257). COURTS (England). "A Supreme Impe rial Court of Appeal," by George S. Holmested, Canadian Law Review (V. vi, p. 210). CRIMINAL LAW. " The Parole System — an Historical Review," by W. P. Archibald, Canadian Law Review (V. vi, p. 222). CRIMINAL LAW. In the Independent of April 25 (V. lxxii, p. 955), Louis H. Machen tries to answer the question, " Should the Unwritten Law be Written? " He believes that public sentiment demands that violation of the home be sufficient justification for homi cide, and that this should be enacted as law to relieve juries of the necessity of surrepti tiously enforcing this policy. He answers the objection that such law might encourage kill ing upon suspicion by explaining that his proposed statute would restrict the justifica tion to cases where the provocation shall have proved to be real. Apparently he does not limit the justification to a killing in the heat of passion. CRIMINAL LAW. " The ' Brain Storm ' or the ' Irresistible Impulse ' Test as Effecting Criminal Responsibility, and as a Substitute for the ' Unwritten Law ' Defence." By Frederick Wilmer Sims, June Virginia Law Register (V. xiii, p. 93). CRIMINAL LAW. Note by Samuel J. Barrows in Charities, and the Commons, (V. xviii, p. 95), urging a new defense of insanity in New York to cover such cases as the Thaw trial. CRIMINAL LAW (Eng.). "Appeal on Matter of Fact in Criminal Cases," by W. W. Sibley, in the May Law Magazine and Review (V. xxxii, p. 314), is a reply, favoring a bill to
433
allow criminal appeal in England, to an adverse pamphlet by Sir Harry Poland and Herman Cohen. CRIMINAL LAW (Indeterminate Sentence). In The World Today (V. xii, p. 637), M. P. Evans, Superintendent of the Chicago Bureau of Identification, briefly describes the working of the parole law in Illinois. Under this law a system of indeterminate sentences is admin istered in the interest of reformation of pris oners after conviction. Valuable statistics of improved conditions are given and it is recom mended that the system be extended by re leasing first offenders at once on parole. CRIMINAL LAW (Larceny). " Regina v. Ashwell," by Charles R. Lewers, June Columbia Law Review (V. vii, p. 395). Discussion of a case famous in the law of larceny, the author taking the view that there, is no common law larceny when possession is voluntarily given up, though the giver is mistaken as to the nature or value of what he gives. CRIMINAL LAW (Larceny). The case of George W. Perkins, accused of larceny in hav ing taken funds of the New York Life Insur ance Company to reimburse himself lor a contribution made to the Republican National Committee by request of the officers of the company, is summarized and the conflicting views of the judges who found he had com mitted no crime commented upon by Francis M. Burdick in the June Columbia Law Review (V. vii, p. 387) under the title " Larceny and the Perkins Case." According to the majority " the prosecu tion does not make out a case of larceny (even under the Code provision . . .), unless it shows that the prisoner had in some degree the conscious, unlawful, and wicked purpose to disregard and violate property rights of another which characterizes the ordinary bur glar." According to the minority, while " no one can become a thief or an embezzler by accident or mistake," the prosecution makes out a prima facie case of larceny by showing that a defendant who, having in his possession, custody, or control, as an officer of a corpora tion, property of such corporation, appropriates the same to his own use, or that of any other person than the corporation, with the intent to deprive the corporation of the property." "Counsel for the prosecution asked the
