client too racy to omit. A man with a cropped poll of unmistakably Newgate cut slunk into a counsel's room. "I'm sorry to say, sir, our little Ben has 'ad a misfortin'. Fust offense, sir." Counsel was not disposed to reduce his fees, even though the father reminded him that he had "'ad all the family business." His client then proceeded to dole out the guineas, and remarked, "I may as well tell you, sir, you wouldn't 'a got the centers if I hadn't had a little bit of luck on the way."
If there are two matters about which an Englishman may feel legitimate pride, they are the government of India, and the purity of British Courts of Justice. Mr. Crispe touches on the latter, and remarks that "in our country a corrupt judge is unknown." This is no flattery, but a statement of fact. How was it that Bacon, probably the wisest and wittiest man that ever filled the office of Lord Chancellor, how was it that such a man was convicted of corruption? The question is not asked, but it is answered by some information furnished by Mr. Crispe. Lord Baconwas always harassed by want of means. We have the sense to pay our judges good salaries; three hundred years ago our ancestors paid their judges miserable salaries, and some of their judges eked out their salaries by taking bribes. Mr. Crispe takes the period of Sir Edward Coke and the judicial salaries of 1616 (five years before the official degradation of Bacon):
| A table should appear at this position in the text. See Help:Table for formatting instructions. |
Sir E. Coke, Lord Chief Justice of England £224. 19. 9.
Circuits 33. 6. 8.
£258. 6. 5.
Puisne Judges of King's Bench and Common Pleas 188. 6. 8.
Circuits 33. 6. 8.
£221. 13. 4.
The value of money was far greater then than now, but compare them with the present salaries:
| A table should appear at this position in the text. See Help:Table for formatting instructions. |
Lord High Chancellor £10,000
Lord Chief Justice 8,000
Master of the Rolls 6,000
Chancery and Puisne Judges 5,000
We have said enough to show that in building up a large practice, Mr. Crispe has not forgotten his love of a joke and his appreciation of all those finer traits which go to form a successful advocate and a high class man.
WILLISTON ON SALES, AND THE
UNIFORM SALES ACT.
The Law Governing Sales of Goods, at Common Law and under the Uniform Sales Act. By Samuel Williston, Weld Professor of Law in Harvard University. Baker, Voorhis & Co., N. Y. Pp. cix, 1155+appendix and index 148. ($7.50.)
TO most of our readers, the author's reputation will alone sufficiently assure the merits of this work. Professor Williston, the draughtsman of the Uniform Sales Act, which has been adopted in six or more states, and for many years one of the most successful teachers of the law of sales in this country, has prepared the volume not merely as an annotation of the Sales Act but as a treatise on the common law of sales as well. As such, it takes rank with that class of legal literature to which American lawyers can point with pride when they are told that most of our law treatises are poor. Williston on Sales is likely to remain for some time the standard American work of its class. Clearness both of analysis and of exposition will commend it to scholars and students, while its full citation of cases and comprehensiveness of scope will render it useful in practice.
The book is not a mere digest of decision nor a stringing together of established rules of law; it is rather the carefully thought out statement, in his own language, of the author's legal views. While he has not hesitated to criticize decisions which seemed to him opposed to principle or to the convenience of trade, he has not allowed his opinions to interfere with an accurate statement of the law as it has been declared.
Thanks are due Professor Williston to what is undoubtedly a valuable public service. The Uniform Sales Act bids fair to become widely enacted through the United States. Judicial interpretation of that Act can now be made practically uniform, its author having placed his special equipment at the disposal of all who will read him. He is already entitled to a place of honor in the heart of the legal profession, as the author not alone of the Sales Act but of the Warehouse Receipts Act and of the Bills of Lading Act. It is unusual to find the practical jurist and the academic scholar so happily combined in one person, as in the case of Professor Williston, whose learning has possibly accomplished more than that of any other one man for the actual working out of uniformity of legislation.
The book is large, and its index and other
