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divorce and stricter laws; over there it means easier and cheaper divorce. | Then too, this report answers conclu sively all the contentions of the American reformers in seeking more stringent legislation here. True, England has not had the question of uniform divorce legislation to contend with, but the agitation for uniformity has become so discredited in this country that it is no longer a question in itself. It has been shown time and again to be nothing but a subterfuge used wholly for the purpose of deception, in hopes that under the pretense of securing uniformity some states having lenient laws might be induced to enact stricter measures. The practice of granting separations without the right of re-marriage, which is so much desired by some, has proven most disastrous in England where it has brought into existence a consider able class in society capable of doing everything but of entering into lawful marriage. The conditions resulting can not be said to be as moral as divorce and re-marriage, even accepting what some
please to call the Christian conception of morality as a criterion. The attitude of the commission is thoroughly in accord with the tendency of modern thought to look upon marriage as a fact rather than a legal or theo logical fiction. The development of this idea will bring all moralists in accord. The most extreme schools are each working for a higher type of moral ity, but they are spending most of their energies fighting each other. When we realize that marriage is a fact, we will realize that divorce is also a fact. It is not divorce that we need to oppose, but the social and marital conditions which often make divorce more desir able than marriage. These conditions should be equally repugnant to al! classes. One thing seems to be settled, how ever, and that is that stringent divorce legislation has proven itself very un desirable in England, as it has wherever tried, and it would seem as though the American reformer must look to other means for a solution of the prob lem in this country.
414 Citizens Building, Cleveland, 0.
Reviews of Boofe SCOTTISH CIVIL JURISDICTION The principles of Civil Jurisdiction, as Applied in the Law of Scotland. By George Duncan, M.A., Lecturer on International Law in the University of Aberdeen, and D. Oswald Dykes, M.A., Advo cate. William Green & Sons, Edinburgh. Pp. xvi, 358 + 18 (table of cases) + 18 (index). THIS scholarly work is an outline of the principles of jurisdiction recognized in Scots law, but is marked by such unusual orderliness of arrange ment and clearness of logic as seem ingly to entitle it to high rank as a
masterpiece of philosophical exposition. Jurisdiction is defined as that "accord ing to which a judge determines whether he has the right to pronounce decree against a defender on the assumption that the suit in question is otherwise appropriately and regularly brought be fore him." Jurisdiction is entirely con ditioned by the lex fori, and the question in what forum must the pursuer bring his action is answered by the maxim actor sequit forum rei; that is, he brings
