(4 Ch Div. 616). On the other hand, the question of utility for the purpose specified appears to belong to the specification, and to have been dealt with twice over in this work, viz. on pp. 144-146 and 180-182. In the case of the patent for playing cards it was held that the manufacture of cards was a labour, and the use of the cards not forbidden; and although this case is not strictly a case in point the language of the Court appears to cover all that Mr. Frost includes under abstract utility. The well-known dictum of Lord Coke, on the other hand, that in every such new manufacture there must be 'urgens necessitas and evidens utilitas' is merely a repetition of his previous paragraph, that a privilege must be 'substantially and essentially newly invented.' Hence we consider that amount of invention' belongs to novelty, not to subject-matter; for the adjective 'new' means new in substance, or distinctive. The definition of novelty' in the Statute in respect of these new or distinct manufactures is 'such manufactures which others at the time of making such letters patent or grants shall not use.' Encyclopaedia of the Laws of England. Under the general editorship of A WOOD RENTON. Vol. XI, Railway-Stream, viii and 748 pp.; 6 6 THE issue of these volumes completes Mr. Wood Renton's undertaking to give the profession a new abridgment of (to quote from Sir F. Pollock's general introduction to the work) 'most, if not all, of the matters commonly recognized among English-speaking lawyers as forming distinct heads in the system of the common law. To give an accurate outline of the recognized heads of the law-from Abandonment to Zululand-has been the aim of Mr. Wood Renton and those associated with him in the undertaking, and we have already said that we think on the whole the work has been well done. Among the more important subjects dealt with in these concluding volumes are Rating,' by Mr. E. J. Castle, Q.C.; 'Real Property,' by Mr. C. W. Greenwood; 'Railway,' 'Release' and 'Sale of Goods,' by Mr. W. Bowstead; Salvage,' by Mr. G. G. Phillimore; 'Settled Land Acts' and 'Settlements,' by Mr. J. Savill Vaizey; Solicitor,' by Mr. Blake Odgers, Q.C. and Mr. E. A. Wurtzburg; 'Specific Performance,' by Mr. W. Donaldson Rawlins, Q.C. and Sir Edward Fry; Stamps' and Stamp Duties,' by Mr. F. W. W. Kingdon; Torts,' by Sir F. Pollock; Restraint of Trade and 'Trade Marks,' by Mr. D. M. Kerly; Treaties' and 'War,' by Mr. T. Barclay; Trusts,' by Mr. C. C. M. Dale; Universities,' by Prof. Holland, a very learned and instructive article; 'Vendor and Purchaser,' by Mr. J. M. Gover; Waste,' by Mr. E. Hatton; Water Supply,' by Mr. Vesey Fitzgerald, Q.C.; and Witness,' by Mr. J. G. Pease. Naturally the longest article in the work is Will,' by Mr. F. Stroud, which occupies more than 100 pages, and one of the shortest is 'Suit,' which is explained in two lines. The work is completed by an Appendix of Errata and Addenda. The latter accounts for cases decided since the various articles were written, and also includes some half dozen subjects omitted from their proper places in the body of the work. Among these we may mention Mr. Lightwood's short article on Registration of Title,' a supplement to his paper on Land Transfer' in vol. vii. Why does the article on 'Rule of the Road' ignore the Highway Acts? 6 6 The Land Transfer Acts, 1875 and 1897, and Land Transfer Rules and Forms, 1898, with notes. By W. AMBROSE and W. B. FERGUSON. London: Butterworth & Co. 1898. 8vo. xxxvi and 254 pp. (108.) THIS book contains an introduction, the Land Transfer Acts, 1875 and 1897, the Land Transfer Rules, 1898, draft order as to fees, the Land Registry (Small Holdings) Rules, 1892; the order as to fees thereunder, the Order in Council of July 18, 1898, the Vendor and Purchaser Act, 1874, certain sections of the Conveyancing and Law of Property Act, 1881, the Solicitor's Remuneration Order, 1882, and an index. The introduction contains a popular account of the procedure under the Land Transfer Acts, and at pp. xxvi et seq. some valuable remarks on the revolution in the law which has been produced by the provision that possession shall not give title as against a registered proprietor. The index is decidedly good. But here our praise of the book must cease. The comments on the Acts and Rules are meagre and in some cases inaccurate. The authors have not discussed the question, a most important question, what the purchaser must require to be done by a vendor before he can safely pay his purchase-money. Again, not even a hint is given that in many cases a mortgage in the present form will be employed notwithstanding that the mortgaged land is registered. The inaccuracies are somewhat misleading. We will give two specimens only. On p. 6 the authors state that for first registration with possessory title 'a present title to possession based on a Statutory Declaration in Form 2 to the first Schedule to the Act must (the italics are ours) be produced.' This statement is misleading, as an applicant can be registered without making any declaration. It is perhaps only fair to say that the authors have correctly stated in the introduction the method of obtaining first registration. The authors consider that (p. 42) notices, cautions, inhibitions, or other restrictions .. amount to little if anything more than power to put upon the registered owner before he can make an effectual disposition the obligation to give the owner of the equity he has created the opportunity of applying to the Registrar or to the Court for an injunction.' This again is a misleading statement. Notices' in this paragraph probably mean notice of a lease or of an estate in dower or by the curtesy; see L. T. A. 1875, ss. 50-52. It is hardly possible to conceive of a more effective provision for protecting the rights of a lessee doweress or tenant by the curtesy than registration of a notice under these sections, as the effect appears to be that every registered transfer of the land will be subject to the lease or estate of which notice has been entered upon the register. The authors do not discuss this question. The authors' view as to the operation of cautions seems to be correct. But on p. 49 there occurs the statement that when the cautioner has received notice from the registrar of an application from the registered proprietor to deal with the land 'it will be the duty of the cautioner to apply to the Court immediately for such relief as he may be advised he is entitled to.' Nothing in the Acts or the Rules imposes any such duty on the cautioner; no doubt there may be cases where it will be wise for him to apply to the Court, but there will be many cases where the cautioner will not be injured by the proposed dealings with the land and will therefore do nothing. An inhibition (see L. T. A. 1875, s. 57) is an order made by the Court or Registrar, or an entry made in the register inhibiting for a time or till the occurrence of a named event, or generally till further order, any dealing with registered land, or a charge. It is difficult to understand what more potent protection could be given to a person whose rights do not appear on the register than that afforded by an inhibition. The other restrictions' in the passage cited appear to mean restrictions under L. T. A. 1875, s. 58. These may be in three different forms, providing that no transfer or charge is to be made under (1) certain notices are given, (2) certain consents given, or (3) some matter or thing is done. It will be observed that the protection afforded by a restriction of the second or third form is very different from that mentioned by our authors. The Law of Evidence applicable to British India. By AMEER ALI SYED, C.I.E., a Judge of the High Court of Judicature at Fort William in Bengal, and JOHN GEORGE WOODROFFE, B.C.L., Tagore Law Professor (1896-7) in the University of Calcutta. Calcutta Thacker, Spink & Co. 1898. 8vo. cxxxix and 1092 pp. THE joint authors of this new book say in their Preface that they have striven to meet the wants both of the profession and of students, believing that a book framed merely for the use of one of these classes will prove unsuited to the needs of the other. Much,' they observe, that must be set out for those who have little or no knowledge of the subject, is superfluous to the professional reader; while the close and elaborate detail which the practising lawyer requires is not only useless, but often a source of confusion to the beginner.' They then proceed to explain the novel scheme of the work, which is designed to satisfy the wants of both classes of readers'; and we give the explanation in their own words : 'The Act is divided into three Parts and eleven Chapters. Each part and chapter is preceded by an introduction, dealing with its subject-matter. The Introductions prefixed to the Parts or main divisions of the Act are more general in character, and broader in treatment than those which precede the Chapters; while these again exhibit less detail than is found in the notes appended to the sections. Elementary notions are explained, and a general, and sometimes historical, survey of the subject of the sections is given in the several Introductions, which also contain references to matters akin to, but not part of, the actual material of the Act. While these Introductions will, as the authors hope, be of aid to students, the separation of their subject-matter from the commentary, to which alone the profession will in general refer, should spare busy advocates in search of decisions bearing directly upon the meaning of the sections unnecessary reading. A short paragraph immediately follows each section, presenting with all possible brevity the principle upon which it is founded and has been enacted. This paragraph is succeeded by a note of cognate sections, which in turn is followed by a collection of references to standard English, American, or Indian text-books dealing with the material of the section. The authors are indebted in part for the idea of this arrangement to the recent work by Mr. S. L. Phipson on the Law of Evidence (London, 1892). Next comes the commentary proper on the section, which elucidates its important words and phrases by the aid of the case-law and text-books.' Apparently, then, it is intended that students shall confine their attention to the fourteen Introductions to the three Parts and eleven Chapters of the Act, the short explanatory paragraphs following the sections, and the collection of references to English, American, or Indian text-books, while practitioners will especially concern themselves with the commentary. This plan necessitates a considerable amount of repetition, for much that is said in the Introductions has to be repeated in the explanatory paragraphs and in the commentary; and this contributes to expand into nearly eleven hundred demy octavo pages a work expounding an Act of 167 sections. The great majority of the student class in India, who require such a work, want it to prepare for the University or the Pleadership examinations. If they could come to an agreement with their examiners that the examination questions on the subject of evidence would be confined to the portions of the work demarcated by the learned authors for the use of students, the design of the work might no doubt be successful; but failing some such agreement, the limitation of the field of study would be dangerous. The collection of references to English, American, and Indian text-books must be of doubtful utility to students. For to most of them access to the great majority of these references will be impossible, while all of them will more wisely explore the entire field of the authors' work than stray, without a competent guide, into the vast and remote regions, the names of which are given in the reference notes. As regards practitioners, for whose use also these references are doubtless intended, practitioners in the Presidency towns or other places where access to a good law library is possible, will in the rare cases in which such researches are valuable, be saved some trouble of examining catalogues and indices; but to others, who have no such access, they will be useless. Twelve pages of the work are given up to a bibliography, or list of works upon evidence published in England, Scotland, America, and India, classified, A. chronologically, B. by names of authors, and C. by subjects treated of. This will doubtless save some trouble of research to any one who contemplates a new magnum opus on the subject; but its utility for students and practitioners, the two classes for whom the present work is intended, is not very obvious. We hope it may not suggest a formidable question for some future examination paper. Of the five appendices, two, containing one hundred pages, reproduce (1) The Fifth Report of Her Majesty's Commissioners appointed to prepare a body of substantive law for India, dated August 3, 1868; and (2) an Abstract of the Proceedings of the Governor-General in Council relative to the preparation and amendment of the Indian Evidence Act, held between October 28, 1868, and August 29, 1872. We think the bulk of the volume might well have been diminished by the omission of the whole of this matter. For this view the authors themselves furnish one good reason in their general Introduction to the work, where they advert to the custom of prefixing to such a work an introduction declaring the importance of the subject-matter, and explanatory of its position in the general field of jurisprudence, and of the foundations upon which it rests, and express their belief that the need for an exposition of these principles was greater some twenty-five years ago, when the Act and the preceding Indian text-books were first published, than at the present time; and they think that such an exposition should, especially in a work of a practical character, be presented in a form more condensed than hitherto.' A second reason is to be found in Appendix B, which contains a very useful note on the interpretation of Indian Acts, with reference to the judgment of the Privy Council in The Administrator-General of Bengal v. Prem Lall Mullick, L. R. 22 I. A. 107, in which case it was decided that it is not competent to refer to proceedings of the legislature as legitimate aids to the construction of a law. The Calcutta High Court, which had not always followed this sound principle, has now governed itself thereby. Even assuming the value of such references for historical instruction, it is inadvisable to expand a practical volume with a full reprint of all the proceedings, including the lists of papers considered by the Council, and the names of the councillors present at each meeting, and even of the officiating secretary. One of the greatest difficulties in writing a book upon a particular branch of the law is found in avoiding the temptation to travel out of the record (so to speak) into cognate branches connected-and sometimes very intimately connected-with the subject in hand. We cannot say that the authors of the work before us have everywhere satisfactorily overcome this difficulty. To illustrate or justify this observation, we may refer to many passages concerned with points of practice which appertains more appropriately to the Codes of Civil and Criminal Procedure; to some observations concerned with the measure of damages at page 70; and to the matter at page 8 dealing with the functions of an arbitrator, although it had been just pointed out, that the provisions of the Evidence Act are not applicable to proceedings before an arbitrator. We turn to the more pleasant duty of noticing the merits of this book, which, apart from the preceding points of criticism, we think to be an excellent one. It is a piece of good honest work, thoroughly creditable to the industry, scholarship and ability of the learned advocate and late Tagore Law Professor, who, it is an open secret, is mainly responsible for its production. Each portion of the subject is fully treated and there is nothing perfunctory about any part of the performance. The two Tables of Statutes and Cases cited are complete; and a good Index, not the least important part of a legal text-book, affords reasonably easy access to the contents of the volume. Altogether the work is deserving of a place in the Anglo-Indian library beside the works already produced on the same subject. There is room and demand for all, and we welcome this last addition. Le Droit international appliqué aux guerres civiles. Par CARLOS WIESSE, ancien sous-secrétaire d'état au ministère des affaires étrangères du Pérou. Édition française revue et mise à jour. Lausanne: B. Benda. 1898. 8vo. viii and 277 pp. THIS is an elaborate monograph upon a topic which, though small, is well deserving of careful treatment. The work first appeared, in Spanish, at Lima, in 1893, with a somewhat high-flown preface by M. Pedro Paz Soldan y Uanue, who, one would suppose, might have explained the purport of his friend's book without mentioning Homer, Celsus, Hippocrates, Cato and Columella; Shakespeare, Cervantes, Webster, the Spanish dramatists and Adam Smith. The French translation, by M. de Blonay, is from a text revised and brought up to date by the author. After an Introduction, in which attention is drawn to the suggested distinctions between 'insurrection,' 'rébellion' and 'guerre civile,' Part I (Formation des communautés belligérantes') inquires at what point insurgents may, and ought to, be recognized as belligerents. Part II (Droits et Devoirs des insurgés belligérants') deals with such matters as intervention, and the responsibility of rebels for injuries to foreigners. Part III (De la Neutralité') discusses the modifications which must be made in the ordinary law of Neutrality, to adapt it to cases where one of the contending parties has not yet attained, and possibly never will attain, to the position of a Sovereign State. Part IV (Des gouvernements de fait ') treats of provisional governments, and the validity of their acts. Many of the questions debated by the author were raised during the civil |