to be, and to a great extent could be, borne by the Benchers themselves, with the addition of a few of the more advanced members of the profession selected by them from those who are qualifying, so to speak, to become Benchers in their turn. Would it be asking too much of a Bencher (Judges, of course, by reason of their position, and all octogenarians, if they desired, might be exempt) to give up one or two evenings of two hours each in each dining term to sitting in a Moot Court, assisting by his presence and his judgment the discussion of a case by young men who have a right to look to him for guidance and encouragement? Experience has shown that scores of men, without any obligation upon them, will cheerfully do it, and be grateful for the opportunity. In the old days the learned leaders of the profession were proud to gather about them bands of young men, who, anxious to pick up some crumb from the master's table, thronged round them in their leisure moments in Westminster Hall, and keenly debated knotty points. Moots had been their introduction. Upon the common ground of formal argument in hall, inner-barrister and utter-barrister, reader and ancient, met for the common good of all the one to argue and learn, the other to argue and teach. A noble ideal, but too picturesque of course for the nineteenth century. Yet something like it, adapted to the altered habits and customs of modern life, might well grow out of a revival of mooting to the great gain of the profession. It may be that some of the disloyalty to our old unwritten laws of etiquette and code of honour which some have marked as a growing characteristic of the modern Bar, is attributable to the widening of the gulf between veteran and neophyte. Amongst young men themselves an organized system of mooting would be certain to create a stronger bond of union, and so close some of the gaps which the decay of the old circuit fellowship has created. Those who are acquainted with its working in America assert that its great value there is that it brings men together in their work, introduces a strong competitive element, and a certain esprit de corps. To the individual the advantages are palpable enough. In all branches of education pure book-learning is made a fetish; in the law everything is sacrificed to it. Yet it is a platitude that learning, however profound, is, in the law above all places, of little avail without an equivalent of readiness and skill in application. These things are, of course, often born in a man, but they are also to be acquired. As Lord Russell of Killowen has pointed out, it is a distinct gain to a man if he can try his prentice hand before he practises upon a client. In a moot or two he will have his faults exposed, his shortcomings pointed out; he will acquire greater facility of speech; he will begin to master the art of order and arrangement in argument; he will learn to overcome nervousness and prolixity; and he will obtain a grip upon the question he is invited to tackle, and others cognate to it, which he is not likely to lose. These propositions seem so obvious that one can but express astonishment that they should be completely ignored by those who are responsible for the education of men for the Bar. The fact is that instruction is confused with education. The memory is strained, but the mind is not cultivated. Cases, statutes, formulae, dicta, all well enough in their way, are to be crammed into the brain, and poured out over an examination paper, by the student, while but little regard is paid to the relation they bear to the demands to be made upon the barrister in the daily life of his profession. The narrowing tendency of a highly technical education in the law is often alleged, with some show of reason, as a strong objection against it. But no one advocates the neglect of general culture, which is of greater value, perhaps, in the law than anywhere else. The one is the handmaid of the other. All that is here contended for is that there is too little of a technical, and nothing whatever of a practical character in the present system; and that those who are responsible for it are blind to the splendid precedent which has been provided by their predecessors, which has stood the test of time, and which may be followed with little trouble and infinitesimal expenditure. CECIL WALSH. (Hon. Sec. of the Gray's Inn Moot Society.) 427 REVIEWS AND NOTICES. Short notices do not necessarily exclude fuller review hereafter.] Davidson's Concise Precedents in Conveyancing. Seventeenth Edition. By M. G. DAVIDSON and S. WADSWORTH. London: Sweet & Maxwell, Lim. 1899. 8vo. 8vo. 950 and lii pp. THIS well-known work certainly presents in an exceedingly compact form a very useful compendium of the law and practice of conveyancing. Conveyancers sometimes do their work out of town. The eminent Mr. Booth has recorded that he penned one of his most celebrated opinions in the country; and the doctrine he then propounded has left an apparently indelible mark in English law. Practitioners retiring in the vacation out of reach of Law Reports but not of papers cannot take with them a safer guide or more handy companion than the present volume, which within one cover not only presents a trustworthy collection of precedents applicable to almost every transaction within the range of ordinary conveyancing and annotated with sound observations on the law and practice, but also contains preliminary dissertations on the Real Property Act, 1845, the Conveyancing Act, 1881, and the Land Transfer Acts, and has an Appendix giving the text (with notes) of the Real Property Act, the Vendor and Purchaser Act, the Contingent Remainders Act, 1877, the Conveyancing Acts, 1881, 1882 and 1892, the Settled Land Acts, the Married Women's Property Acts, 1882 and 1893, the Trustee Acts, 1888, 1893 and 1894, and Part I of the Land Transfer Act, 1897. No disparagement of the learned editors' work is intended in commending its portable form: on the contrary, it may be consulted with profit in chambers, and the writer has found it a useful book of reference in practice. What is principally new in the present edition is the observations on registration under the Land Transfer Acts, and these are practical and pertinent. We note a defect, which seems common to all books of conveyancing precedents-the absence of any special clause to be inserted in a contract for sale of lands and settled on the purchaser's behalf, such as a stipulation exonerating him from the expense of the production of title-deeds in the possession of the vendor's mortgagees or allowing him to deposit the purchase money in a bank in case of delay in completion attributable to the vendor's fault. This is the more remarkable in the present case that the editors show (see p. 109, n. (a)) that they are fully aware how burdensome on purchasers the conditions of sales by private contract are too frequently made. T. C. W. Catalogue d'une Bibliothèque de Droit International et Sciences auxiliaires: Brouillon de la table systématique des fiches. Paris: A. Pedone. Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus. 1899. 4to. xxiv and 406 pp. [Not for sale, but a limited number of copies are held by the publishing houses named at the disposal of scholars specially interested who may apply for them by signed letter.] THIS essay towards a classified catalogue of the literature of international law and allied subjects is put forward only as a draft, as the learned author explains in a discreet preface. It includes the Conflict of Laws. The arrangement seems rational and convenient. The book is printed at Barcelona, and Spanish books and diplomatic documents have received special attention. Detailed criticism would for the present be out of place. But, in view of an eventual publication in the ordinary way, we may observe that the utility of a work of this kind is much increased by the addition of an alphabetical index, such as is found, for example, at the end of Van der Linde's classical bibliography of Spinoza. F. P. We have also received : The Practitioner's Guide to the Duties of Executors and Administrators from Death to Distribution; with which is incorporated Layton and Hart's Practical Guide to the Making and Proving of Wills. Second Edition. Revised and corrected by J. F. C. BENNETT. London: Waterlow Brothers & Layton, Lim. 1899. La. 8vo. xxv, 324 and 386 pp. (178. 6d.)—The preface to this work states that in this edition 'the notes of practice on proving wills, obtaining grants of letters of administration, and preparing and passing the intricate affidavits and accounts for Inland Revenue, have been greatly amplified.' It is also stated that the latest statutes and decisions affecting the subject have been added, and the index and table of cases enlarged. It is a pity that more care was not bestowed on the revision of the proofs. Such items as '12 Ch. & F.', 'L. R. Q. P. 273', 'Wilktw.', '67 L. T. P.', '15 Sum.' and 27 L. T. 8111' do not appear to refer adequately to any volumes of law reports known in Lincoln's Inn. Ruling Cases. Arranged, annotated and edited by R. CAMPBELL. With American Notes by IRVING BROWNE. Vol. XVIII. Mortgage-Negligence. London Stevens & Sons, Lim. Boston: The Boston Book Co. 1899. La. 8vo. xxxiv and 736 pp. (258.)-More than 600 pages of this volume of Ruling Cases are devoted to the important subject of Mortgage. The selection of the cases and the majority of the English notes are the work of the late Mr. L. G. Gordon Robbins. The Revised Reports. Edited by Sir F. POLLOCK, assisted by R. CAMPBELL and O. A. SAUNDERS. Vol. XL. 1834-36 (3 Knapp; 7 Simons; 1 A. & E.; 3 N. & M.; 1 C. M. & R.; 5 Tyr.; 6 C. & P.). London: Sweet & Maxwell, Lim. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. 1899. La. 8vo. xvi and 880 pp. (258.) Fourth Edition by The Law of Trade Marks. By L. B. SEBASTIAN. the Author and H. B. HEMMING. London: Stevens & Sons, Lim. (308.)-Review will follow. La. 8vo. xcvi and 756 pp. 1899. A Digest of the Law of Evidence. By the late Sir JAMES FITZJAMES STEPHEN. Fifth Edition. By Sir HERBERT STEPHEN and H. L. STEPHEN. London: Macmillan & Co., Lim. 1899. 8vo. xlviii and 271 pp. (68.) Digest of Licensing Cases. By W. MACKENZIE and H. DRYSDALE WOODCOCK. London: Butterworth & Co.; Shaw & Sons. 1899. 8vo. xxviii, 206 and 34 pp. (10s. 6d.) A Concise Treatise on the Law relating to Legal Representatives; real and personal. By SYDNEY E. WILLIAMS. London: Stevens & Sons, Lim. 1899. 8vo. xlviii and 271 pp. (108.) The Law of Meetings. By GEORGE BLACKWELL. Second Edition. London: Butterworth & Co. 1899. 8vo. xii and 128 pp. (28. 6d. net.) The Editor cannot undertake the return or safe custody of MSS. |