Voting Precincts—Establishment—Indians—Citizenship.—State ex rel. Tompton et al. v. Denoyer et al., County Com'rs, 72 N. W. Rep. (N. D.) 1014. Indians and persons of Indian descent, residing on lands allotted to them in severalty, and upon which preliminary patents have been issued, in accordance with the "Dawes Bill" passed by Congress in 1887, are citizens of the United States and qualified electors of the State, and it was the duty of the county commissioners of the county in which such lands are situated to establish a voting precinct within and for said lands. The " Dawes Bill" declares that such Indians "shall have the benefit of and be subject to the laws, both civil and criminal, of the State or Territory in which they reside." For a similar case see State v. Norris, 55 N. W. (Neb.) 1086.

Towns-Orders-Validity-Power of Boards.-Goodwin v. Town of East Hartford et al., 38 Atl. Rep. (Conn.) 877. The board "for the care, maintenance and control" of a highway across a river, provided for by Act May 19, 1887, was to consist of the first selectmen of the towns designated as specifically benefitted by the highway; was authorized to apportion among the towns the expense of repairing and maintaining the same, as well as any damages resulting from its defective condition; and was declared by the act to be, for the purposes thereof, a body politic and corporate. Held, such board has no implied power to employ agents to procure legislation whereby the act of 1887 sbould be repealed, the State to assume the duty of repairing and maintaining the highway; nor has it power to issue orders binding on the towns for the expenses of such agents. This is true whether the board be considered as a municipal corporation, or simply as a device to enable the representatives of the towns to perform a municipal duty imposed on the towns jointly. In Farrell v. Town of Derby, 58 Conn. 234, 20 Atl. 460, it was held that a town may lawfully expend money it has raised by taxation to protect its corporate integrity, etc., from adverse legislation. But the doctrine of this case must not be stretched into an authority justifying a town to embark in legislative attacks on other corporations, because the town might think itself benefitted thereby.

Criminal Law-Instructions-Error-Reasonable Doubt.-Hoffman v. State, 73 N. W. Rep. (Wis.) 51. Held, error to define "reasonable doubt," in instructing a jury in a murder trial, as an "intelligent opinion or conviction that the guilt of defendant has not been satisfactorily proven." Such instruction is vicious in that it seems to minimize the significance of a mere doubt by saying that, in order to be reasonable, the doubt must rise above the condition of a mere doubt into a realm of certainty and conviction.

Nuisance-Liability of Tenant-Lease for Years.-Meyer v. Harris et al., 38 Atl. Report (N. J.) 690. The lessee of a term for years is not liable to third persons for damages caused by his maintaining upon the demised premises in the condition in which it was at the beginning of the term a structure which is a nuisance. The remedy is against the owner. But where the tenant is a lessee for a term of 999 years he is, for all practical purposes (Black v. Canal Co., 24 N. J. Eq. 465), the owner thereof, and third persons may have their remedy against him for maintaining such nuisance.

BOOK NOTICES.

Indirect and Collateral Evidence. By John H. Gillett, Judge Thirty-First Judicial Circuit of Indiana. Sheep, pages xlvi., 407. Bowen-Merrill Co., Indianapolis and Kansas City.

1897.

Judge Gillett's book is the product of an original research into Evidence, and his independence is shown by the topics which he has emphasized and excluded. Some topics not strictly a part of Evidence such as Presumptions, Judicial Notice and Burden of Proof, are not treated, and also Primary and Secondary Evidence, and evidence in particular actions. On the other hand, nearly a half of the work is given up to collateral evidence and res gestae. An attempt is here made to put these subjects, hitherto slightingly treated, upon a scientific basis, and the result is most satisfactory. The topic of Declarations is also most thoroughly worked over. The leading cases are discussed, the views of prominent book and magazine writers criticised, and the logic of the subject brought out in a manner most acceptable to the reader.

Bailments, Including Carriers. Innkeepers and Pledge. By James Schouler, LL.D., Professor in the Boston University Law School. Third edition. Law Sheep, pages lxxiv., 782. Little, Brown & Co., Boston. 1897.

To the student, and we can speak from his standpoint with greater confidence, Professor Schouler's works are always welcome. His experience as a teacher gives clearness, and his scholarly tastes lead him to historical researches which aid the student materially in getting what must be at best only a bird's-eye view of the law. From this, however, we would not have it understood that Bailments and Carriers is a discursive treatment of the topic. The work is thorough, and to an agreeable extent philosophical. The subject of Carriers, which is treated under the head of "Exceptional Bailments for Mutual Benefit," occupies a full half of the book. His method of treating this branch of the law is best stated in his own words, "Unless we determine to take no precedent for more than it is worth, to keep fast hold of fundamental bailment principles, and bear constantly in mind that this transportation of movable property to and fro * * * is but a bailment, and that the present idiosyncrasy simply consists in an extraordinary degree of responsibility to which public policy chooses to subject the class of bailees known as Common Carriers, we shall lose our most needful clue." The cases citedabout 1,800 in number-are few as compared with the modern "treatise, but are selected with a view to being instructive, illustra

tive and authoritative, rather than exhaustive. A chapter has been added on the Interstate Commerce Act of Congress; which, with other matter, has increased the book about one-tenth.

A Manual of Legal Medicine. By Justin Herold, M.D. Cloth, pages xv., 678. J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia. 1898.

Dr. Herold has put into a small space a vast amount of practical information on the subject of medical jurisprudence. His object is to furnish a treatise for the legal and medical practitioner and student, less voluminous than the ordinary treatise and fully up to date. The tabulated statements giving precise directions and criterions for guidance in reaching conclusions on important questions-as whether a wound was inflicted before or after death-are a marked feature. The book is divided into two parts. The first relates to toxicology; the second to forensic medicine proper. Insanity and its allied branches are the only topics not treated. The style is clear and concise, and the strictly legal portions accurate. The appendix contains

a number of illustrative cases.

Notary's and Conveyancer's Manual. By Florien Giauque, of the Cincinnati bar. Second revised edition. Law sheep, pages viii., 389. Robert Clark Company, Cincinnati. 1897.

Notaries and conveyancers are too often ignorant of the formalities to be observed in the performance of their duties. Mr. Giauque has gathered together in a small compass the statutes of the various States and the common law governing acknowledgments, depositions, affidavits, negotiable instruments, and the execution of deeds. This information is put in a convenient and practical form and well indexed. Since the publication of the first edition of this manual, several territories have become States, and a new Territory has been formed. These changes and the many caused by such tendencies as place men and women on the same basis as to property rights and secure uniform legislation on several subjects, have made necessary and rearrangement and rewriting of this book. This edition covers all the laws and forms of each State and Territory. It is deserving of even greater success than the first edition.

Crime and Criminals. By J. Sanderson Christison, M.D. Cloth, pages 117. The W. T. Keener Company, Chicago, 1897.

The articles here collected originally appeared in the Chicago Tribune. While they do not constitute a systematic treatise on the subject of criminology, they present the points of most importance in a form suited to the general reader. Some twenty-three criminals of note are described and this description illustrated by photographs showing particular criminal features. The book closes with drawings of "the degenerate ear," which remind one forcibly of Max Nordau.

MAGAZINE NOTICES.

The following are some leading articles which have appeared in legal publications during the last month:

Albany Law Journal:

Dec. 11. Remedies to Govern the Right to follow Property

Wrongfully Taken or Converted, as against the Wrong

doer's Estate,

Jan. 1. Government by Injunction,
Jan. 8. Eloquence at the Bar,

Central Law Journal:

Dec. 10. Dec. 17.

Jan. Jan.

Alex, Hirschberg.

Seizure of Fixtures Under Legal Process, L. D. Landornn.
Power of Municipality to Declare what Constitutes

a Nuisance,

1.

Eugene McQuillin. Penalties and Liquidated Damages, Seymour D. Thompson. 8. The Summary Jurisdiction of Courts over Attorneys at their Bar, and the Power to Compel Good Faith toward Clients and a Restitution of Funds or Property Converted or Wrongfully Withheld, . Jan. 15. Eminent Domain and Taxation as Related to the Use or Purpose for which Property is Taken or Taxes Levied,

Green Bag-January:

Style in Judicial Opinions, II., .

Jury Challenge.

American Law Register-January:

Strikes and Courts of Equity,

.. F. W. Babcock.

W. L. Hand.

H. C. Merriman.

W. D. Lewis.

Unconstitutional Legislation Upon the Extinguishment of

Ground Rents,

Virginia Law Register-January:

Government by Injunction,

New Jersey Law Journal-January:

R. M. Cadwalader.

S. S. P. Patterson.

The Origin of New Jersey's Board of Chosen Freeholders,

In the preface to Professor Tyler's edition of Stephen on Pleading, it is stated that "it is especially important that the students of law be trained in common law practice, and be convinced of its wisdom as a means of administering justice, in order that as men who influence public opinion they may if pos sible, gradually restore common law pleading to its former efficiency in the courts. At all events their training in common law pleading will enable them, in States where it is established, to relieve in some measure the administration of justice from the embarrassments with which it has been environed by codes. For a knowledge of common law pleading is not only of importance in States where wisdom has retained it, but also in States where it has been abolished." While the value of the knowledge thus advocated should always be clearly apparent to those whose preparatory studies in the law have included the common law and equity methods, it is by no means as fully recognized by those whose legal training has been entirely under the code system. The views of Professor Tyler above quoted may be taken as true at the present time to the extent that the importance of the common law training still exists as fully as it did thirty-seven years ago, though not entirely for the reasons then advanced, and that, to either the student or the practising lawyer, such training cannot but be beneficial for the reason that, with but one single exception, it is believed, and aside from formal and technical requirements, there is no rule reguiating the substance of pleadings under the codes which is not either taken directly from the older system, or framed by analogy in