make it contain, as completely as possible, in the form of definitions, of rules, or of illustrations, everything which may from time to time be deemed fit to be made a part of it, leaving nothing to rest as law on the authority of previous judicial decisions. Each successive edition after such a revision should be enacted as law, and would contain, sanctioned by the legislature, all judge-made law of the preceding interval deemed worthy of being retained. On these occasions, too, the opportunity should be taken to amend the body of law under revision in every practicable way, and especially to provide such new rules of law as might be required by the rise of new interests and new circumstances in the progress of society.

We have much pleasure in stating that the New York Commissioners (Mr. David Dudley Field, Mr. William Curtis Noyes, and Mr. Alexander W. Bradford) appointed in 1857, to prepare a code for that State, have issued the draft of a penal code, for examination by the judges and others, prior to revision by the Commissioners. Through the courtesy of Mr. Noyes we have received a copy of the draft, and we trust in our next number to be able to offer some observations thereupon. We cannot, however, let this opportunity pass without expressing our sense of the importance of the work in which the Commission is engaged, not only to the State of New York, but to all communities speaking the English tongue, and inheriting the laws and usages of the English race. It is singular enough that the appearance of two Reports, each devoted to the object of codifying English law, should have been nearly coincident, though prepared on different sides of the Atlantic, and intended to apply, the one to the ancient civilization of the East, the other to the young energy and boundless future of the Western Continent. It will be more singular still if England should come to be the only State ruled by the English race which does not possess a code of law.

Notices of New Books.

[** It should be understood that the Notices of New Works forwarded to us for Review, and which appear in this part of the Magazine, do not preclude our recurring to them at greater length, and in a more elaborate form, in a subsequent Number, when their character and importance require it.]

The Ocean, the River, and the Shore. Part I. Navigation. By J. W. Willcock, Q.C., and A. Willcock, M.A., Barrister-at-Law. London: Routledge, Warne, and Routledge. 1864.

THE Preface to this book tells us that it is "intended rather for the merchant, the mariner, the ‘riparian' proprietor, the fisherman, the jurist, and the general reader, than for the lawyer." It is written by lawyers, avowedly, and it supplies both history and law. The "historical sketch of navigation" fills 130 pages out of 465, and would, in our opinion, have been better omitted; for we do not find in it that evidence of command of the subject and of the compendious method of treating it with advantage which, in the rest of the work, invites the confidence of the classes of readers to whom it is avowedly addressed. It is true that from none less than from “seamen" is criticism of the "history" of navigation to be looked for. Perhaps no class, as a class, has displayed less interest in the past progress of the art by which it has its being; though this, be it observed-a lack of historical interest in the bygones of the daily occupation-is by no means distinctive of seamen. We all, more or less willingly, "take for granted" in the past, what troubles us quite enough in the present. And this work, as one of practical utility, in which character it claims a high place, would, we think, have been well confined to that of which its writers have evidently a competent command, and in which its intended readers may be expected to have a direct and somewhat lively interest.

The remainder of the work is well done. A vast mass of law, complicated, in no ordinary degree, by its being derived, in many instances, from several independent sources-the products of which can be reconciled only by reference to those general principles to which, for lack of a better title, we give the collective name of international law-is brought into a space moderate enough to satisfy any reader who has intelligence enough to see that there are limits to the useful compression of such matter. It is arranged in numbered paragraphs, and under heads so distinguished as to lead the various classes of readers addressed each to its own peculiar section of the book. That so much is not done without some expression of opinion as to the reason, or rather unreason, of some of the rules laid down, is

to be expected. Confusion and contradiction so inevitably beget controversy, and all three do so abound where-as in matters arising on the high seas, and involving different national interests-the conflict of laws is incessant, that it is not possible to obtain, for some problems, more than a choice of solutions, with an indication of which is most palatable to the writer who offers them. When the guidance thus offered does not run to needless refinement, is done with manifest impartiality, and with adequate knowledge, and leaves the character of the work, as a compendium, intact, it constitutes no mean addition to its value-for the occasional consultation of such books, by far the most frequent method of use, more frequently has reference to cases disputed (with or without reason) than to such as lie within, and are readily decided by, ordinary and well-established rules. And it needs but a moment's consideration to show how large a section of all that concerns rights to be asserted at sea, or on rivers, or with reference to water boundaries, must be controversial, either as affected by conflicting national pretensions, or as based upon the nicest regard to what is apt to form a shifting and slippery basis, as to facts, and referred to rules which are none the more likely to be intelligible, or readily applicable, for their adaptation to what is naturally erratic and fluctuating.

Messrs. Willcock afford us no indication of the intended scope of their complete work; and it is possible that, in forming an opinion of the present volume as it stands, we give them less credit than they may ultimately prove to deserve.

A Treatise on the Power and Duty of an Arbitrator, and the Law of Submissions and Awards, with an Appendix of Forms; and of the 'Statutes relating to Arbitration. By Francis Russell, Esq., M.A., Barrister-at-Law. Third Edition. London: Stevens, Sons, & Haynes. 1864.

MR. RUSSELL's work may now be treated as the book on the Law of Arbitration. Since the publication of the other text books we have on the subject, the obligation and the power to refer to arbitration have been extended to a great variety of matters in litigation, which could formerly only be disposed of at considerable cost to both parties, and rarely with advantage to either. Arbitration, up to a very recent period, only resulted from the voluntary submission of litigants after their differences had arisen. Conveyancers were in the habit of introducing clauses into partnership deeds, providing prospectively for the settlement of disputes by arbitration; and a variety of local and personal acts contained provisions of a similar tendency; but Westminster Hall almost always managed to free the willing litigant from an obligation to refer thus created. At length the Acts of 1845, for consolidating the clauses required to be inserted in a variety of special Acts, contained minute provisions

for such compulsory references with respect to disputes as to the taking of land for public purposes, the construction of railways, and the formation of public companies; and the same course was subsequently adopted by the Public Health Act of 1848.

Mr. Russell's book, which first appeared in 1848, dealt not only with the general subject, but with the large field thus opened. By the time the second edition appeared, the common law procedure act of 1854 had provided for compulsory references in the case of a large number of disputes involving matters of account. The new edition just published contains all the decisions relating to this new system of arbitration, and also the provisions of the 22 and 23 Vict., c. 59, which contains a complete code for the regulation of arbitrations in the case of railway disputes; and of the local government Act of 1863, enabling the arbitrator to decide not only as to compensation for works to be carried out, but as to the question whether the works shall be carried out at all.

Mr. Russell's book is well and carefully written.

A Manual for Articled Clerks, containing courses of study, as well in Common Law, Conveyancing, Equity, Bankruptcy, and Criminal Law, as in Constitutional, Roman Civil, Ecclesiastical, Colonial, and International Law; Medical Jurisprudence, and Book-keeping; a Digest of all the Examination Questions, with the New Statutes, General Rules, Forms of Articles of Clerkship, Notices, Affidavits, &c., and a List of the proper Stamps and Fees being a comprehensive guide to their successful Examination, Admission, and Practice as Attorneys and Solicitors of the Superior Courts. By J. J. S. Wharton, Esq., M.A. Oxon., Barrister-at-Law: Author of the "Law Lexicon," &c. Ninth Edition, greatly enlarged, and with the addition of Book-keeping by Single and Double Entry, by Charles Henry Anderson, Solicitor of the High Court of Chancery, Senior Prizeman of the Incorporated Law Society, Editor of the Legal Examiner, &c., &c. London Stevens, Sons, & Hayes. 1864.

THIS Manual has been compiled for the guidance of articled clerks during their preliminary studies. Its value consists chiefly in the practical character of the information it contains. That portion of the work entitled, somewhat quaintly, "inaugural suggestions," together with the preface, may be left unread without much loss to the reader. Indeed, young men would do well to eschew the clumsy, not to say ungrammatical, diction, which renders those pages quite unworthy of the sequel. The manual contains chapters on all the

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subjects upon which clerks are examined at the final examination :Common Law, Conveyancing, Equity, Bankruptcy, Criminal Law, Constitutional Law, the Ecclesiastical, Maritime, and Military Laws, Colonial Law, International Law, and the conflict of laws foreign and domestic, Medical Jurisprudence, and Book-keeping. English Composition and English Grammar are omitted, first, because they do not come within the scope of a law book, and, secondly, because they are not in the list of subjects laid down for the final examintaion. The authors have probably acted with some discretion in leaving this branch of the law student's tuition in abler hands. But the pupil may learn a good deal even from the faults and imperfections of his teacher. Let him for example, duly consider the construction of the following sentences, and profit by his reflection. Mr. Anderson states in the preface to the ninth edition,-" I have carefully revised the text of the various subjects, nearly all of which, in consequence of changes in the law, especially bankruptcy, criminal, ecclesiastical, and matrimonial law, required considerable alteration." Mr. Wharton gives the following description of what he calls "the scheme of the work." "It opens with a section containing admonitions as to the method of study, the desirableness of reading upou a plan, and the benefit derivable from a habit of analysis. It debates the comparative advantages of the several means of acquiring knowledge, and suggests a preliminary course of philosophical jurisprudence as profitable for discipline before entering upon the acquirement of technical law." Again, the student is thus warned against the writers of anonymous letters: "These individuals should be avoided by the articled clerk who is desirous of preserving his own intellectability and promoting his own knowledge." Without stopping to speculate as to what the possible meaning of "a preliminary course of philosophical jurisprudence" may be, we shall close our observatious upon the literary character of this portion of the manual with with this unique passage," But while the rapidity with which Acts of Parliament increase and swell the statute book is great, the dispatch with which reports augment, and pile up tome upon tome, is greater. Happy the man with a memory that can retain Cven a tithe of the restless changes: lucky he, who possesses the patience to wade through the the chaotic heap to learn the new gloss, and to unlearn the superseded comment. Hitherto, indeed, the comparisons of celerity have been the disengaged rock from the mountain peak, the winged arrow, the swallow's flight, the rushing wind, the lightning's blaze, the thought-flash or the less poetical allusions to an express train, or the electric wire but they must all-all-yield to the more truthful and striking simile of fast things conveyed by the hey! presto! publication of law reports." The articled clerk may safely take it for granted that no questions will be put to him either at the intermediate or final examination, more puzzling or difficult to answer than the following:

Describe the various means by which an articled clerk may "preserve his intellectuality?"