Hudson and Tingey : Records of Nori^ncli 119 and gives no real insight into the essence and working of these great acts. The reader, leaving the clear path of Mr. Smith's delightful nar- rative, loses himself in a maze of " present tenancies " and " future tenancies ", " statutory terms " and " hanging gales ". As a sketch of Irish history this book is, on the whole, excellent. It will find a natural and worthy place on the shelf by the side of the author's United States and United Kingdom; its general characteristics are much the same as those of the two earlier books, but it ought to be more serviceable because there is less that is good in brief compass on Ireland than on England or the United States. Sidney B. Fay. The Records of the City of Nonvicli. Compiled and edited by the Rev. WiLLi.vM Hudson, M.A., and John Cottingham Tingey, ALA. 'olume I., containing Documents relating to the Govern- ment and Administration of the City, compiled and edited by the Rev. Willi.vm Hudson. (Norwich and London: Jarrold and Sons. 1906. Pp. cxlvi, 456.) The activity displayed during the past decade by the municipal cor- porations of England in the publication of their ancient records is gratifying to students of history. The good example set by London and Nottingham has been followed in recent years by Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Carlisle, Colchester, Doncaster, Dublin, Gloucester, Leicester, Northampton, and Reading. The latest addition to this list of valuable record publications is a collection of documents relating to Norwich, which for scholarly editing will rank with those of Nottingham and Leicester, and which probably excels these in the value of its contents. The first volume, dealing with municipal history, is edited by Mr. Hud- son, and this will be followed by a second volume dealing with economic history, the compilation of which has been entrusted to Mr. Tingey. It would require several pages to give a satisfactory summary of the mass of rich materials collected by Mr. Hudson, extending from the time of William the Conqueror to the close of the seventeenth century. They comprise royal charters granted to the city, plea rolls, a custumal, assembly rolls, deeds enrolled in the city courts, leet and muster rolls, and many other documents. The custumal is particularly valuable, per- haps more valuable than any other code of municipal customs hitherto published in England. It was probably compiled at the beginning of the fourteenth century, and most of it seems to have been of a still earlier date. Its fifty-one chapters relate mainly to the civil and criminal procedure of the city court and to the regulation of trade, but some of the by-laws set forth the qualifications of citizenship, the duties of town officers, and other aspects of municipal administration. Some matters are dealt with concerning which we find little information in other custumals, for example, the action of fresh force and the probate
