capacity and learning as a lawyer, Mr. Cassidy added the reading, taste, and refinement of a cultured and polished gentleman. It was well said of him : " A kindly nature and gentle spirit made him a gentleman, industry a scholar, and ambition a lawyer. He was all three, and made them inseparable when he became the last." Oliver L. Barbour, the famous compiler of law reports, died at Saratoga, N. Y., on December 17, after a long illness. Mr. Barbour was born in Cambridge, Washington County, N. Y., in June, 1811; was graduated from the Fredonia Academy in 1827, studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1832. From 1847 to 1849 he was reporter of the New York Court of Chancery, and of the State Supreme Court from 1848 to 1876. In 1859 Hamilton College conferred upon him the degree of LL.D. He was the author of a number of legal works and treatises, as well as the reports which have made his name a household word among lawyers, and which were wonderful exam ples of patience, accuracy, and discrimination.
REVIEWS. The American Law Review, November-De cember, contains a number of interesting and valuable papers. Its contents are " Explaining Alterations," by Austin Abbott; " The Centenary of Modern Government," by Simeon E. Baldwin; "By-Laws of Benefit and Voluntary Societies," by Eugene McQuillen; " The Coupon Legisla tion of Virginia," by Morris Gray. David Dudley Field's " Annual Address " to the American Bar Association is given in full. Samuel Maxwell contributes a paper on " Relief of the United States Supreme Court; " and Emile Stocquart writes on " Marriage in Private International Law." In the " Notes " we find the following : " Our neighbor, the ' Green Bag,' is usually very happy in the selected matter which it presents to its readers; but it seems not to have made use of its customary discrimination in the scissoring which is reprinted from an English legal journal called 1 Pump Court.' " The article referred to is " An English View of the American Bar," published in our October number. We regret exceedingly our
lack of discrimination; but as Brother Thompson of the " Review " finds the article in question worthy of a notice of two full pages in his admirable Jour nal, we cannot but feel that perhaps, after all, our want of discrimination was not so great as it might have been. The article was published to show the ignorance and misconception displayed by English writers in regard to American institutions; and the comment it has aroused shows that it has been read with interest.
The Harvard Lw Review for December contains a valuable paper on " The Police Power and the Right to Compensation," by Everett V. Abbott. Simon G. Croswell contributes an article on " Infringement Cases in Patent Law; " and Prof. F. W. Maitland's interesting " History of the Register of Original Writs " is concluded. The December Century comes, as usual, re plete with interesting matter. The number opens with "Selections from Wellington's Letters," which consist of a series of heretofore unpublished let ters, written by the Duke of Wellington in his last years to a young married lady in England. The illustrations accompanying them include pictures of the Duke's residences and three portraits of himself, including the famous full-length picture by Sir Thomas Lawrence. An illustrated article on " The New Croton Aqueduct," by Charles Barnard, gives the reader a full account of that remarkable engineering work. The " Merry Chanter," by Stockton, and several short stories make up an excellent supply of fiction. From the " Autobiography of Joseph Jefferson," which is full of interest, we clip the following story of the actor Burton : — "I have often thought that Mr. Burton must have had Irish blood in him, for he was continually spread ing the tail of his coat for a fight, — I mean an intel lectual fight, as physically he was not pugnacious. Quarrelsome persons who do not indulge in pugilistic encounters are fond of lawsuits; it is only another way of having it out, and Burton must have spent a fortune in fees. His humor on the witness-stand was quite equal to that of Sam Weller. On one occasion, while the actor was going through bank ruptcy, an eminent lawyer in Philadelphia thought he detected a desire on Burton's part to conceal some facts relative to a large sum of money tha' he had made during the production of the ' Naiat!
