Conspicuous among the contents of the December Atlantic is another of John Fiske's historical stud ies. It has for a title "The Starving Time in Old Virginia," and is an important historical contribution as well as delightful reading. This issue also con tains three short stories: " Witchcraft," by L. Dougall; " The End of the Terror," by Robert Wilson; and ' * Dorothy," by Harriet Lewis Bradley. There are further chapters in Gilbert Parker"s powerful serial, "The Seats of the Mighty," and two poems of excep tional quality, the "Song of a Shepherd-Boy at Beth lehem," by Josephine Preston Peabody, and "The Hamadryad," by Edward A. Uffington Valentine.
Littell's Living Age for 1896. The announce ment of a reduction in the price of this famous eclec tic, from eight dollars to six dollars a year, will prove of more than usual interest to lovers of choice litera ture. Founded in 1844, it will soon enter its fiftythird year of a continuous and successful career seldom equaled. This standard weekly is the oldest, as it is the best, concentration of choice periodical literature printed in this country. Those who desire a thorough com pendium of all that is admirable and noteworthy in the literary world will be spared the trouble of wading through the sea of reviews and magazines published abroad; for they will find the essence of all com pacted and concentrated here. It brings together between its own covers the choicest current produc tions of the most brilliant writers, the best scholars, the most profound thinkers of the world.
BOOK NOTICES. LAW.
General Digest of the Decisions of the Principal Courts in the United States, England and Can ada. Annual, being Vol. X of the series. (Cover ing the year ending September, 1895.) The Lawyer's Co-operative Publishing Co., Roches ter, N. Y., 1895. Law Sheep, $6.00. The reputation of this Digest for accuracy and exhaustiveness is fully established, and it is high praise to say, which we do heartily, that the present volume is in every way the equal of those which have pre ceded it. No lawyer can well do without it.
Res Judicata. A treatise on the law of former Adjudication. By John M. Van Fleet. The Bowen-Merrill Co., Indianapolis and Kansas City, 1895. Two vols. Law sheep. Si 2.00 net. Through his work on "Collateral Attack," Mr.
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Van Fleet is already favorably known to the profes sion, and this present treatise will add to his reputa tion. The subject of "Res Judicata" is fully and exhaustively discussed, and the work displays a vast amount of research on the author's part. From a careful examination of its pages, we can accord the work the most hearty praise, and can recommend it to the profession as a trustworthy and valuable addi tion to our legal text-books.
The Principles of Equity and Equity Pleading. By Ellas Merwin, late of the Boston Bar. Edited by H. C. Merwin. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston and New York, 1895. Law Sheep, S6.00 net. A series of lectures delivered before the Law School of Boston University are embodied in this volume, to which have been added extensive notes by the editor. No better authority on the principles of equity than the late Mr. Merwin could be found, and this treatise very fully and exhaustively covers the subject. While an excellent working tool for the practicing lawyer, it is admirably adapted to the student's needs. Indeed, for a thorough grounding in the principles of equity it excels any work we have examined.
Select Cases on Code Pleading. With Notes. By Austin Abbott, LL. D. The Diossy Law Book Co., New York, 1895. Law Sheep, S5.50 net. In this volume Mr. Abbott has collected all the leading authorities on the proper manner of pleading in both legal and equitable actions under the Codes. The object of this volume is twofold : first to pre sent the most useful collection possible, within the limits of a single volume, of the best authorities for practical guidance in the preparation of pleadings or the testing of the adversary's pleadings, together with copious analytical tables and indices to enable the reader at once to find whatever bears on any question of pleading he might have in hand. Second, to arrange these selected cases and annotatations in such a systematic method that the reader who takes up the volume for the purpose of survey ing the method of code pleading and familiarizing himself with a view of its various parts in their con nection and relation to each other will find an orderly development of its rules illustrating the distinction between evidence which is not to be alleged, and con clusions, which it is not sufficient to allege, and the substantive facts constituting the cause of action or defense which must be alleged. The faithful and conscientious manner in which
