Reviews of Books false, and that he exercised due care in ascer taining the accuracy of the information upon which he relied, is he entitled to the immunity without proving the facts? Again, in such a case as this, is it wholly immaterial whether his inferences were rational or irrational, or will not the honest intentions of a publicspirited man, on the contrary, go further toward justifying sound than unsound in ferences? To such considerations as these some attention, at least, would have to be paid in a work on the law of defamation as it exists in the United States, owing to the view which has obtained a foothold in a minority of our state courts, according to which a defendant who honestly believes in the truth of the facts upon which he bases his statements regarding a political candi date, is entitled to the immunity of fair comment if the publication is made in good faith for the purpose of enabling voters to cast their votes more intelligently, even though the facts are untrue. (Coleman v. MacLellan (Kansas, 1908) 98 Pac. Rep. 281; see for this and other similar cases 7 Michigan Law Review 352, Feb. '09.) In one of his appendices, discussing news paper privilege, the author expresses a view from which we dissent when he decries the notion of newspapers bearing the burden of any public duty. The newspaper proprietor, he says, "works for gain, and nothing else; he trades in news, sometimes in calumny: he is a self-constituted, not an official, censor of men and affairs." This may fail to recognize the moral significance of the great influence of newspapers over the minds of men, the un paralleled character of the commodity in which they traffic, their powerful action upon the opinions, prejudices, and passions of their readers. The influence of a newspaper, as an institution, is far greater, in the case of a newspaper of good reputation, than the com bined influence of its editorial staff and contributors, as individuals. Hence a news paper should be deemed to bear a greater obligation to the public than an individual or body of individuals, to exert its influence on the side of the law and public morals. There is this general duty of newspapers, of such a nature as to render their function semi-official in morals if not in law. But such a general duty may also sometimes be supplemented by a special duty, as for ex ample where one newspaper practically monopolizes its field, and dissatisfied readers
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and contributors cannot have recourse to its competitors if it shows itself negligent or indifferent in discharging its duties. The work is a model in arrangement. There are an excellent synoptical table of contents and a full index, as well as a table of cases exhibiting extended research. It is impossible, in concluding this review, to repress our admiration of the splendid literary and scholarly temper of this book, its noticeable charm of style, the fine flavor of the erudite historical portions, and the apt allusions to masterpieces of great literature. MINOR ON REAL PROPERTY The Law of Real Property (Based on Minor's Institutes). By Raleigh Colston Minor, M. A., B. L., Professor of Law in the University of Vir ginia. Anderson Bros., Univ. of Va. 2 v., pp. 1602, and table of cases and index 233. ($11.50.) PROFESSOR Raleigh C. Minor, of the University of Virginia, has issued in his two volumes on "The Law of Real Property" a common law treatise of much value. Pro fessor Minor, as he explains in his preface, was led to prepare this work by a desire to prolong the usefulness of. that portion of Minor's Institutes which deals with the law of real property. His first thought was to issue the second volume of his father's work in a fifth edition, but on subsequent reflection he decided to prepare a treatise over his own name, in which the substance, and indeed the very language of the Institutes, might be retained by citing the pages from which the extracts were taken, and in which he could incorporate his own material at pleas ure in order to bring the volume fully up to date. The carrying out of this scheme has led to the production of a well arranged exposition of the common law doctrines of real property, in the language chiefly of Minor's Institutes, but with interpolated extracts from standard text-writers, and with valuable supplementary matter from the pen of the author and com piler. Considerable attention is given to Vir ginia law, but not so much as to mar the symmetry of the work, or to detract from its value to the profession in general as an expo sition of a branch of American jurisprudence. Minor's Institutes, the work of the scholarly Professor John B. Minor, a great law teacher, has been so long published as not to need comment at the hands of the reviewer. It soon became recognized as one of the leading text-books on this subject, its historical por
