588
The Green Bag
eluding the taxation of non-residents of the state. The author's purpose has been to collate all the decisions bearing on the matters under consideration. Over two hundred new cases are cited and commented upon. Chapter III has been rewritten and enlarged, many new subjects have been treated, the type has been entirely reset, and information is given regarding practice and procedure under the statutes as amended up to June 1 of this year. An appendix also contains the full text of chapter XIII of the Consolidated Laws, in which are incorporated the former statute and code provisions relating to wills, descent and devise, and executors, adminis trators and trustees. A complete set of forms applicable to transfer tax proceedings is also given..
AN EXCELLENT TREATISE ON REAL PROPERTY LAW A Treatise on the Law of Real Property. By Alfred G. Reeves, Professor of Law in the New York Law School. Little, Brown & Co., Boston. 2v. Pp. exxiv, 1588 + index 71. ($13n#«.) AS an example of America's best grade of legal scholarship, we welcome the appearance of Professor Reeves's up-to-date treatise on the law of real property. The merits of this work are conspicuous. The author has arranged his subjects in accordance with a classification admirably simple and easily understood, and has collated with learning and diligence copious materials bear ing on each topic considered. The treatise is marked by lucidity of style, aptitude of illustration, and logical unity. It will be found by the law student of great help in overcoming the complexities and technicalities of a subject which in the hands of Professor Reeves is by no means dry and irksome. It will also be useful to the practising lawyer because of its admirable clearness of arrangement, its voluminous contents, and its full citations. The treatise is aimed primarily at the pre sentation of the modern law of real property regardless of local jurisdictions. The subject receives a thoroughly national treatment, but the author has paid much attention to the New York law, not so much for the purpose of providing a text-book for the use of lawyers of that state as because of a conviction that New York's codification is of importance not only as the local system but as a typical code which has served as the model for the legisla
tion of many other states. ' "Thus it is sought," to quote the author, "to make a practically complete treatise on New York real property law, yet without materially encumbering the text or notes with anything that is purely local or special." The New York references are so effectually subordinated to the general scheme by condensing a large mass of material in separately grouped foot-notes that the general non-local character of the work is strongly sustained throughout. Professor Reeves is a leading authority on real property whose treatise on "Special Subjects of the Law of Real Property" is recognized as an authority by the courts. He is one of the ablest scholars ever graduated by the Columbia Law School, and was one of the principal framers of the Torrens system of transfers, which became a law in New York last year. His work on "Special Subjects" makes up part of the present treatise, which is about double the size of the former and covers the subjects left untouched at that time. The task of constructing a well-rounded treatise has resulted in the production of an admirable, symmetrical work. The author is to be congratulated upon the production of a work so highly creditable to American scholarship and so well executed for permanent utility.
NOTES Professor James Morton Callahan, of the depart ment of history and political science of West Vir ginia University, has written a study of "The Evo. lution of Seward's Mexican Policy," which has bees issued in the West Virginia University Studies in American History. Seward consistently maintained the doctrine that the continuance of free Republican institutions throughout America was required far the safety of the institutions of the United States. This principle furnishes the key to his diplomatic policy. Papers of general interest read before the Colorado Bar Association a year ago included "The Doctrine of the Turn-Table Cases." by Albert A. Reed. "Modern Tendencies and the Supreme Court by C. C. Hamlin, "The National Public Domain," by James W. McCreery, and "The Chicago System of Municipal Courts as a Substitute for Inferior Courts," by Fred A. Sabin. These papers, together with Wilbur F. Stone's anecdotal address on "The Pioneer Bench and Bar of Colorado," are printed in the report of the proceedings of the eleventh annual meeting, now issued. The printed volume recording the twentieth annual meeting of the Virginia State Bar Associa tion, held in August, 1908, is made up chiefly of material of local interest. It contains, however, several papers that will appeal widely to the pro
