Reviews of Books and General
Development," and
(2) “The
Rules of Law." The work can be considerably improved in a subsequent edition. Some condensation could perhaps be effected by transferring the treatment of judicial organization during each period to the history of that period. The results of some modern German researches might advantageously be embodied in the text. Furthermore, certain errors evidently due to haste can be corrected. For example, these errors have been pointed out: “Shard" for Shaedelowe, "Candish" for Cavendish, “Trewitt" or “Trewith" for Trewithosa, and "Hervey J." for Harvey le Stanton. But the scholarly accuracy of the work in general is commended. If the worthiest aim of the historical scholar is to unlock the mysteries of the past with the key of scientific analysis, this work may not be quite up to the standard set by the late Professor Maitland and the late Dean Ames, not to mention several contemporary American scholars. But it is learned, thorough, and judicious, and will doubtless remain for many years the best treatment, in a single work, of the history of English legal institutions. As a book of reference it must prove useful, the material being rendered accessible by full tables of contents and indices.
DRAWING OF WILLS Drawing Wills and Settlement of Estates in Penns lvania. By John Marshall Gest, of the Phila elphia bar. T. and J. W. Johnson Company, Philadelphia. Pp. xx, 152, with index and tables of cases and statutes. (82.)
357
to bear upon his subject the experience of a. large and active practice in the Surrogate's Courts of Pennsylvania, there known as the Orphans’ Courts, coupled with a command of literature possessed by few not occupying a chair of belles lem'es or having the benefits of a year's sojourn in the heart of Africa with the "Pig—skin Library." The results of the author's research are published with but little change from the form in which they
were delivered as lectures to the students of the law department of the University of
Pennsylvania.
While embellished with ex
tensive citations of authority, there is scarcely a page which is not illumined by some quota tion or citation of apt but quaint out-of-the way information and lore. The book is divided into two parts: the first fifty pages discuss from an intensely prac tical standpoint the difiicult problem of drawing wills, and the remainder of the work relates to the settlement of the estates of the dead. It is replete with suggestion and authority, which, while of particular value to the Pennsylvania lawyer, sets‘forth those immutable principles which are the basis of our common Anglo-Saxon Jurisprudence. It does not attempt to be a complete scientific text-book or monograph upon the subject of which it treats, but is a series of readable and entertaining lectures which few lawyers, having commenced, will lay down until the last page is turned. The book will prove stimulating to any lawyer, filled as it is with suggestive points of practice, and no member of the profession in active practice will read it without marking many parts for future refer
WHETHER or not the legal profession ence. "is an occupation which dries the blood," as our author suggests, certain it is that the reader of this work—unless lost to all sense of the humorous—-will often be com pelled to dry his eyes. Every chapter evi dences that in the author's veins there surges the rich red blood which intensifies the joy of living—and his spirit is infectious. Now and again, sparkling wit enlivens the dry pages of our law reports; but rare indeed is it to find a valuable treatise on any part of the law bedecked with gems of trenchant humor. Yet Gest has succeeded in enriching even so melancholy a theme as the drawing of wills and settlement of estates with brilliant witti cisms and humor. The author, the sole candidate of the Law Association of Philadelphia for an approach ing vacancy upon the local bench, has brought
The lighter side of the author's style will be apparent from the following quotation in re the revered Bentham : It was on a Wednesday, the seventh day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and six, and at three o'clock in the afternoon, Greenwich time (I like to be exact in matters of absolutely no importance) that I saw Jeremy Bentham in London. It is generally supposed he was dead and buried years ago, but that is a mistake. He died to be sure; that was not merely his right, but even his duty. but he left his body to be dissected, which it seems was accounted his privilege, and this having been done, the undissectible parts of his mortal frame, clothed in his philosopher's garb, were given a snug and quiet resting place in a wooden cupboard in the Anatomical Museum of University College. There he still sits, and sits still, dressed in a black coat, white shirt and stockings, drab waistcoat and small clothes. His mummied head is on the floor between his beslippered feet, and the wax
