illustrate the disturbed condition of Ireland he once began a letter with: "I am writing this with a pistol in one hand and a sword in the other." Dick Martin, another Irish member, one morning saw in the Times some passages of a speech of his printed in italics. Much annoyed he complained to the house that he had been misrepresented. The Times reporter was accordingly summoned to the bar, charged with breach of privilege. In defense he pleaded that the report was verbatim. That may be," said Dick Martin, “but I defy the gentleman to prove that I spoke in italics." It was reserved, however, for an English member to make a bull upon a bull. An Irishman had just set the house laughing by clothing a valuable idea in very ludicrous speech. When quiet was restored a pompous member from the Midlands rose to speak. "After the pregnant bull we have heard "he began. well illustrates the candor of the chancellor and his freedom from pride of opinion. Early in Mr. Silliman's professional life he was employed in an action brought to procure the construction of a complicated will, in which very important interests were involved. His clients suggested the employment of counsel, and he retained the great chancellor, who invited him to call and dine with him at his house on a certain evening, and to bring with him his opinion, stating that he would have his own opinion ready at that time. After dinner the chancellor said: Now, Silliman, read your opinion." 'No," said Mr. Silliman, "I must decline to read mine first." Whereupon the chancellor read his, and then called for Mr. Silliman's. "No," said the junior counsel, “after having heard your opinion, chancellor, I must decline very respectfully to read mine." 'Do you not concur with me?" asked the chancellor with Probably he is still wondering why the house surprise. "Unfortunately," responded Mr. Silliman, roared. COMMON-LAW MARRIAGES. The policy of recognizing as valid a marriage by private contract of the parties without any formal solemnization either by clergyman or magistrate is one which seems to invite perennial discussion. In the State of New York, where such marriages are now held valid, there is an attempt to outlaw them. Opinions on this subject differ widely, and are held tenaciously. The advocates of either policy must in fairness recognize that the advantages are not all on one side. Serious evils may, and will, attend either policy. The question is, by which will they be made least? When one observes the hardships that result to a man's family by the appearance after his death of one who claims to have been his common-law wife it is easy to be impressed with the evils of a situation in which that is possible. Besides this, it is probable that the line of demarcation between lawful marriage and mere concubinage is made somewhat less distinct by the recognition of the validity of a merely consensual marriage. But, on the other hand, it is clear that a law abolishing such marriages, especially in a State where there is no legal punishment for adultery, would permit the maintenance of illicit relations with substantial immunity from any legal penalty. The possible result on public morals of such a situation is serious enough to require the most careful consideration before such a change in the law is made.- Case and Comment. AN INTERESTING REMINISCENCE. The late Benjamin D. Silliman, at the time of his death the "oldest lawyer in America," once favored a friend with the following incident in his long and familiar acquaintance with Chancellor Kent, which "I do not; but, of course, I am wrong." "Read it," said the chancellor. Whereupon Mr. Silliman read his opinion at length until he came to a certain paragraph, when the chancellor stopped him. "Read that again," said he; and after some reflection, read it again." At the conclusion the chancellor tersely remarked: "Tear up my opinion, Silliman. You are right and I am wrong." The distinguished jurist had failed to notice the application of the newly-revised statutes to the case. LAW REFORM IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. The New York Tribune recently contained a symposium entitled "The Story of the Nineteenth Century," to which Henry W. Sackett, Esq., of the New York Bar, contributed an article upon Reforms in the Law." He instances as significant legal features of the century the framing of the Code Napoleon; the work of the Supreme Court of the United States under its unique power of nullifying legislative acts in the interpretation of a written constitution; the abolition of imprisonment for debt; the adoption of exemption laws as to necessaries of existence of labor and as to Homestead; the exemption of employers from liability for injury to a servant through the fault of a fellow-servant; married women's enabling acts; the abrogation of the disqualification of witnesses because of interest; the merging of legal and equitable jurisdiction in the same tribunal; the revision of the New York statutes under the Constitution of 1821; codification of rules of procedure and of substantive law in America and English communities; systemization and simplification of land transfers; the vast evolution of corporation law; the securing of free speech and publication by abrogating the ancient maxim "the greater the truth, the greater the libel." The choice of these subjects for special emphasis evinces a comprehensive view of the field and a discriminat ing appreciation of the real legal landmarks. The writer succinctly states the history and the important bearing of each of the measures. NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS. The Law and Procedure of United States Courts. The purpose of this work is to give a brief and We can The Law of Insurance, as Applied to Fire, Life, 1901. care. Not only have the points considered and the principles laid down been analyzed and digested, but all the more important new cases decided in that time some three thousand in number - have been referred to in the foot-notes. Among the new topics in the fourth edition discussed in the light of the new decisions are: Standard Policies, Proofs of Death and Loss, Adjacent Buildings, Duty of the Insured to Read his Policy, Incontestible Clauses, Additions to Buildings and Removal of Goods. In addition to this, General and Local Agents, Conditions, Forfeitures, Waiver, Suicide and Insanity, Assignments, Arbitration, Mutual and Foreign Companies, and other important subjects have been fully treated, and long text notes have been added equal to many new sections of text. The rest of the older matter in the earlier edition has been carefully examined, changes and modifications in the law being carefully shown in the text and notes and by the full citation of new decisions bearing on the old points. The old section numbers have been retained thus making the many references by bench and bar to the previous edition equally useful in that now offered. The index has been made with equal care, and the analysis and subdivision make the entire contents of the two large volumes easily accessible to the reader. Thus, May on Insurance is certain to continue, as it long has been, an authoritative work for, in its present up-to-date form, it cannot fail to prove more than ever valuable to the profession and the general public. Your Uncle Lew. A Natural-Born American. A "Your Uncle Lew"-by the way, a very catchy" title is the author's first essay in the realm of fiction. In his preface, Mr. Sherlock tells us that it is an amplification of a story printed in paper covers as far back as 1885, entitled 'The Autobiography of an Old Sport," which was Mr. Sherlock's contribution to the very worthy project of soothing the "Old Sport's" last days on earth, and when he died decently burying him. Lewis Dunbar, who is "Your Uncle Lew," is drawn from life. Salina (only another name for Syracuse), is Since the appearance of the first edition, some the scene of most of the story. Dunbar keeps a nine years ago, Judge May's treatise has been the restaurant at the old depot. Peculiar, witty, shrewd, acknowledged book of reference on points of in- not over scrupulous as to means toward an end, but surance law. During that time, the great interests withal, possessing sterling traits of character that involved in insurance, and the employment of the make him decidely popular, he is, of course, a ablest and keenest counsel, on both sides of the money-maker, rough, lacking polish of speech and various questions litigated, have led to the syste- manner and not "long" on religion, but filled to matic development of doctrines of law on carefully overflowing and dominated by a love for his only raised issues and upon clear lines of business daughter, Grace, that adds a touch of native beauty progress. In the bringing out of the fourth edition to the uncouthness of the man. The book being in of Judge May's admirable work the reviser, John reality a character sketch, the author has not seen M. Gould, well known to the profession as the fit to detract from the central figure by attempting author of "Notes to the Revised Statutes," of the to construct an involved plot or to fill the story fourteenth edition of Kent's Commentaries," and of with thrilling and impossible incidents, as so many the "Law of Waters," has studied the growth of of our latter-day novelists are doing, with more or the law during the past nine years with especial less success. At the same time, Mr. Sherlock has put the story together with the skill of the true dentally, the reader is given some glimpses of the artist. Nothing is strained or unnatural. About Underground Railroad," and there are some inLew, his horse deals, his eating-house, his im-teresting discussions of the legal and ethical aspects perturbable good nature, his homely philosophy, his of slavery in the light of that early day — 1821. views of religion, and his expose of the great Cardiff Giant hoax of 1869-70, which deceived the very elect of the scientists of that day, the reader will find an inexpressible charm. Dunbar confided his discoveries to only one person — a young artist, who was on the scene in the interest of a New York illustrated paper,- for whom Lew conceived a strong liking and who, in a later chapter of "Your Uncle Lew," becomes the husband of Dunbar's charming daughter. It is a pretty, though not over-intense love story that the author weaves into the volume. Mr. Sherlock will be remembered by many Albanians as a journalist who worked in other days with the lamented Harold Frederick on the Albany Journal, later filled the post of managing editor of the Syracuse Standard until that paper was absorbed by a more powerful or more fortunate rival, and is now connected with the news-gathering and disseminating agency of which the New York Sun is the head. His journalistic experience has been wide and varied, and as he combines unusual powers of observation with marked facility of expression and a lively sense of humor, it is not strange that he has produced a book at his first attempt which is worthy to rank with "David Harum" and "Eben Holden." While it may not reach the phenomenal sales of these remarkable novels, "Your Uncle Lew" gives every promise of long and wide popularity, for it touches human nature very closely on many sides. Good as it is, we have no hesitation in predicting that "Your Uncle Lew" will be followed by something far better from Mr. Sherlock's busy pen. While there are throughout the book many earmarks of the novice in literature, it is a work of power and promise, in many respects satisfying, and above all, clean, healthy and inspiring. The Sentimentalists. By Arthur Stanwood Pier. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1901. This is the second of the series of twelve American novels by new writers, in course of preparation by Messrs. Harper & Brothers during the current year. It is a novel of contemporaneous social conditions in Boston and Missouri, and in some respects the strongest study of American life that has been written in some time. The chief character is a latter-day American "Becky Sharp" Mrs. Kent who "breaks into" Boston society, twists politicians about her little finger and turns all events to her own purpose for the advancement of her children's welfare with an adroitness and diplomacy that is little short of genius. Mrs. Kent is unscrupulous of methods to achieve her ends, sacrificing all sense of honor and refinement of feeling to mould men to her mind, and maneuvering with the consummate skill of an experienced lobbyist to the final tragic end. In contrast with the character of Mrs. Kent are the children for whose with fine ideals, lofty aims and genuine manliness, future she is working, the eldest a Harvard man the younger boy and girl full of spontaneous enthusiasms. The pictures of social life in Boston and of the rough edges of western civilization are particularly well drawn. The son's refusal to profit indirectly by his dead mother's dishonor makes the climax of the book and the excuse for its title, for Martin Brook. By Morgan Bates. New York: this latter-day sentimentalist determines to leave Harper & Brothers. 1901. This is the fourth in the Harpers' series of American novels by new American writers and is to our mind one of the best yet issued. The reader's interest is chained from the start. From the moment of his first appearance in its pages, little Martin Brook, an apprentice, endeavoring to escape from his cruel master, Jacobs, to whom he is bound to service until he is twenty-one, makes the reader his friend. Judge Northcote, lawyer, newspaper publisher and gentleman of Sandy Hill, N. Y., severe, cultured, upright, who befriends Martin, introduces him into a new life, and later on decides to make him his heir, is drawn with a strong, firm hand. The scene in which Enoch, a runaway slave, is discovered and claimed by his owner, and in which Martin opposes the judge's determination to respect the law and yield up the slave, and finally, following the trembling slave, leaves his happy home forever to become a Methodist minister instead of a lawyer, as he had first intended. is perhaps the strongest piece of writing in the book. Inci Boston and take his culture into the west, there to There is, of course, the inevitable love story, very edit a newspaper and grow up with the country. finely told. The book contains much excellent of character. While not the sort of work to please descriptive writing, and not a little subtle analysis all readers, it undoubtedly will be read with exreally fine writing and are not discouraged by a lack quisite pleasure by the cultured and refined who like of lurid incident. The Turn of the Road. By Eugenia Brooks Frothingham. New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1901. In "The Turn of the Road" the reader of fiction will find one of the most delightful of the large crop of new romances. It is in fact a powerful love story, fairly alive with movement and interest, and told in a really admirable style. It is what might be called a musical story, in so far as the heroine is called, or thinks herself called, to choose between an artistic career and the strong love of a worthy man. The plot, while not at all involved, is unfolded with such consummate skill, and the play of motive and human nature so deftly managed, that it would be unwise, perhaps, to disclose it to the prospective reader. It can be said without reservation that "The Turn of the Road" is in all the qualities that go to make a work of fiction easily entitled to the very first rank. Like Another Helen. By George Horton. Indianapolis: The Bowen-Merrill Company. 1901. The theme of Mr. Horton's new story is the Mohammedan massacre of four years ago, which Literary Dotes. Mr. Hall Caine's new novel, "The Eternal City," will be issued in book form in August next. A new nevel, "Audrey," by Miss Mary Johnston, author of "To Have and To Hold," begins serial publication in the Atlantic Monthly this month. Professor Guy Carleton Lee, writing in the Baltimore Sun, says that Miss Beulah Marie Dix's new novel, "The Making of Christopher Ferringham," is "far and away the best story that has appeared this spring." Messrs. Thomas Y. Crowell & Co. have in preparation a new edition of the complete works of Edgar Allan Poe, edited by Prof. James A. Harrison, of the University of Virginia, and other students of Poe. The house of Frederick A. Stokes, New York, will begin at once the publication of 66 Richard Le Gallienne's new romance, The Love Letters of the King," abounds with epigrams and aphorisms. "Broadly speaking," he says, for instance, "there are in England only two recognized occupations for a gentleman. He can either kill his fellowmen or govern them." bathed the beautiful island of Crete in Christian blood, and which one can scarcely regard even from Mrs. Reginald de Koven will get out a new book this distance without feelings of the deepest indigna- this spring entitled "By the Waters of Babylon." tion at the apparent connivance of the Christian The author takes her readers back to Artaxerxes diplomats in the slaughter. The chief characters time, and her hero is a friend of Themistocles. are an American college graduate, a Swedish soldier of fortune, and a Cretan student, who volunteer to fight for Cretan liberty. We accompany this valorous trio from Piræus to Crete on a ciaque, which is loaded to the guards with arms and supplies for the Christians, masquerading as casks of whiskey and other ardent spirits. A British gunboat destroys the little vessel and leaves our three volunteers to swim ashore; they safely arrive at an interior village high up in the mountains, on the seemingly inaccessible walls of which stands this modern Helen, Panayota, the beautiful daughter of the village priest, for love of whom Ambellaki is sacked and burned, and its inhabitants put to the bayonet by cruel Turk, or driven over precipices to seek a more honorable death. Of course, the American and the Swedish soldier promptly fall in love with the Cretan goddess - the Cretan student has no time for love when his country cries for liberty. The book is full of passages of great descriptive beauty poetry in prose, many of them. The continued shifting of success, the sudden and unexpected events, the impossibility of guessing the denouement, keep the reader in a constant state of suspense, and even the close of the story is a surprise. Mr. Horton has had exceptional advantages for writing such a story. Beginning at the University of Michigan, where he won a separate diploma for special excellence in Greek and Latin, he has steadily pursued extensive studies that, aided by a five years' residence in Athens as United States consul, have brought him into wide recognition as one of the best living authorities upon the subject of Grecian history and customs. In addition to this, long service as the literary editor of the Chicago The Bowen-Merrill Company has been extremely Times-Herald has given him a mastery of the lucky, or has exercised remarkably good judgment, technique of writing such as comparatively few in selecting novels for publication. Its record of attain. "Like Another Helen" has all the eie- successful ventures of this line has been quite ments of popularity, for while the author has filled phenomenal, and its latest enterprise bids fair to it with dramatic situations of the most thrilling sort, carrying the reader along with an ecstasy of absorption, he has sacrificed nothing of his loftiness of ideals, his poetic conceptions or his charm of style. Among the new books to be issued at once will be Mr. Maurice Maeterlinck's work entitled "The Life of The Bee." It will embody a comparison of the life and economy of the bee with the lives of men, and the idea may be expected to be worked out in the author's special psychological way. The style of Sidney McCall's "Truth Dexter" adds greatly to the charm of the story. This short passage is an example of the vivid pictures throughout the book: "Newport lay off somewhere in the blue films of distance along the southwest. Dozens of little yachts and schooners darted like butterflies across the greenish waters of the shallows." surpass most of the previous ones. The title of the story is Like Another Helen," and its author is George Horton, consul-general at Athens under President Cleveland. Mr. Horton accumulated material that he has utilized in a romance of sur 1 passing interest, and his book has taken a strong cett's "Life of Queen Victoria," and Professor hold on the reading public. The plot is original and Well's "Modern German Literature." The new consistent, the pictures of Greek and Cretan life are colonial romance by Maud Wilder Goodwin, "Sir vivid, the incidents are stirring, and the love epi- Christopher," one of the strongest works that sode is eloquently described. "Like Another Mrs. Goodwin has written will appear later. Helen" has already taken its place among the best "sellers" of the year. "The Forest Schoolmaster," by Peter Rosegger, a popular Austrian novelist, has been translated into English by Frances E. Skinner. It is the story of a forest community which was invaded by the spirit of progress, and a singularly charming tale has been evolved from this suggestive material. Price $1.50. Published by G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York. www The Protoza" is the title of a book by Gary N. Calkins, which The Macmillan Company have on the press. The author is an instructor in the department of zoology in Columbia University, and has for its object in writing this work to set forth the main characteristics of the unicellular animals or Protozoa and to present in readable form the latest views upon structures, functions, facts and theories connected with this interesting group of micro-organisms. The subject-matter is treated from three points of view: I. The historical, including the connection of Protozoa with theories of spontaneous generation, 2. The Comrelations of animals and plants, etc. parative. 3. The General. The Protozoa are also considered incidentally from a practical point of view, especially in regard to their sanitary aspects. Ernest F. Henderson, Ph. D. (Berlin), author of a "History of Germany in the Middle Ages;" editor of "Select Historical Documents" and Side Lights on English History," has in train for publication by The Macmillan Company, "A Short History of Germany." It will be a thorough working over of an immense mass of literature embodying the most recent results of German scholarship. "The Girl at the Half-Way House," by Mr. E. Hough, is the volume chosen by Mr. Heineman, as the first issue in his new "Dollar Library," designed to make English readers better acquainted with the work of our younger American writers, and we are glad to see that the London reviews striking adventures of these companions, and their have been quick to recognize the numerous excellent qualities which Mr. Hough's novel unquestionably possesses. The current Athenæum, commenting on the book says: Mr. W. A. Fraser, author of "Mooswa and Others," has just written for early publication in The Saturday Evening Post a short, stirring serial, entitled "The Outcasts." "The Outcasts" are an old buffalo and a wolf-dog, and the greater part of the story is about the strange comradeship and pilgrimage, in company, to the distant plains of deep grass, of which the wolf-dog knew. There are action and strength of word and phrase in the story, and the touch of the soil and the music and charm and sombreness of the forest. The rush of the In Mr. Hough we have a recruit to the ranks of novelists who not only knows how to tell a story in frenzied buffalo herd to death is told with splendid dramatic power. The plan of the book is a unique conception, and it is worked out on novel and entertaining lines. an interesting fashion, but also possesses unusual powers as a writer. If the story which he tells were poor, which it is very far from being, the manner of its telling might suffice to charm those readers who have a liking for that most elusive of literary qualities, style. Miss Gwendolen Overton's novel "The Heritage of Unrest" has had a good reception in England. A new edition for the English market has just been demanded. Miss Beulah Marie Dix, whose clever story "The Making of Christopher Ferringham" was published two weeks ago, also wins the approval of her English readers. Both these books by American women are having a very rapid sale on the other side. The report in the New York papers that English book trade is dull seems to apply to the works of English authors. Legal Notes. The announcement is made of the appointment of Mr. Fred. J. Allen, of Auburn, N. Y., as commissioner of patents, in place of Charles H. Duell, resigned. Mr. Allen, while a young man, has the reputation of being an able patent attorney. He assumed charge of the office on the retirement of Commissioner Duell on April first. What an unfortunate example of narrowness would be the proposed action of the Law Academy to deny its many excellent privileges to the fair sex! The Item has ever upheld this noble institution beLittle, Brown and Company have now ready fore the public as being one of the best of its kind Richard Le Gallienne's new romance, "The Love in the country, and we still record our approval Letters of the King," and "Truth Dexter," by Sid- of its purpose and objects, its achievements and ney McCall. These volumes will be followed early accumulated wealth of intellect, its work and in April by Mrs. Campbell's striking new novel, methods, its splendid officers and the personnel of "Ballantyne," Ellis Meredith's "The Master Knot its membership. Yet out of solicitude for the welof Human Fate," and new editions of Mrs. Faw-fare of this praiseworthy organization which was in |