BOOKS AND PERIODICALS.

Publishers desiring reviews or notices of Books and Periodicals must send copies of the same to the Editor, care of THE CARSWELL COMPANY, LIMITED, 145 Adelaide Street West, Toronto, Canada.

Notable British Trials. Canada Law Book Company, Toronto, Canadian Publishers.

Two new volumes have been added to this very well known series, one bearing upon the trial of Mary Queen of Scots, being edited by A. A. Francis Steuart, and the other a history of the trial of Thomas Neill Cream, the Poisoner, being edited by W. T. Shore.

There is already so much literature concerning the case of Mary Queen of Scots, that it would be dangerous to attempt any extended comment with the space allotted to this department of the REVIEW. It is sufficient to say that Mr. Steuart's work is capably done. One who is not already familiar with the subject would be well advised to read this book, because of the fact that Mr. Steuart has had the advantage of all other works on the same subject which have preceded this; and the many who have already taken a great interest in the moot question which the book discusses will doubtless be glad to add this latest work to those which they have already collected upon the subject.

The story of the famous poisoner, Thomas Neill Cream, is of course a sordid one, but it is very fascinating. There is some added interest to Canadians, because of the fact that Cream, while born in Scotland, was brought to Canada as an infant and educated here, graduating in medicine at McGill in 1876, and later practising his profession for a time in London, Ont. His career of crime appears to have commenced in his student days, and his record from that time until his death on the scaffold of Newgate in 1892 is well described by the Editor as affording much material of interest to the criminologist, the alienist and the student of human nature. It is of interest also to the student of law, as spreading out the details of a well conducted prosecution.

G. F. H.

Covenants Affecting Land: The Use of Land as Affected by Covenants and Obligations not in the form of Covenants. By J. C. V. Behan, M.A., LL.D. (Melb.), M.A., B.C.L. (Oxon.), of the Middle Temple, Barristerat-Law. London: Sweet & Maxwell Limited. Toronto: The Carswell Co., Limited. 1924. xxi and 174 pp. (Price 15s. net.)

We are told that this book is Dr. Behan's thesis for the Melbourne LL.D. and is the forerunner of a work on the law of Real Property. If Dr. Behan can treat the whole subject as satisfactorily as he has done the topic above outlined he will have rendered a great service to his profession. After an introduction in which the basis for treatment of this intricate branch of the law is laid down he discusses separately covenants between (1) Vendor and Purchaser, and (2) Landlord and Tenant, concluding with an interesting chapter on the Doctrine of Equity. As

between Vendor and Purchaser questions are constantly arising with regard to restrictions imposed upon the rise and enjoyment of immovable property. Dr. Behan's treatment (pp. 106 et seq.) of the fundamental principles-that the covenantee must hold adjoining property to which the benefit of the restriction may be annexed; that if at the time of the covenant he hold no property in the locality no restriction imposed upon the covenantor will pass to the latter's successors in title (London County Council v. Allen, [1914] 3 K.B. 642); and that unless the restriction forms part of a building scheme he must retain adjoining property to be able to enforce the covenant (Formby v. Baker, [1903] 2 Ch. 539) --is concise and valuable. There is an interesting application of the rule by Rose, J., in Attorney-General for Ontario v. Great Lakes Paper Co. Ltd., (1921) 50 O.L.R. 78 (96). The subject is of practical importance in the United States (see 11 California Law Review pp. 48 et seq.) and Canada, as well as England and Australasia. The judgment of P.O. Lawrence, J., in Atkin v. Rose [1923], Ch. 522; 92 L.J. Ch. 209, where he considered a covenant not to permit or suffer" certain trades to be carried on draws attention to Wilson v. Twamley [1904] 2 K.B. 99-too briefly referred to by Dr. Behan at p. 83 and to the fact that Berton v. Alliance Economic Investment Co. [1922] 1 K.B. 742, and Toleman v. Portbury (1870) L.R. 5 Q.B. 288, are not mentioned. The new learning as well as the old relating to covenants running with the land is carefully set forth. The book will be very useful in this country where so much land is purchased under Agreement for Sale-the price payable in instalments. Our courts have frequently to decide whether certain covenants run with the land, as in Lampert v. Weber [1923] 2 W.W.R. 1148 [Sask.-C.A.] where it was held that a purchaser's covenant in such an agreement to insure the buildings on the land did not so run. The author adequately deals with covenants running with the reversion, making it clear that at common law implied covenants were capable of so running. We find no reference to Worthing Corporation v. Heather [1906] 2 Ch. 532, dealing with a covenant to give a lessee an option to purchase the freehold. Such a covenant is of course a collateral covenant and the citation of Woodall v. Clifton [1905] 2 Ch. 257 (p. 56) was probably sufficient for Dr. Behan's present purpose. We should like to have had the question of the differences between a partial assignment of a lease and a sub-lease more definitely dealt with and to have had the author's views as to the position of persons taking title by estoppel. These matters will probably be dealt with in Dr. Behan's complete work It is impossible to do more than refer to these few points, but we must thank the auther for giving in small compass a most practical as well as a most scholarly work on a subject which, as he truly says, teems with doubts and difficulties.

E. K. W.

The Law and Practice in Bankruptcy. By William M. Collier. Thirteenth edition in four volumes. By Frank B. Gilbert and Fred E. Rosbrook. Albany: Matthew Bender & Co., 1923.

The new edition of this standard work on the law of Bankruptcy is greatly enlarged-embracing more than twice the content of the

twelfth edition. This expansion is accounted for by the inclusion of many new forms, Volume 3 being exclusively devoted to that branch of the subject. Volumes 1 and 2 contain the main subject-matter of the work, the method pursued being to reproduce each section of the federal Bankruptcy Act with an exhaustive commentary related to judicial decision. Each section and its commentary or treatise forms a separate chapter of the work. Volume 4 contains, in addition to the American statute-law and rules of practice, the Canadian Bankruptcy Act of 1919 and rules thereunder. Canadian and English authorities are cited. An excellent system of analytical indexing renders the great mass of material in the work easily accessible. The four volumes are divided for the sake of convenience into three parts. Volumes 1 and 2 comprise the Bankruptcy treatise; volume 3, Bankruptcy forms; volume 4, Bankruptcy rules and Acts, tables of cases and a general index. Each of these parts is complete in itself and can be purchased separately.

The publishers inform us that in order to keep the work as now perfected constantly up to date arrangements have been made whereby the American Bankruptcy Reports will key all reported decisions to Volumes 1 and 2 of Collier, and monthly advance sheets of the reports so keyed will be issued, followed by two permanent bound volumes. This is undoubtedly an extensive undertaking, and if carried out will be of great service to all who are concerned with the law of Bankruptcy in the United States and Canada. C. M.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

1. A Compendium of Precedents of Pleading, Common Law and Chancery. By Bertram B. Benas, B.A., LL.B., and R. C. Essenhigh. London: Sweet and Maxwell, Limited. Toronto: The Carswell Company, Limited, 1924. Price $10.00.

2. A History of English Law. By W. S. Holdsworth, K.C., D.C.L. Volumes IV and V. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd. 1924.

3. The Common Weal. By the Right Honourable Herbert Fisher, M.P., F.B.A., F.R.S., LL.D. Toronto: Oxford University Press. Price $2.50 postpaid.

4. Man and Mystery in Asia. By Ferdinand Ossendowski in collaboration with Lewis Stanton Palen. Toronto: Longmans, Green & Co., 1924.

CURRENT EVENTS.

An American tribute to Hugo Grotius, called the father of international law, will rest in the Nieuwe Kerk of Delft, the Dutch Westminster Abbey. It is the plan to place a memorial window in the church to commemorate the 300th anniversary of his book, "De Jure Belli ac Pacis," published in June, 1625. The Grotius Memorial Fund will be made up of contributions from members of the Bench and Bar throughout the United States. The expense of the collection and preservation of the fund will be borne by the Foundation, so that the full amount collected may go toward the purchase of a memorial window. The organization expects to raise $10,000.

The Honourable Geoffrey Lawrence has been appointed Recorder of Oxford in succession to the late Sir Reginald Brodie Dyke Acland. Mr. Lawrence was called by the Inner Temple in 1906.

At the last sitting of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, Lord Shaw, in delivering the Board's judgment in an appeal from Lahore, which they disallowed, made some observations on the expense incurred. He said that it was agreed that the entire points in the appeal were substantially covered by a reference to a few documents; and accordingly these could have been presented to the Court in a succinct and businesslike paper of a few pages. In the present appeal, however, there was printed in India an elaborate book of 1,163 pages containing very many inaccuracies. Their Lordships thought it right to say that, in their judgment, that mass of printing was an abuse. When the Registrar looked at the case some time before the hearing he was of opinion that a large part of the record could not under any circumstances be necessary to put before their Lordships. He, therefore, communicated with the appellants' solicitors, and the latter, after consultation with their counsel, eliminated more than 540 pages. These were actually taken out of the bound book and were never before the Board. Had the judg ment been favourable to the appellants the entire cost of that, printed matter would have been disallowed.

We are sure our readers will enjoy the following bit of "professional news clipped from our lively contemporary, Law Notes:Scandalum magnatum! We were reading our Evening Standard the other night in the train when we were shocked by the following paragraph:-" Sir Henry Duke, President of the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division, was presented to-day with the honorary freedom of Plymouth. The magistrate remanded him in custody, 'in order to get the alcohol out of his system,' and intimated that he would ultimately place him on probation." Was it perhaps some confusion between 'Probate" and "probation" which led the " 'comp." into this curious tacking of the last sentence on to the first?"

The Oxford Union Society, undoubtedly the foremost undergraduate debating organization in the world, is celebrating its centenary this year. Some of the greatest debaters at the English Bar have learned their art within the walls of the society. Lord Birkenhead, himself a President of the Union at the age of twenty-one, gives us an interesting sketch of its history in his "Points of View." The Sunday Times speaks as follows of the value of the training that this venerable organization provides:

"The Oxford Union is far more than a debating society. Its traditional procedure gives to its discussions an impressiveness which is of the greatest value in training a man to speak. The largeness of the hall, often well filled; the arrangement of the benches; the dais, and the deference shown to the officers; the free interruption by those listening all prevent a man from getting up to make a few remarks,' force him to cultivate style, to economize his powers, and to make the greatest number of telling phrases possible in a limited amount of time. The Union has, indeed, no longer the spontaneity of its early days; the number of speakers far exceeds the time at their disposal, and this necessitates a selection which has led inevitably to the formalization of the debates."

In the case of Akerman v. Muldoon, tried a little while ago in the King's Bench Division, Mr. Justice McCardie found the facts provocative to his keen sense of humour. Mrs. Akerman, the plaintiff. sought to recover damages for personal injuries received through using a proprietary hair dye called "Inecto Rapid," which was stated to have been sold to her by the defendant, Mr. W. J. Muldoon.

For the plaintiff it was stated that she used the preparation on two occasions and it caused her to contract an affection of the skin, and she suffered great pain and became so delirious that it was necessary to hold her down.

In answer to his Lordship it was stated by the defendant that the dye was permanent, but that as the hair grew half an inch a month it was necessary to touch it up at the roots every ten weeks. The shades, of which there were eighteen, varied from black to light blonde.

His Lordship, in his summing-up to the jury, reviewed the evidence and said that the plaintiff was likely to have a good recollection of the facts. She had decided to vindicate the rights of womanhood to the admiration of men. She applied the dye and went to bed expecting to wake up with brown hair and added felicity; instead she awoke in agony, and was practically blind. It might be that her illness was not caused by the dye, but it was a strange coincidence that the only times she experienced the symptoms were after applying the preparation to her hair.

The jury retired to consider their verdict and awarded the plaintiff £50 damages, and his Lordship certified for costs on the High Court scale.

Madame Florence de Guile, proprietor of a fashionable beauty parlour, was sentenced in Minneapolis on January 25th to serve thirty days in the city workhouse for violating the State barber law by bobbing women's hair. The charge was cutting hair without a State license.