A Treatise on the Practice of Conveyancing. By W. Whittaker
Barry, of Lincoln's Inn, Esq., Barrister-at-Law. (Butterworths.)—There are no law-books in which mare judgment is needed to be successful than Introductory books. The writer there must seize the leading principles of his subject. In larger works, which include details also, it is com- monly hard to say whether he has seized them or not. The reader will not be in doubt in Mr. Barry's work. He has given the student an introduction to the practice of conveyancing—such as Mr. Joshua Williams has written with reference to the principles of the law of real property. Of course he travels in great part over the same ground as the more elaborate treatises on the law of vendor and purchaser, and we think he discriminates between leading cases and the refinements on them very happily. His book is not a mere book of reference, but can be read profitably as a treatise. At the same time, he is sometimes apt to degenerate into irrelevant and gossiping matter which would be far better omitted. The chapter on "Wills" is the worst instance of this fault, which culminates in a passing sneer (p. 383) at Bishop Coleus° and Essays and Reviews. This sort of thing is quite out of place in a legal treatise, and should be left to the theological newspapers.
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