A Manual of Marine Insurance. By Manley Hopkins. (Smith and
Elder.)—This work is practical and clearly written, and contains a great deal of information both on the present state of our law as to marine insurance, the state of the French law, and the gradual rise of the
whole system. In an appendix we have a sketch of maritime com- merce in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the materials for which have been derived from Venetian archives. But the chapters in the body of the work deal with matters that are more tangible and important to merchants, and explain in a style that is generally to be commended the meaning of an insurance, the risks run by both parties, and the mistakes to be avoided. Mr. Manley Hopkins is not always in harmony with the law, though ho does his best to keep on the safe side of it. He tells his readers pretty clearly what they have to expect if they trust to their unassisted reason instead of to legal decisions. But he might sometimes have spared us his disrespectful comments on legal technicalities. If ho was unable to realize an implied warranty, he need not have tried to deprive others of their comprehension of the term. His chief fault, however, which will ol=er deprive his work of much of its value to lawyers, or will render their study of it more difficult, is that he never mentions the place where any of the cases he cites are reported. He contents himself with giving the year and the Court, and as, in one instance, at least, the year is wrong, it is evident that his guidance is not wholly trust- worthy. Still the book has considerable merits, and its clearness is increased by the recapitulation, at the end of each chapter, of the chief matters discussed in the course of it.
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