16 APRIL 1898, Page 24

Four Lectures on the Law of Employer? Liability at Morns

and Abroad. By Augustine Birrell, M.P. (Macmillan and Co.)— The last of these four lectures is given to the Employers' Liability Bill. Mr. Birrell, who here appears in the character of " Quain Professor of Law," works up to this subject by the historical method. He discusses the subject as it presents itself generally, "The Employers' Liability at Common Law," proceeds to criticise the Act of 1890, then reviews foreign systems, and so reaches what may be called the topic of the hour. It does not fall within our province to criticise Mr. Birrell's views and reasoning. As to his style and way of putting things nothing need be said. Since the days of Anstey no such humourist has appeared to illuminate the "dusty purlieus of the Law" (though it would be ungracious to forget the admirable fun with which Sir Frederick Pollock has provided us).—We may mention at the same time the first of a series which promises to be useful, " Saxon's • Concise Series' " (Saxon and Co.), Husband and Wife : the Law of Marriage and Divorce, by Sidney Wright, M.A.