23 AUGUST 1919, Page 24

James Madison's Notes of Debates in- the Federal C'onvention of

1787. By J. Brown Scott. (H. Milford. 10s. 6d. net.)— Mr. Scott holds, with Franklin, that the American Federal Convention of 1787 might set an example for war-worn Europe, inasmuch as the States which formed the Union were theoretically as independent as the European nations are. He discusses Madison's notes of the debates from this point of view, showing how serious were some of the difficulties that arose. The analogy between America then and Europe now is not, we fear, so close as Mr. Scott thinks, but the book is an important contribution to the history of Federalism.