THE LAWS OF ENGLAND.
The Laws of England: being a Complete Statement of the Whole Law of England. By the Right Hon. the Earl of Halsbury, and other Lawyers. Vol. I. (Butterworth and Co. 25s. net.)—We must record the publication of the first of some twenty volumes which together will form a notable work claiming, so far as such a thing is possible, to contain a complete statement of the whole law of England. We may best begin this short notice, which does not pretend to be critical, by quoting from the introduction of Lord Halsbury, "editor-in-chief." After dwelling on the advantages and difficulties of codification, he writes :—" It has occurred to some minds that an attempt might be made by private enterprise to carry out in its main outlines the scheme which was recommended in the Report of the Commission appointed. in 1866, and such an attempt has been made in this work. Different treatises upon various divisions of the law, and by different authors, have been brought together, so that a selected body of writers may expound their several topics, and at the same time refer to such authoritative decisions and enactments as support the propositions which they lay down. A similar system was devised by the late Lord Acton in respect of history, and is being successfully carried out." The ex-Chancellor is assisted in this gigantic task, as we are informed on the title-page, by "other lawyers." Indeed, a great staff of assistants, whose names for the most part inspire respect, has been got together. The "revising editors" are Mr. Justice Swinfen Eady, Mr. T. H. Carson, K.C., and Messrs. Arthur Underhill, T. Wines Chitty, and William Mackenzie. There are besides a "managing editor" and his assistant, and "sub-editors" too numerous to mention. The present volume contains eleven titles : action, admiralty, agency, agriculture, aliens, allotments, animals, arbitration, auction, bail- ment, and bankers. Among the authors we can only mention Sir Gainsford Bruce, Mr. Justice Bray, Master Bonner ; their Honours Judges Evans, Austin, Baugh-Allen, Tindal Atkinson; and Sir John Paget, Messrs. Macmorran and Arthur Powell, the last three some of his Majesty's counsel. There is an elaborate arrange- ment or sub-titles and cross-references which, with an excellent index and table of cases, form a heavy volume of some seven hundred pages. No attempt has been made to produce a code in the true sense, but the sections are numbered throughout in sequence. A code is always attractive, but Napoleon's 0,om- mi.ssioner, Portalis, was aware of the impossibility of framing a code that would not require to be expounded. We await with interest the appearance of succeeding volumes.
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