23 AUGUST 1884, Page 24

A History of Canon Law. By the Rev. J. Dodd,

M.A. (Parker and Co.)—Mr. Dodd epeaks of his subject as "complicated and hope- less." He has not, we think, improved matters by a certain habit of digression in which he indulges. The third chapter, "Jewish Law in Connection with Canon Law," may be specially noted as dealing with a multitude of topics which can scarcely he called relevant. The volume, however, contains a quantity of interesting matter, and is, perhaps, more interesting to the general reader than it would havo

been had its limits been more logically defined.