LAW BOOKS.
Modern Land Law. By Edward Jenks, M.A. (The Clarendon Press, Oxford. 15s.)—The writing of a new book on the law of real property is not a task to be undertaken lightly, though we have no doubt that there is room for another general text-book on the subject. The present volume is intended for the student and not for the practitioner ; but, let us say at once, it is not a book for the beginner. As a first book on the law of real property Mr. Joshua Williams's work stands unrivalled ; but it is, of course, a book which does not enter into the history or the details of the law. For the student who has mastered the outlines of the subject, a more elaborate work treating the same thing from a different point of view, and in a different order, is most accept- able. Be is enabled to add to his knowledge and, at the same time, to arrange the ideas he has already acquired. Mr. Edward Jenks is a tutor of Balliol and reader in English Law at Oxford, whose experience of teaching must have been' of value to him in writing such a volume; yet, excellent though parts of the book appear to us, we cannot help thinking that some chapters require more introductory explanation to make the subject dealt with intelligible to a student. It is evident from the clearness with which the result of the authorities is expressed and the pains which have been bestowed on the footnotes that the author has spared no trouble in trying to write a real digest of the law instead of merely collecting extracts from the statutes and the headnotes of cases. In spite of the title which he has chosen and the statement in his preface that he has avoided history and antiquities, Mr. Jenks has, we venture to think, sometimes dealt more fully than was necessary with the old law of land and the changes it has undergone. But the subject is so attractive to the real property lawyer who has any feeling for its charms that it may be difficult to avoid doing so ; moreover, our law of land is still so thoroughly feudal, that unless the matter is dealt with to some extent historically the present state of affairs is quite incomprehensible. Mr. Jenks his written a very thorough and painstaking book on a very difficult subject. Time only can show whether his work will meet the want which exists among students of English law for a book of this nature ; but we are inclined to predict that it will be successful.
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