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phase or another, from the first decade of the fifteenth century to the beginning of the nineteenth; and by their form of government in the countries in which they were privileged to establish and govern themselves, they were the pioneers in one well-defined department of British colonization. With the merchant adventurers began organized and state-regulated overseas enterprise. Out of this enterprise which was regulated by treaties, charters and acts of parliament there came in fulness of time the British Empire. The book is acceptable, not only as a contribution of permanent and outstanding value to the literature of the expansion of England, but also as an interesting and carefully documented portrayal of some aspects of England's commercial relations in a period earlier than that in which the old commercial policy-the policy that was gradually abandoned between 1783 and the complete repeal of the old navigation code in 1849-had its beginnings.

The native of South Africa has found an eloquent and intelligent spokesman in Solomon Tshekisho Plaatge, editor of the Tsala ea Batoh (The People's Friend), a native paper of Kimberley, S. A., whose Native Life in South Africa (London, P. S. King and Son, 352 pp.) has recently appeared. The author is a Barolong, who was educated in mission schools and was a letter-carrier at the Cape. During the siege of Mafeking he acted as Dutch interpreter to the Court of Summary Jurisdiction, presided over by Lord E. Cecil, and subsequently served as confidential clerk to the official in charge of native affairs there. These details are of interest, for they indicate the competence of this spokesman for the blacks. As the Pretoria News puts it, he is not an agitator stirring bad blood between the two races, but an educated native with liberal ideas, who pleads for a new policy of the Cape government which will recognize other leaders among the natives than the old, and often incompetent, chieftains, and which will study the ideas and needs of the different black peoples before legislating for them. The book deals mainly with the unjust treatment of the natives at the hands of the Union, to which Britain, having promised them security, consigned them without having assured it. The iniquities of the land laws, the treatment of the colored women, the silence of the Christian churches and the general tendency of the Boer to take it out of the native, form the major part of a narrative which dwells to a large extent upon personal incident but, in spite of a somewhat lyric tendency, is really soberly self-contained so far as essentials go.

Mr. Ernest W. Hamilton's The Soul of Ulster (New York, E. P.

Dutton and Company, 1917; 188 pp.) was written at least eighteen months before the Sinn Fein movement displayed its extraordinary and apparently unsuspected strength at the general election in December, 1918. A new interest attaches to this little book-it contains only 188 small pages-in view of the facts that at the election seventythree Sinn Fein members were chosen by the Irish constituencies, that the Irish Nationalist Party, led by Mr. John Dillon, almost disappeared as a parliamentary force and that the election developed a wellmarked dividing line in the old Liberal party which for thirty-two years had worked for Home Rule. The Soul of Ulster was written for general readers. Mr. Hamilton has made no attempt to give it even the appearance of a documented or scholarly historical work. It belongs to the realm of propaganda literature-to the literature of opposition to Home Rule. The book is, nevertheless, a presentation of the attitude of Ulster toward Home Rule and of the origin and causes of the continuance of its uncompromising and unbending opposition that is distinctly interesting and in places informing. It makes clear the conditions which keep Ulster and the other three provinces of Ireland so far apart as far apart, in some respects, as the white and colored people in the southern states.

In American Government and Majority Rule (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1916; vii, 175 pp.) Professor Edward Elliott takes us over a hard-beaten historical highway at the high speed necessitated by a journey of one hundred and fifty years in about as many pages. At no point in his journey does he reillumine the familiar landscape. The reward we find at the end of the journey is the frequently made observation that in the progress of reform the machinery of our politics has grown too complicated. We must move toward simplification, including commission government for a larger number of cities, the federal plan applied to state administrative organization, singlechambered legislatures with more executive responsibility for legislative proposals, the abolition of the district residence requirement for election to legislatures, the separation of state from national elections (page 163, although frequency of elections is condemned, page 164) and the short ballot. Here is the symposium of reform. It is probably fair to say that there is not a single new fact, new idea or new point of view in this book. It is as unexceptional as it is unexceptionable.

No adequate knowledge of the part played by the courts in the administration of government can neglect the intricate mechanics of the procedure by which courts interfere with the processes and action of

the other departments of government. The normal method of judicial review of legislative and executive action is through appeal or writ of error from preliminary judgments enforcing the action complained of. By this means constitutional rights may be vindicated, but the vindication comes often only after long and expensive litigation, or after actual imprisonment for the purpose of detention. Obviously such ultimate vindication is far from completely satisfying to the individual concerned. Resort to the so-called extraordinary writs will naturally be made whenever they are available. Of these writs the most adequate is the ancient habeas corpus by which certain elements in the rightfulness of any detention may be adjudicated without waiting for the more dilatory process of appeal or writ of error. Those who have the misfortune to face incarceration or who need to know for other reasons when habeas corpus may be used to hasten the determination of various legal questions will welcome the review and analysis of the decisions on extraordinary remedies contained in Mr. W. F. Bailey's A Treatise on the Law of Habeas Corpus and Special Remedies (Chicago, T. H. Flood and Company, 1913; two volumes, xxxvi, 1592 pp.). In addition to the subject of habeas corpus, Mr. Bailey treats of the writs of mandamus, quo warranto, certiorari and prohibition and in the course of his discussion considers many of the questions of substantive law which have been passed upon in extraordinary judicial proceedings. Separate chapters are devoted to contempts, to courts martial and to extradition. The book can hardly be called a product of the most discriminating scholarship, but it gives a convenient and satisfactory review of the outlines of the subjects with which it deals.

A Source Book of Military Law and War-Time Legislation (St. Paul, West Publishing Company, 1919; xviii, 858 pp.), prepared by the War Department Committee on Education and Special Training under the editorship of Colonel Wigmore, was designed for use in the second and third quarters of the course on military law required as part of the work in the Students Army Training Corps. The disbanding of the corps has necessarily restricted greatly the usefulness which the work promised to enjoy. It is to be hoped, however, that it will find a place in every institution of learning or discipline in which the training of army officers is continued. Part i is devoted to pre-war sources, of which 300 pages present opinions of the state and federal courts on such subjects as the relation of federal military powers to the powers of the states, the scope of martial law, the authority of the executive in military affairs, the rights and liabilities of military persons under the civil law, the civil liability of the government for the acts of military

persons and the law on the internal organization and administration of the army. The selection and classification of this material was made by Dean Morton L. Ferson of the Law School of George Washington University and deserves unqualified commendation. This part of the book may be used with profit in courses on constitutional law in all our law schools. Part ii which consists of war-time sources gives 120 pages to legislative enactments, 13 pages to regulations and general orders, 73 pages to federal judicial opinions on the selective service law, the espionage law and the jurisdiction of military authorities and 150 pages to opinions of the Judge Advocate General on a great variety of questions that have required decision during the war. No other assurance of the excellence of the selection and presentation is needed than the statement that it is the work of Colonel Wigmore. Here is a mine of information in readily available form that should be in every law library. Students of military law will have frequent occasion to thank the editors for work that will save them from the drudgery of spending hours to find for themselves what is here collected.

In England, Hartley Withers has enlivened financial discussion by a series of most readable books. In Foreign Exchange Explained (New York, The Macmillan Company, 1917; xii, 219 pp.) Franklin Escher almost attains the brightness of style of Mr. Withers' Money Changing and really advances beyond that book in completeness of presentation. Escher has long been known in the United States by his Elements of Foreign Exchange, but his new book is much more complete and up to date.

Another important volume dealing with foreign exchange is William F. Spalding's Eastern Exchange, Currency and Finance (London, Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons, Limited, 1917; xi, 364 pp.). As the title indicates, this is a treatise that covers more than the subject of exchange, yet it is safe to say that it is the discussion of the Eastern exchanges which will prove the most useful part of it. The book is largely descriptive. It would be improved if the author had introduced more theoretical discussion in connection with the abundance of descriptive material that he has made available. The movements of silver in the East during the war gave him an excellent opportunity in this direction, of which he has taken only partial advantage.

The Federal Reserve System may now be said to be firmly established in the confidence of the country. During the period of our participation in the war we have tasted of the system's first fruits and have pronounced them good. Yet few people understand the system, though its intelligent development in the future depends

upon an informed, as well as intelligent, public opinion. Professor Kemmerer in The A. B. C. of the Federal Reserve System, (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1918; xiii, 182 pp.) has rendered a public service in preparing an account of the system that is both accurate and comprehensive. His book requires intelligence to understand, but it can be understood with intelligence. Technical knowledge of banking is not necessary to a full appreciation of it.

forth simply and clearly the difficulties of our old system and then emphasizes by contrast the merits of the new. Its value is enhanced by a generous collection of material in an appendix.

In a preface which apologizes for adding another general book on the subject, Mr. Henry Clay, the author of Economics, An Introduction to the General Reader (London, The Macmillan Company, 1917; 476 pp.), offers two pleas in extenuation. The one is that the book is meant for the general reader rather than for the student, and the other is that the author devotes most attention to those parts of the subject which border on politics and ethics. The critic must concede that while Mr. Clay has not indeed added anything of significance to what is found in many other books, he has succeeded in giving a wellbalanced presentation of the entire subject and also in continually emphasizing the connections between wealth and welfare. Macmillans in New York have recently issued an American edition, under the editorship of Professor E. E. Agger, with the substitution of American for British illustrations.

The present age is often called "materialistic "-with a deprecatory implication. But every now and then somebody attempts to analyze the economic aspects of present-day society in order to show that on the ethical side our present system has much to claim for itself. In Creating Capital (New York, Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1918; 72 pp.) Frederick L. Lipman, considering money-making as our aim in business, essays in popular form a brief analysis of this kind. He shows how our system of specialization has led to the emphasis of money-making, but also how through this money-making we are led to thrift and a broader social service. The essay was originally read as a lecture by Mr. Lipman in "The Barbara Weinstock Lectures on the Morals of Trade," at the University of California.

Collective Bargaining and Trade Agreements in the Brewery, Metal, Teaming and Building Trades of San Francisco, California (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1918; pp. 233–364) is a monograph by Dr. Ira B. Cross based upon a study made for the United States Commission on Industrial Relations. Dr. Cross has included more than his

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