States." Mr. Snow's study and investigation have make the work such as will appeal to the common led him to the conclusion that Federal Empire, so- people rather than to those professionally interested called, is a form of political organism, which, So far as possible all statistical tables and technical though commonly believed to be of modern origin, terms have been avoided. Having discussed the was in fact more clearly understood by our revolu- nature and history of insurance, the author takes up tionary leaders than any other statesmen before or the various forms, marine, fire, life, for both chilsince their time, and which was recognized by them dren and adults, and shows how the criminally as being proper and beneficent as well as necessary. minded are tempted by its manifold inducements to The imperialistic bogy has no terrors for our wrongdoing. Into the nineteen chapters of which author. In fact, he declares that which Federal the work consists, the author has put a very large Empire has arisen out of the need for social and amount of valuable information, and his discussion economic peace, and for equalization of economic of the various problems is at all times sane, dignified conditions - just as Confederation and Federal and sound. · States arose it is not a temporary phenomena, but is a permanent and complete form of political organism. In his conclusion Mr. Snow says: "A State can have no higher ideal than to perform well its obligations as the Imperial State of a federal empire. To be at once both judge and a ruler is to occupy the most exalted position conceivable. * * That America can temporarily perform the functions of an imperial State toward a dependent State has been shown in the case of Cuba. It is now necessary to prove that that can be done habitually and constantly which has been so successfully done temporarily, and as a matter of emergency. That America will do so there can be no doubt; but it will be done only by hard thinking and hard work. It will not be done by despising the experience of other nations, but by studying it and daring to follow their example where they have succeeded in improving and elevating the peoples whose affairs they have administered. It will not be done by those who blindly worship the Constitution of the United States, but by those who, with the principles of that Constitution as their foundation and their hope, shall apply themselves to the task of patiently evolving the unwritten Constitution of the American Federal Empire.” These passages give a very clear idea of the author's thesis. As to whether he proves it or not there will probably be differences of opinion to the end of the chapter, but the discussion is able, enlightening, and historically valuable. Insurance and Crime. By Alexander Colin Campbell. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1902. For sale in Albany by A. H. Clapp. For a quarter of a century and more the author of this work has known the slums of New York, and known them perhaps as intimately as any other citizen. More than this, he has borne his full share in the battle which he so well describes in this helpful book. One phase of this fight he has described in his earlier works, "How the Other Half Lives,” and "A Ten Years' War." In his latest book he reviews the great, unending struggle and carries the account forward to the present year, telling of the efforts made in the poorer districts of the metropolis to give the people who must live there better homes, improved schools, parks, playgrounds, and all those things that go to make and mold good citizens, instead of criminals and paupers. The operations of the new Tenement Law are considered, and the work that the Low administration has been able to do weighed and commended. The book is intensely interesting, and important as well, by reason of the great sociological problems of which it treats in an eminently practical manner. Essays, Historical and Literary. By John Fiske. 2 vols. 8vo. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1902. For sale in Albany by A. H. Clapp. This noteworthy addition to the stock of John Fiske's writings, the more precious. because of his lamented death, will be exceedingly welcome to every scholar in the land. All the qualities as a writer, which made Fiske so popular and so wellbeloved, are here exemplified — his talent for exposition, his clearness and directness, his unfailing geniality, his persuasiveness, his lively wit and most excellent fancy. The first study in the first volume is entitled "Thomas Hutchinson, Last Royal Governor of Massachusetts," and while the author disapproves his political ideas, he cordially admires the man, maligned, misunderstood and exiled, but never once robbed of his selfrespect." Perhaps the most entertaining study of the series is the second, "Charles Lee, the Soldier of Fortune," from which Mr. Campbell has sought, in this work, to exploit the abuses to which the beneficial system of insurance is peculiarly subject, to discuss and point out the temptations to wrongdoing, and the possible remedies. The field is one very little explored, although its importance is manifest. The author distinctly disclaims any antagonism to the insurance system, or purpose to bring it into disrepute. That history is full of warnings of danger in its practice he fully believes, but he concedes that insurance is an invaluable element in social life. The author it appears that Lee was every whit as arrant a traitor truly says that those most deeply interested in the subject are not the rich and powerful, but the poor, the weak, the unprotected; hence he has sought to as the more infamous Benedict Arnold. The next seven chapters are continuous in their interest. They include delightful studies of Alexander Hamil ton and the Federalist Party; Thomas Jefferson, the ties ever issued under a royal seal," in answer to conservative reformer; James Madison, the con- their petition which contained the famous sentence: structive statesman; Andrew Jackson, frontiersman "It is much in our hearts to hold forth a lively and soldier; Andrew Jackson and American Democ- experiment that a most flourishing civil State may racy seventy years ago; Harrison Tyler and the stand and best be maintained with a full liberty of Whig coalition; Daniel Webster and the sentiment religious concernments." At page 438 the stateof Union. ment in Fiske's "Dutch and Quaker Colonies" (Vol. 2, page 99), that in Pennsylvania "all Christian sects stood socially and politically on an equal footing," and that what Pennsylvania specially "stood for was liberty of conscience," is clearly shown to be erroneous. The second volume, "In Favorite Fields," contains ten essays, several of which appeared originally in magazines- Harper's and the Cosmopolitan. The essays which will perhaps attract most attention are those on "The Deeper Significance of the Boston Tea Party," reminiscences and appreciation of Tyndall, Huxley and Darwin, or the one entitled "Evolution and the Present Age." Every admirer of John Fiske, and their name is legion, will certainly desire to add this notable collection of essays to his other, perhaps more pretentious works. The New Empire. By Brooks Adams. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1902. For sale in Albany by A. H. Clapp. In this, his latest work, Mr. Adams starts from two premises; first, that self-preservation is the paramount instinct; second, that man follows the path The Four Feathers. By A. E. W. Mason. New of least resistance like any other atom. He then York: The Macmillan Company, 1902. gives evidence to show that society would have This is a story of an English army officer, whose reached its present situation had men obeyed these imagination is so intense and sensitive that he fears laws. In trade or war the path of least resistance he will become a coward on the battlefield simply is largely determined by physical geography, hence because his imagination causes the scenes to stand geography must be the basis of all scientific study forth so vividly. This fear leads to actions which of history. Mr. Adams also makes the point that produce the accusation on the part of three brother that organism will survive longest that, other things officers and the woman he loves, that he is a coward. As a matter of fact, the fear is realized, though somehow the reader never doubts the hero's courage or the ultimate working out of his own redemption. The plot is constructed and developed with skill, and the story exceedingly well told. The Rise of Religious Liberty in America. A history. By Sanford H. Cobb. The Macmillan Company, 1902. This work gives an exceedingly interesting account of the political history of its subject, and is entitled to a much larger circle of readers than its title is likely to attract. being equal, can live cheapest; hence history without economics is unintelligible. Starting from the stone age and following the change of cause and effect to the end the present position of the United States appears to be a necessary result of what has gone before, and furthermore it appears to be probable that she must go on as she is going until she becomes the centre of the greatest empire that has ever existed, or until she collapses under the strain of administering so huge a mass. Mr. Adams is of the opinion that America's chief danger is the conservatism which tends to prevent her from changing her institutions to suit changing conditions fast enough to enable her to attain success Here we learn that the struggle for entire liberty where economy depends on a flexibility which reduces friction. Perhaps Mr. Adams's greatest fault of conscience and of worship was one of the main causes of the American Revolution, and that the is over-enthusiasm, for it may be doubted whether solution of the question in America constitutes her the seat of the New Empire of the world is quite as securely transferred to the United States as the "most striking contribution to the science of government." After a brief review of the "Old World author would have us believe. Great changes, no Idea," as to the union of church and State, the doubt, are in progress, but time will be needed author tracks the history of his subject in the lots of it- before the transfer is complete, of the colonies and shows that only Rhode Island, Penn-industrial and commercial center of the world. The book is an admirable study of existing conditions, sylvania and Delaware declared from their beginnings for a total separation of church and State, skillfully contrasted against a historical background, with little Rhode Island in the lead, whose history and it should be read and studied by every patriotic in that regard began with Roger Williams, and thoughtful American. 66 the fugitive from Massachusetts, ecclesiastician." In this connection we take professional pride in calling attention to the fact that William was educated by Sir Edward Coke, who sent him to Oxford. Miss Mary Johnston will succeed Mrs. HumphryStrange as it may seem, to that king of whom it Ward in the pages of Harper's Magazine, which will was written "he never said a foolish thing and publish serially her novel, "Sir Mortimer," beginnever did a wise one," who granted to Williams and, ning with the May number of next year. "Sir Morhis associates "the broadest charter of human liber- timer" is a romance of the period of Queen Eliza Literary Notes. beth, at whose court the heroine is a lady-in-waiting. asks regarding the present situation in South Africa, The hero is an officer in Sir John Nevil's fleet -a man of action who is also a poet. Ralph Connor's new novel, Glengarry School Days," which supplements "The Man from Glengarry," will be published by the Revell Company at once. Of Mr. Connor's books 750,000 copies have already been sold. The new one may bring the figures up to a round million. Miss Maude Roosevelt, a cousin of the President, and an actress as well of considerable vogue, contributes the monthly complete novel to the Christmas number of Lippincott's Magazine. "The Price of Fame" proves that fiction is by no means the least of Miss Roosevelt's accomplishments. She turns a brilliant searchlight on New York society life, which reveals the good and the bad with infinite skill. The evolution of Helen Mortimer country-bred girl with an imaginative temperament - into an actress of the first rank, through the most treacherous act a man may commit, is the pivotal point in this novel of exciting episodes that ends delightfully. The November McClure's, which appears with a permanent addition of sixteen pages of reading matter, is a striking number. Undoubtedly the most important magazine article of the month is the first instalment of Ida M. Tarbell's long announced "History of the Standard Oil Company," which it is safe to wager will be the most widely-read serial of the year. In the "Birth of an Industry " Miss Tarbell outlines what had been accomplished in the oil regions before the Standard Oil was born. It is a story that finds its parallel only in the history of the discovery of gold in California. It is better reading than a novel. "John Mitchell: The Labor Leader and the Man" is the subject of a sketch in the November Review of Reviews by Frank J. Warne. The president of the United Mine Workers represents the new type of labor leader, as contrasted with the "agitator" of a few years ago. Mr. Mitchell's masterly conduct of the miners' cause has made every one eager to know more about the man and his record than the newspapers have told. This sketch by Mr. Warne well repays a reading. "Is it Peace?" and he answers the question in the negative, contending that no terms of peace can be binding which were signed by men with, so to speak, the knife at their throats. Karl Blind contributes some "Personal Recollections of Virchow." A very attractive feature of the number is a fine poem by Edith Wharton, entitled "Vesalius in Zante," which is a distinct addition to American poetry of the highest class. Wolf von Schierbrand reviews with admiration "Ambassador White's Work" in the United States embassy in Berlin. Samuel J. Barrows examines the laws passed during 1901 by the various legislatures in the country, with a view to ascertain the "Tendencies of American Legislation." R. Leoncavallo, the distinguished Italian composer, tells "How I Wrote 'Pagliacci.'" John Barrett gives the results of his observations during a recent protracted visit to various parts of China, as to "America's Position and Opportunity in China." Chief Rabbi M. Gaster writes of Roumania and the Jews," showing the cruel and inhuman treatment to which his people are subjected in that country. Dr. W. E. Griffis traces the Development of Political Parties in Japan." Lady Henry Somerset narrates "The Story of Our Farm," pointing with gratification to the success of the work done at the industrial colony established by her at Duxhurst in Surrey, for the reclamation of inebriate women; and O. P. Austin completes the account of "The Public Debt of the United States," which he began in the October number of the Review. The autumn issue of the "Law Book Bulletin," published by Little, Brown & Co. of Boston, contains a list of important law books of 1902, brought out by all publishers; well-illustrated articles concerning Daniel Webster, Judge Oliver Wendell Holmes, James B. Thayer, Emory Washburn, Melville Bigelow; together with other interesting reading for lawyers. Captain Mahan's new work, "Retrospect and Prospect," consists of eight studies in international relations, naval and political, and includes his consideration of the effect of the Boer War on the prestige of the British Empire, his consideration of the “Conditions determining the Naval Expansion of the United States," and his tribute to Admiral Sampson. In what respects will the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, to be held in St. Louis a year from next spring, be an improvement on the great World's Fair at Chicago? This is a question which is of interest to every American. The progress in invention and science has been wonderful. The advance in the comprehension of harmonious archi The November number of the North American Review illustrates in a striking way the success with which the editor of that prince of periodicals adjusts it to the prevailing interests of the time. In "A Decade of American Finance," the veteran financier, Jay Cooke, takes the public into his confidence in relation to some monetary happenings of the ten years between 1863 and 1873. W. D. Howells is at his best in his characterization of Emile Zola, his genius and work. J. A. Hobson, a well-known Eng-tecture has been no less so. New methods have lish economist, discusses the probability and the practicability of our having recourse to "Compulsory Arbitration in Industrial Disputes." F. W. Reitz, formerly secretary of State in the Transvaal, been devised for entertaining visitors of all classes. Ex-Senator John M. Thurston contributes an interesting and splendidly illustrated article, touching on all these subjects, to the November Cosmopolitan. Legal Notes. A new volume from the pen of Prof. Simon New- some type and on thick paper, is a setting of the comb, the noted astronomer, is announced for pub- combined artistic and literary workmanship worthy, lication shortly by McClure, Phillips & Co. The it is hoped, of the distinguished artist and writer. title is, "Astronomy for Everybody." The author describes the heavens as the eye of science sees them with much of the same charm of details as the description of a traveler through an unknown land would have. He also explains the uses of various astronomical instruments, and tells how the stars and planets may be studied with profit and interest by the amateur astronomer who has no telescope or observatory. Mrs. Nancy Huston Bank's "Oldfield; a Kentucky Tale of the Last Century," had such a cordial reception in England and America that The Macmillan Company have brought out a holiday edition with illustrations in colors by Pennington. It is a book which lends itself peculiarly well to this kind of illustration. Many readers will remember the charming drawings in color by Thompson which were used in Mrs. Gaskell's " Cranford," issued by the same house. There is a like fitness about these, both books have a very similar charm and delicacy of treatment. Frances Charles, the young Pacific coast author, whose "In the Country God Forgot," published in the spring, attracted considerable attention, has crossed the continent to Boston to consult her publishers in regard to a second novel which she is at work on. "In the Country God Forgot" has been the fourth most popular book among the subscribers of the largest circulating library in the country (the Booklovers') two months in succession. The autumn announcements of Messrs. Little, Brown & Company, Boston, contain thirty new titles and twenty-two new editions. The publication of one of the most important books, "The Speeches and Other Writings of Daniel Webster, Hitherto Uncollected," has been delayed, but a new 18volume subscription edition of Daniel Webster's works is about to be brought out by this firm. There is a steady and strong demand for Mr. Wilson's sterling novel, "The Spenders," published by the Lothrop Publishing Company, of Boston. It was among the six best selling novels in half a dozen leading cities for the month of September, and the October and November sales are still larger. Mr. Kenneth Grahame, whose well-known and well-loved child books for people of all ages have pointed a new way in literature, has been fortunate in securing as illustrator of his "Dream Days" Mr. Maxfield Parrish, whose charming drawings for the illustrated edition of the same author's "The Golden Age" appeared a few years ago. For "Dream Days" Mr. Parrish has executed ten beautiful and characteristic paintings which have been reproduced in photogravure. Title page, end papers, cover design and tail pieces are also the work of the same artist. The book, printed in a clear hand Robert Earl, of Herkimer, N. Y., ex-judge of the New York Court of Appeals, was stricken with paralysis at his apartments in the Palmer House, Herkimer, on Saturday, November 22, and died on December second. The Circuit Court, Sandusky, Ohio, has decided that the husband is the head of the household. In the case of the State against Green it was ruled that even if the wife does own the property, the husband has a right to keep his mother-in-law away from the house, if he believes that she is causing trouble, and to use force if necessary. The court also held that the husband has a right to exclude any visitors. Oscar Green had been fined for assaulting his mother-in-law, Martha Hebbleth Waite, in attempting to put her out of his wife's house. A county treasurer and sureties on his bond are held, in Thomsen v. Hall County (Neb. [57 L. R. A. 303]), to be liable for the loss of money by the failure of a bank in which it was deposited for safe keeping, in good faith, in the belief that the bank was solvent. A note given to reimburse a surety on a fidelity bond for what it has been compelled to pay because of the principal's embezzlement, on condition that the surety would not prosecute the principal for the defalcation, is held, in United States Fidelity and G. Co. v. Charles (Ala. [57 L. R. A. 212]), to be void. A bank falsely certifying that an insurance company has its authorized capital on deposit, for the purpose of inducing the insurance commissioner to grant it a license, is held, in Hindman v. First Nat. Bank (C. C. A. 6th C. [57 L. R. A. 108]), to be liable to persons who are damaged by the purchase of the stock in reliance thereon. The liability of a municipality to damages for permitting a drainage ditch to become obstructed and filled with filth and offal, so that the water flows onto adjoining land and causes sickness in the family of its owner, is held, in Williams v. Greenville (N. C. [57 L. R. A. 207]), to be limited to the injury to the property, and not to include injury by sickness or death, or by loss of time, etc., resulting from sick ness. The cost of a street improvement, is held, in Blochman v. Spreckles (Cal. [57 L. R. A. 213]), not to be lawfully assessable against abutting property, where the contractor is required by the ordinance to sustain all loss or damage arising from the nature of the work to be done under the specifications, since this requirement would tend to increase the cost of the work. Keeping the keys for five days after the expiration of a monthly period, and remaining in possession of the leased property for the purpose of cleaning up rubbish, after the refusal of the landlord to accept the keys at the expiration of the month, are held, in Byxbee v. Blake,Conn. [57 L. R. A. 222]), to render the tenant liable for another month's rent. The owner of an option which matures on a holiday is held, in Page v. Shainwald (N. Y. [57 L. R. A. 173]), to have no right to exercise the option on the succeeding day, where the statutes make no provision for the suspension of general business on the holiday. One whose property is cut off from access to markets and from communication with his fellowmen by neglect of the county commissioners to keep the highway leading to it in repair is held, in Bembe v. Anne Arundel County Comrs. (Md. [57 L. R. A. 279]), to suffer a special injury which will entitle him to maintain an action against the commissioners. The owner of walls left standing after the destruction of the building by fire is held, in Ainsworth v. Lakin (Mass. [57 L. R. A. 132]), to be under no obligation to adjoining property owners to remove or protect the walls, until he has had a reasonable time to make necessary investigation and take such precautions as are required. The exemption of corporations which do not have any special privileges and franchises from the operation of the statute imposing a franchise tax on corporations which do have such franchises or privileges, is held, in Louisville Tobacco Warehouse Co. v. Com. (Ky. [57 L. R. A. 33]), not to make the statute unconstitutional for lack of uniformity. A declaration by a motorman running an electric car, in regard to the cause of the accident, made while the car was still on the body of a child whom it had run down, is held, in Sample v. Consolidated Light and R. Co. (W. Va. [57 L. R. A. 186]), to be | admissible in evidence as a part of the res gestae, in an action for the injury. In an action of tort, if it be impossible, in the nature of the case, to distinguish between the damage arising from the actionable injury, and damage which has another origin, it is held, in Jenkins v. Pennsylvania R. Co. (N. J. [57 L. R. A. | 309]), that the jury should be left to make from the evidence the best estimate in their power as reasonable men, and award to the plaintiff compensatory damages for the actionable injury. The negligent placing of a will so that its existence is not known for several years after testator's death, and the laches of the devisee in not producing it, are heid, in Reid v. Benge (Ky. [57 L. R. A. 253]), not to estop him from asserting his claim against one who has acquired title from the heir, at any time before the right to probate or register the will is barred. The effect of delay in probating wills is discussed in a note to the case. The granting of a reprieve and the fixing of a date for the execution of a convicted criminal, is held, in State v. Heller (N. J. L. [57 L. R. A. 312]), to be by the common law a judicial power, and not to be exercised by the Governor except in so far as it is expressly permitted by the Constitution. The measure of damages for breach of warranty of the capacity of a kiln for drying lumber, when there is no kiln of the agreed capacity on the market, is held, in Huyett-Smith Mfg. Co. v. Gray (N. C. [57 L. R. A. 193]), not to be the difference between the value of the kiln sold and one of the required capacity, but the difference between the value of the apparatus delivered and the contract price. A note to this case reviews the authorities as to damages for breach of contract on sale of article that has no market price. Damages for the death of the child are held, in Lathrope v. Flood (Cal. [57 L. R. A. 215]), not to be allowable in an action by husband and wife for the physician's abandonment of the wife during her confinement. An intention to repudiate the contract, by a buyer of scrap iron who is to pay for each 100 tons as delivered, justifying a recission by the seller, is held, in Johnson Forge Co. v. Leonard (Del. [57 L. R. A. 225]), to be shown where, after receiving 100 tons, he insists on having two or three carloads more delivered before remitting for the 100 tons. A statute requiring payment of damages for injuries to a business through the taking of property for public use, is held, in Earle v. Com. (Mass. [57 L. R. A. 292]), not to be unconstitutional on the ground that taxes cannot be levied for such purpose. An act creating a board of police commissioners which shall have exclusive control of the police officers of the city, naming the first members of the board, prescribing the manner in which their successors shall be chosen, and setting forth their powers and duties, is held, in Americus v. Perry (Ga. [57 L. R. A. 230]), not to be an unconstitutional deprivation of local self-government. The owner of an apartment house is held, in Aldrich v. Metropolitan West Side Elev. R. Co. The establishment and control of a water supply (Ill. [57 L. R. A. 237]), to have no right to recover system, is held, in State ex rel. White v. Barker demages from an electric elevated railroad company (Iowa [57 L. R. A. 244]), to be a matter that perwhose tracks cross the highway within nineteen feet tains to the municipality, and the Legislature is held of his property, where the injury differs from that, to have no power to take the management of the suffered by the general public only in the proximity system away from the appointees of the municipality, of the tracks. and vest it in persons for whose selection it provides. |