48 man's article on " Raphael," accompanied by Mr. Cole's engraving of " The Madonna of the Gold finch," and three other examples of Raphael's work. Relating to the season also are four stories : "The Christmas Shadrach," by Frank R. Stock ton; " A Christmas Fantasy, with a Moral," by Thomas Bailey Aldrich; " Wulfy : A Waif," a Christmas sketch from life, by Miss Vida D. Scudder; and " The Rapture of Hetty," by Mrs. Mary Hallock Foote, the last dealing with a Christmas dance on the frontier, and illustrated by a full-page drawing by the writer.
BOOK NOTICES. Lawyers' Reports Annotated, Book XII. All current cases of general value and importance. Decided in the United States, State, and Terri torial Courts, with full annotation by Robert Desty. The Lawyers' Co-operative Publishing Company, Rochester, N. Y., 1891. $5.00 net. Our readers have by this time been made fully aware of our opinion as to the merits of these Re ports; and this present volume calls for no detraction from, nor addition to, the praise we have heretofore given them. Mr. Desty's annotations continue to be as valuable as ever. The American State Reports, containing the cases of general value and authority decided in the Courts of Last Resort of the several States. Selected, reported, and annotated by A. C. Freeman. Vol. XXI. Bancroft-Whitney Company, San Francisco, 189 1. $4.00. This last volume of this admirable series is in every way equal to its predecessors. Decisions are reported from the Courts of California, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Sunday. Legal Aspects of the First Day of the Week. By James T. Ringgold, of the Baltimore Bar. Frederick D. Linn & Co., Jer sey City, N. J., 1891. Law sheep. $3.50. The laws regulating the Observance of the First Day of the Week are wholly statutory; and this vol ume of Mr. Ringgold's gives in a compact form the Statutes of the several States relating to the subject,
and cites many interesting and valuable decisions arising under them. To these is added a Chrono logical View of the Decrees of Councils, Emperors, etc., respecting Sunday observance. The book is a very readable one, and should be serviceable to the profession. General Digest of the Decisions of the Prin cipal Courts in the United States, England, and Canada. Refers to all reports, official and unofficial, first published during the year ending September, 1891. Annual, being Vol. VI. of the series. Prepared and published by the Lawyers' Co-operative Publishing Company, Rochester, N. Y., 1891. This latest volume of the admirable series of Di gests published by the Lawyers' Co-operative Publish ing Company, contains some 2,200 pages, embodying eighteen thousand or more decisions reported since the last digest was issued An examination of its contents brings one to a realizing sense of the im mense amount of work done by American and Eng lish judges in a single year, and one is disposed to question the desirability of preserving every decision rendered by all these interpreters, good, bad, and in different, of our laws. The fault is in the system of reporting, and not in the makers of the digest. As long as every case decided goes into the reports, of course it is necessary that a complete digest should contain a reference thereto; but we venture the asser tion that all of our State Reports might be cut down at least one half in volume, and still retain all that is of real value. Of this Digest as a digest, we have only words of the highest commendation. It leaves nothing to be desired. Supplement to the Revised Statutes of the United States. Prepared and edited by Wil liam A. Richardson, Chief-Justice of the Court of Claims. Government Printing Office, Wash ington, 1891. This work covers the Statutes, general and perma nent in their nature, passed after the revised Statutes, and in force at the end of the Fifty-first Congress. The high reputation of the Editor is a certain guar antee that the work has been thoroughly and effi ciently done; and every lawyer having business in the United States Courts will find this book indis pensable. A new feature has been introduced of referring in the margin where acts are noted to both the previous and the subsequent pages of the volume. This adds vastly to the value and con venience of the work.
