EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT cial world which rests on neither a just nor a sound basis. If existing conditions are to be improved, it must be by intelligent amend ment of our corporation laws. An exact standard by which to measure proposed legis lation is not to he hoped for; but in a clear understanding of what a corporation really is we may find both guidance and authority for action." DIGEST. Digest of the United States Re ports (V. i to 186 inclusive). Table of cases, table of citations of all non-federal cases cited by the Supreme Court. 3 vols. By Walter Maline Rose, Bancroft-Whitney Co., San Francisco, 1903. The profession welcomes a comprehensive digest of the Supreme Court decisions in place of the antiquated and ill arranged works previously used. These volumes classify decisions intelligently and conveniently and, as far as the reviewer has been able to discover, accurately and completely. DIPLOMACY. " Spanish-American Diplo matic Relations Preceding the War of 1898," by Horace Edgar Flack, Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, 1906. EQUITY. Pomeroy's " Equity Jurispru dence " by John Norton Pomeroy, Jr. Third Edition in four volumes supplemented by a treatise on equitable remedies in two volumes, price $36.00, Bancroft-Whitney Company, San Francisco, 1905. The new edition of this important work consists of the old text and notes with the addition of a new series of notes giving the new citations well arranged in alphabetical order with reference to the state jurisdictions and identified by brief references to the distinguishing facts of each in most instances. These notes also contain discussions of many subjects which were omitted or inadequately treated in the earlier editions, such as " spendthrift trusts " and "the following of mingled trust funds." These notes are excellently done and in an entirely new work would properly come in the text. The notes include valuable refer ences to authorities not often cited such as notes of the Harvard Law Review. The last two vol umes treating of Equitable Remedies are en tirely new. They are an expansion of the text of the fourth volume, which in the original edition treated very briefly such important subjects as injunctions and receivers, the
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cases on which have multiplied tremendously since the original work was completed. The point of view of the author is still that of an annotator of his father's text. The work, however, is careful, and though somewhat less ambitious in style than the work of the father will perhaps prove fully as useful to the practitioner. The edition is a great improve ment on the earlier ones which stems sufficient praise. EQUITY version).
(See
Property,
Equitable
Con
EXECUTORS. In the March Michigan Law Review (V. iv, p. 349) under the title "An Inroad upon Fiduciary Integrity," Edson R. Sunderland discusses the question whether an administrator or executor should be permitted to show that he cannot collect a debt due from himself. He thinks that the situation clearly falls within the general prin ciple " that no person shall be permitted to occupy a position of trust and confidence, who at the same time is clearly subject to in fluences hostile to a faithful performance of his trust." As a fact, however, there is hope less conflict among the cases upon this ques tion. In some decisions it has been stated that insolvency on the part of the adminis trator would relieve the sureties on his official bond. "Three states, Nebraska, Michigan, and Kentucky, are thus seen to have adopted the qualified rule of liability, within the last four years. The only reason, independent of statute, suggested in any case which advo cates that view, is the hardship upon the sxireties. This does not seem a sufficient justifi cation for relaxing the safeguards which the law deems so essential for the preservation of the trust relation. The principles of equity prescribe, in the interests of an enlightened public policy, that no person, who occupies a position of trust and confidence, shall be per mitted at the same time to sustain such per sonal relations to the subject matter of the trust, that self-interest can become a direct competitor with the most scrupulous fidelity. Any departure frorn this wholesome principle is too likely to open the door to fraud." HISTORY. " The Chancellors of the Nine teenth Century Considered as Law Reformers,"' by E. K. Blyth, Canadian Law Review (V. v, p. 96).
