256
The Green Bag
lawyers, than the opportunity to delve in a subject which the investigations of such gifted expositors as Pollock, Maitland, Vinogradoff, and Holdsworth have made anything but dull. Many a lawyer has a historical curiosity which he is painfully forbidden to indulge, by the pressure of more insistent interests, and to such this book will be a boon by reason of its rapid yet wonderfully illuminating survey of the vicissitudes of the common law, in its vacillation between royal prerogative, baronial privilege, and popular Germanic tradi tion, in its wavering struggle to perfect itself as an instrument of justice, in its attempts, not wholly successful, to remedy archaic formalism by amateurish and piecemeal reforms, and in its adaptation to the needs of a changing social and economic environment, ac complished with little violence to a mediaeval structure fairly capable of adjustment to modern conditions.1
LAW FOR THE FARMER Law for the American Farmer. By John B. Green of the New York bar. Rural Science Series. Macmillan Company. New York. Pp. 368 + index 70. ($1.50 net.)
THIS volume is not intended as a text-book for lawyers; its aim is rather to give to those practically engaged in farming an idea of their legal rights and liabilities. As one examines the list of subjects treated, it is surprising to notice how wide a range of legal subjects are involved in agricultural pursuits. Land titles, water rights, sales of per sonal property, common carriers, con tracts, health regulations, police power of municipalities, factors and commission merchants are a few of the many topics discussed. The work very sensibly limits its scope "to enable the farmer 1 For a short summary of the lectures, see 23 Grem Bag 626.
to recognize his rights and duties when a controversy likely to ripen in a litiga tion is impending, and to act in such a wise that he shall not unwittingly sacrifice the first or neglect the second to his injury and the embarrassment of counsel whose services he may finally retain." The treatment is directed to present each topic so as to be intelligible and helpful to the layman rather than to expound disputed or difficult law points. Yet at the same time, the book will prove useful to lawyers as a fingerpost, pointing the way to decisions and dis cussions that might otherwise prove elusive. The style is readable, and the sane common sense of the author is nowhere better displayed than in the grouping of topics so that each heading is adequately presented. The farmer of today must be something of a business man as well as a tiller of the soil, and such a book as this fits him to guard his rights and avoid many difficulties that he must face. It is rightly entitled to an important place in "A Rural Science Series." LEE M. FRIEDMAN. ASHLEY'S LAW OF CONTRACTS The Law of Contracts. By Clarence D. Ashley, Professor of Law and Dean of the Faculty of Law in New York University. Little, Brown & Co., Boston. Pp. 292 + 18 (index). ($3 net.)
DEAN ASHLEY'S short work on contracts takes us back to our law school days. It assumes a working knowledge of Raffles v. Wichelhaus, Yasser v. Camp, Norrington v. Wright, and many other cases with which the professors are accustomed to train or strain the intellect of the law student. We are glad to see a book of this sort written by one who has long taught law under the "case system." When I was in law school the "case system" was
