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volumes, this treatise accentuates a growing tendency that is likely to ren der text-books of large bulk, running into many volumes, a commonplace phenomenon of the legal literature of the near future. Just as no human institution springs into existence fullgrown, but requires a period of long and slow development for its perfec tion, so a great treatise on any large subject in American law can be created only as the result of labor extending over a considerable length of time. The foundations once firmly laid, the super structure rises slowly in imitation of the gradual growth of the voluminous mass of contemporary case-law from which it draws its materials. A great law book which is to retain its vitality must therefore be in a continuous state of development, and it is difficult to see how such expansion can ever be arrested. The profession will naturally soon accus tom itself to the tendency, and learn to look for its law in bulky and compli cated treatises, but in time, perhaps, no remedy but the drastic one of legislative codification will be in sight to afford any relief from the unendurable bur den of this ponderous body of exposi tory writings. The new edition of Thompson on Trials follows the plan of the former edition in covering all stages of a trial, up to the filing of exceptions, but the subjects of impaneling the jury and examination of witnesses are more clearly and comprehensively treated than be fore, the section on cross-examination having been very fully elaborated. In addition, the origin and functions of the grand jury, and causes appealable, have been treated in new chapters. The entire volume given up to forms of instructions constitutes a prominent and valuable feature of the new edition, and will be of much aid in furnishing a
ready clue to the proper instructions for a given set of facts. The work, as revised and enlarged, forms an inval uable guide to the practitioner in the conduct of all stages of a trial of issues of fact. BLACK'S JUDICIAL PRECEDENTS Handbook on the Law of Judicial Precedents, or the Science of Case Law. By Henry Campbell Black, M.A., author of Black's Law Dictionary, and of Treatises on Judgments, Constitutional Law, Statutory Construction, etc. Hornbook Se ries. West Publishing Co., St. Paul, Minn. Pp. xv, 701 + 36 (cases cited) (index). ($3.75 delivered.)
AS THE first comprehensive work in a new field, Black's Judicial Precedents is certain to furnish a ser vice co-extensive with the thoroughness and ability with which so important a topic has been covered. Many of the principles applicable to the degree of authority to be imputed to judicial precedents, under varying circumstances, are familiar to every lawyer, having been absorbed unconsciously as part of his legal education, without having been actually made a subject of instruc tion, so that a large proportion of the propositions laid down are sufficiently obvious withqut need of a text-book. At the same time, it may sometimes be found useful to be able to refer to the forgotten sources of familiar rules, and the researches of the author among the authorities have surely been compre hensive and laborious. As a result of his industry, we have a searching exposi tion of the numerous qualifications to which rules governing the authority of precedent are subject, and of the manner of their application to sets of circumstances which it may never have fallen to the lot of the practitioner to consider, but concerning which he may at any moment find himself in need of guidance. Such topics as the authority of federal decisions in state courts, and
