EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT

HISTORY. " James Wilson and the Socalled Yazoo Frauds," by M. C. Klingelsmith, University of Pennsylvania Law Review and American Law Register (V. Ivi, p. i). A reply to an anonymous article in the Independent which declared James Wilson a " corruptionist and bribe-giver, the leader of the land sharks of 1795." The author describes this state ment as a slander unsupported by the slightest evidence that Mr. Wilson was anything more than a mere stockholder in the Georgia Land Company, one of several organized to develop the western lands after the formation of the federal government. An examination of the history of these companies, which occasioned a great political struggle in Georgia, shows, to the author's satisfaction, that there is no truth in the charge that the Georgia Legisla ture of 1795 was bribed to make a certain contract for the sale of the " western lands." HISTORY (England). "The Trial of Peers," by L. W. Vernon Harcourt, The Law Quarterly Review (V. xxiv, p. 43). A reply to a recent article by L. Owen Pike, criticising Mr. Vernon Harcourt's assertion that a report in the Year Book was forged to create a precedent for the trial of the Earl of Warwick. HISTORY PENNSYLVANIA COURTS. "The Courts of Pennsylvania in the Eight eenth Century Prior to the Revolution," by William H. Lloyd, Jr., University of Pennsyl vania Law review and American Law Register (V. Ivi, p. i). . • INTERNATIONAL LAW (see Hague Con ference). INTERNATIONAL LAW. " Contraband of War," by the Right Hon. Lord Justice Ken nedy, The Law Quarterly Review (V. xxiv, p. 59). A paper read at the 1907 meeting of the International Law Association. JURISPRUDENCE. "The Need of Law Reform in China," by Charles S. Lobingier, February Review of Reviews (V. xxxvii, p. 218). A brief and highly interesting account of a contemporary legal development of far reaching effect. MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS. "Some Legal aspects of the Chicago Charter Act of 1907," by Ernst Freund, Illinois Law Review (V. ii, p. 4«7)-

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PRACTICE. " The Law of Contempt in India," by Sarat Chandra Lahiri, Madras Law Journal (V. xvii, p. 388). PRACTICE. " The Examination of Wit nesses," by Leo B. Cussen, Commonwealth Law Review (V. v, p. 60). PRACTICE. " The Frequency of Perjury," by William A. Purrington, Columbia Law Re view (V. viii, p. 67). Arguing for greater severity by Bench and Bar in punishing this crime. PROPERTY (England). "Property in Licenses," by Ernest E. Williams, The Law Quarterly Review (V. xxiv, p. 49). PROPERTY (see Conveyancing). SALES. " The Law of Sales in the United States," by Richard Brown, Columbia Law Review (V. viii, p. 82). The author, a Scot tish solicitor, makes interesting comparison between the English Sale of Goods Act and Professor Williston's Draft Sales Act which Commissioners on Uniform State Laws have recommended for adoption by the legislatures. . TORTS. "The Torts of Conspiracy," by Francis M. Burdick, Columbia Law Review (V. viii, p. 117). Briefly reviewing some recent additions to the cases and literature bearing on the controversy whether con spiracy is a substantive cause of tort action. TORTS. "Contributory Negligence," by Francis H. Bohlen, Harvard Law Review (V. xxi, p. 233). A careful examination of the subject ends as follows: "To sum up, it would appear that the de fense of contributory negligence is not a mere application to the particular facts upon which a case arises of the rules governing proximity of causation, or of the right of indemnity or contribution between wrong doers, or the vol untary assumption of a known risk, but is itself a distinct and separate exhibition of the individualism of the common law, which ex hibits itself in other fields in the doctrines of consent and voluntary assumption of risk. It debars from recovery, even from an admit tedly negligent defendant, one whose own social •misconduct has been a concurring prox imate cause of his harm. In many jurisdictions there has persisted, in this one particular connection, that conception of legal as dis