Review of Periodicals

of judicial legislation, vigorously criticized Blackstone's theory as artificial and fictitious. Although Jessel, M.R., admitted that the equity judges had from time to time invented the rules of equity, the common law judges have steadfastly reiterated the Blackstone theory. But its consequence, that an over ruling decision must operate retrospectively, by reason of hardship and mischief in the impairment of contract and property rights acquired in reliance on the earlier decision, has had these results: (1) it has furnished compelling reason for adherence to the doc trine of stare decisis; (2) it has led courts when constrained to overrule their decisions, while professing allegiance to the orthodox Blackstone theory, to depart widely from a logical acceptance of it." Theatres. "Some Cases in the Law Re lating to Theatres." By G. Addison Smith. 34 Law Magazine and Review 442 (Aug.). "The vexed question as to whether, if one of the audience leave his seat, can he retain it by placing an article on it, although it is not reserved—i.e., in the sense of its being booked—has been decided in a recent case in the affirmative by the magistrate at the Lam beth Police Court. The defendant entered the theatre some hours after the performance had commenced, and claimed two unreserved seats that had been temporarily left by the original occupants, who had left a coat, and also a lady, in charge of the seats. The defendant in the case refused to move when requested to, on the ground that the seats were not numbered and reserved, and the learned magistrate ruled that it was an unwritten law with all Englishmen that the first occupiers of seats under such circumstances were fully entitled to retain them." Treaties. "Treaty by Declaration." By Th. B[aty]. In "Current Notes on Inter national Law." 34 Law Magazine and Re view 471 (Aug.). "An ingenious method of concluding an international agreement with the United States of North America, without consulting the Senate, was hit upon by Mr. Root and Lord Takahira a few months ago. Writers on the law of contract have been accustomed, since contracts were first studied, to lay stress on the 'union of wills' and the fact of psycho logical agreement. If they are right, simul taneous identic declarations are very hard to distinguish from contracts, and simultaneous international declarations are equally hard to distinguish from treaties. This JaponicoAmerican case is therefore a striking demontration of the inadequacy of the 'consensus in idem' theory. There is a perfect consensus in idem. And it is at any rate plausibly represented that there is no contract." Uniformity of Laws. See Corporations. Universities. "The Law of the Universities; IX, The University Courts." By James Wil

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liams, D.C.L., LL.D. 34 Law Magazine and Review 407 (Aug.). "The jurisdiction of the Chancellor's court is protected by the doctrine of conusance of Eleas. . . . Conusance is still competent, aving been acknowledged by the King's Bench Division as lately as 1886. ... A good illustration of the working of the claim is afforded by a seventeenth century case. Plaintiff filed a bill to have a bond for j£l00 delivered up, the sum secured having been paid. Answer that the defendant was a Doctor of Law resident in Oxford. The Chancellor certified and demanded conusance. The court dismissed the bill." Miscellaneous Articles of Interest to the Legal Profession Baconian Controversy. "Francis Bacon as a Poet." By Sir Edward Sullivan. Nine teenth Century, v. 66, p. 267 (Aug.). "I have referred in an earlier article to Shakspere's long and closely reasoned exposi tion of the Law Salique in 'Henry V,' i. 2, so strongly relied on by 'Baconians as show ing the playwright's lawyer-like knowledge of an out-of-the-way legal subject, which is taken verbatim from the pages of Holinshed's 'Chronicles.' How can we imagine Bacon, profound lawyer that he was and author of such learned legal treatises as 'The Jurisdic tion of the Marches,' the 'Argument in the Case of the Post-Nati of Scotland,' and the 'Maxims of the Law,' going to Holinshed for his law, and taking it absolutely word for word (including an historical blunder) with out the addition of a single new light from himself on the constitutional jurisprudence involved in so important a case?" "A Last Word to Mr. George Greenwood." By Rev. Canon H. C. Beeching. Nineteenth Century, v. 66, p. 283 (Aug.). "Mr. Greenwood did not call his book 'Loose Meditations on the Facts of Shakspere's Life,' but 'The Shakspere Problem Restated,' and I took for granted that his reflections were directed to prove his case." Biography. Blakeley. "District Attorney William Augustus Blakeley." Hampton's, v. 23, no. 3, p. 403 (Sept.). In Pittsburgh, we are told— "People have been asking one another whether District Attorney William Augustus Blakeley is destined to be another Folk or Heney as a municipal graft inquisitor. In less than seven months he has had sentenced seven men, and he declares that he is going the limit." Calvin. "John Calvin, Lawyer." By Rev. Henry Collin Minton, D.D., LL.D. North American Review, v. 190, p. 212 (Aug.). "Calvin's view of everything else took its cue from his view of God, and that view was