1860, he was called by President Buchanan to take the position of Attorney-General. On leaving the cabinet, at the expiration of Mr. Buchanan's term, he resumed the practice of his profession; but, on the 20th of January, 1862, accepted the position of Secretary of War, tendered him by President Lincoln. His history since that time is well known to the country.

ADMITTED TO THE BAR.

At the fourth general terms of the Supreme Court, held in the several judicial district of the State, the following named gentlemen were admitted to practice as attorneys and counsellors at law in all the courts of the State:

First District - Albert H. Ammidown, Frank H. Angel, George D. A. Armstrong, Louis Aubacher, Albert A. Abbott, Wm. C. Bailey, Godard Bailey, Wm. J. Bell, Arthur C. Butts, Butler G. Bixby, Hiram S. Blunt, Wm. H. Brown, John Contrell, Fredric Chase, Joseph B. Coe, John Charlton, Timothy I. Campbell, Chas. M. Clancy, Maurice S. De Vries, Willett Denike, Jr., Wm. A. Dunham, Henry S. Farley, Ashbel P. Fitch, Abraham Feuchtwanger, J. Henry Fowler, Hiram B. Ferguson, William J. Finnigan, Richard G. Fowles, Edward I. Fennell, Wm. Henry Gardiner, Andrew Gilhooly, Charles S. Gage, Isaac Heyman, Germain Hauschel, Lovell Hall, James O. Hoyt, George H. Hardie, Gerson N. Herman, Emanuel B. Hart, Judson Jarvis, Fredk. H. Kenny, Frank J. Kimball, Herman Kobbe, Samuel Kalisch, Wm. Korff, Isaiah Keyser, James H. Lawrence, Frank R. Lawrence, Louis C. Lewis, Wm. H. Lyon, Elias G. Levy, John D. Lindon, John McGinn, M. J. McKenna, James McConnell, David McClure, Peter Mitchell, James Maxwell, Allan McDonald, John E. McGowan, George McKechnie, James H. Matthaer, Frank H. Nugent, John H. O'Brien, Charles H. Pierson, Merritt A. Potter, George W. Poucher, Simon Kaufman, Obed H. Sanderson, Albert M. Schuck, George J. Smith, Lewis Sanders, Robert Sutherland, James G. Sinclair, Sergeant P. Stearns, Richard A. Storrs, Edward C. Sterling, Wm. Sinclair, Jr., Stephen C. Lynes, John J. Tindale, Louis C. Waehner, Abraham Webb, Jesse H. Whitaker, Henry T. Wing, George S. Wilkes, Matthew P. Breen, John C. McGuire, Benjamin H. Yard.

Second District-William S. Palmer, Patrick Keady, Chalmers M. Bensom, Mayer Butzel, Joseph H. Bartlett, Samuel W. Clifford, Frank Crooke, Cornelius J. O'Donnell, Henry C. Duryea, John C. Donahue, Thomas Douglass, Levi B. Faron, Garret J. Garretson, Rudolph Herr, Edward F. Hart, Reynold Hunt, John Linsky, Eli Long, James H. McKenny, J. Sprague Meeker, Harrison W. Nanny, Nicholas E. O'Reilly, Charles A. Quitson, Eugene C. Roe, Whitehead H. Van Wyck, Henry Wilson, Jr. Bernard J. York, Thomas H. York.

Third District-John B. Grant, Schoharie; F. M. Sprague, Hudson; John M. Mattice, Schoharie; Peyton F. Miller, Hudson; J. M. Wagner, Wallace Westbrook, Samuel W. Buck, Kingston; Wallace Bruce, Hudson; Geo. P. Lawton, Fred. W. Brown, Thomas J. Guy, Clayton M. Parke, Hugh Maguire, Troy.

Fourth District-Charles A. Benton, Watertown; Robert B. Fish, Fultonville; Dexter A. Johnson, Gouverneur; James W. Sheehy, Port Byron; John W. Stone, Ogdensburgh; George B. Shepherd, Ogdensburgh.

Fifth District-Johnson C. Babcock, Sandy Creek, Oswego county, admitted by certificate from Supreme Court of California; Elbridge R. Adams, Lowville, Lewis county; Edwin S. Butterfield, Syracuse; Byron A. Benedict, Syracuse; Emmit W. Blanchard, Sandy Creek, Oswego county; William H. Carran, Utica; Joseph D. Denison, Syracuse; H. Clay Hawes,

LEGAL NEWS.

Russia is about to introduce trial by jury as a new pledge of her progress in civilization.

The Hon. Henry M. Waite, formerly Chief Justice of the State of Connecticut, died at Lyme, Conn., last month.

Norman L. Freeman has been reappointed Supreme Court Reporter of the State of Illinois for the term of six years.

Judge Isaac Davis, of Sacramento, is dead. He was a pioneer Californian, and a prominent Mason and Odd Fellow.

The Quebec Court of Appeals has decided against a plaintiff who claimed $400 deposited as a stake on an election bet.

The Attorney-General of Louisiana has obtained judgment against the State Treasurer for $16,000 for alleged services in collecting the special tax of 1868. He claimed $125,000.

An Ex-Judge of Probate in Oxford county, Me., has been indicted by the grand jury for fraudulently altering a deed of real estate. He was arraigned, pleaded not guilty, and was admitted to bail in $3,000.

Judge Barnard, of New York, recently refused to appoint a man committee of a lunatic's estate, on the ground that he had been heard, some time previous, to call the judge a scoundrel. The judge does not mean to encourage "contempt of court."

The following named gentlemen were recently admitted to the bar of the United States Supreme Court: E. D. Wheeler, of San Francisco, Wm. T. Wallace, of San Jose, Cal.; Robinson Toff, of Memphis, Tenn.; Eugene M. Wilson, of Minneapolis, Minn.; Albert Todd, of St. Louis, Mo. and C. P. Shaw, of New York city.

The Hon. Samuel Smith Nicholas died in Louisville, Ky., on the 11th ult. He was made Judge of the Court of Appeals in Louisville in 1831; was Chancellor of the city, and a Member of the State Legislature for many years. As an appropriate close to his official labors, he assisted in the preparation of the Revised Code of Kentucky, to which he contributed some of its best features.

Judge Hall, of the United States District Court, recently decided that the making of a general assignment, without preferences, by an insolvent debtor, was an act of bankruptcy; that an express denial, under oath, of an intent to defeat or delay the operations of the Bankrupt act, by making such assignment, was of no avail, as against the conclusive legal inference of such intent, arising out of the admission of the execution of such assignment.

Secretary Nelson says that it is not his fault that the law-publishers' edition of the State laws is delivered by the printer before the State edition is delivered, and he adds: "Where publishers inform me that the work for which $1.74 per signature is paid is worth from $14 to $15 per signature (which difference the State contractor undoubtedly makes up in his dealings with the law publishers and booksellers, and which falls severely upon the legal profession), very little good would be accomplished by declaring the State contract broken for failure to deliver within proper time, as the State would then be obliged to pay higher rates."

Governor Hoffman has appointed Charles H. Van Brunt, Esq., Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in the city of New York, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the elevation of Judge Brady to the Supreme Bench. The position was tendered in turn to exJudge Bosworth and Hamilton W. Robinson, Esq., but both these gentlemen declined. Mr. Van Brunt was formerly the law partner of Governor Hoffman. He afterwards formed professional connections with the present Comptroller, Hon. Wm. F. Allen. He is still a young man, being about thirty-five years old. Judge Van Brunt brings to the discharge of his new duties a clear judicial mind, enriched by much study and practice of his profession.

An act of the last Congress provided for the appointment of an additional Circuit Judge for each of the nine existing Circuits. The Senate has confirmed the following nominations made in pursuance of this act: George F. Shepley of Maine, for the First Circuit; Lewis B. Woodruff of New York, for the Second Circuit; Wm. McKennan of Pennsylvania, for the Third Circuit; Wm. B. Woods of Alabama, for the Fifth Circuit; S. L. Withey of Michigan, for the Sixth Circuit; Thomas Drummond of Illinois, for the Seventh Circuit; John T. Dillon of Iowa, for the Eighth Circuit. The nomination of George A. Pearre of Maryland, for the Fourth Circuit, is understood to have met with some unfavorable action in the nature of a postponement, but is still pending, together with that of Lorenzo Sawyer of California, for the Ninth Circuit.

BOOK NOTICES.

A General Digest of the Law of Corporations: presenting the American adjudications upon Public and Private Corporations of every kind, with a full selection of Engfish cases: By Benj. Vaughan Abbott and Austín Abbott. New York: Baker, Voorhis & Co., 1869.

To ex

In these days of almost innumerable reports, the author of a good Digest may justly be regarded as a benefactor of the profession. It is true, as Montesquieu says, that he is "only a collector of other peoples' stuff;" but he is none the less entitled to rank along side of the commentator and treatise writer. tract the exact points decided by the courts from the mass of verbiage in which they are too frequently involved; to state these points accurately and intelligibly, and to arrange the subjects in such a manner that any given principle may be turned to at once, require peculiar talents, and we know of none who can lay claim to such talents with more justice than the Messrs. Abbott. Their "New York Digest" has been for years one of the most popular works extant with the profession of the State, and their "National Digest," though but recently issued, has become a standard authority all over the country. A careful examination of the present work has satisfied us that it is in no wise calculated to detract from the high reputation of its authors.

The design of the work may be gathered from the following extract from the Preface: "The object throughout is to give to the practitioner in each State a knowledge of whatever has been established as law throughout England or America which can elucidate or illustrate the American law of Corporations."

The value of such a work will not be questioned. Were it possible for a lawyer of the early days of the Republic to wake up from his half century's sleep, nothing would astonish him more than the present number and magni

tude of incorporated bodies and the variety and multiplicity of litigations growing out of their affairs. Fifty years ago a Digest on the law of corporations would have been a small and profitless work; but to-day a brief syllabus of the more important decisions can only be compressed within the space of one thousand pages, and the work has become an essential to almost every practicing lawyer.

We have had occasion to subject Messrs. Abbott's book to the only test that can disclose the merits or demerits of a Digest-that of use-and have found it accurate, reliable and well arranged. In making their abstracts they have been very successful in preserving a golden mean between the fullness of a report and the meagreness of an index; and they have eschewed entirely, as all law writers should, the head notes of the reporters. They have very wisely pursued the plan of classifying decisions under general topics, rather than under the head of a particular kind of corporations, and have thus enabled us to trace out those principles which govern corporations in general. At the end of the volume is a full and carefully prepared Table of Cases, in which is given briefly the subject to which each decision relates. While the work may be considered as somewhat defective in the matter of cross references, it is on the whole eminently adapted to meet the wants of the profession, so far as relates to the law of corporations.

Statutes at Large of the State of New York: comprising the Revised Statutes as they existed on the first day of January, 1867, and all the general Public Statutes then in force, with reference to the Judicial decisions and the material notes of the revisers in their report to the Legislature. By John W. Edmonds. Second edition. Vol. 1. Containing the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State; an introduction; an analysis of all the Statutes, and part first and chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4, of part second of the Revised Statutes. Published by Weed, Parsons & Company. 1869.

We know of no one who has more satisfactorily discharged the debt which Lord Bacon said every man owes to his profession than the learned editor of the above work, and it is gratifying to know that the profession have so far appreciated his efforts in their behalf as to demand a second edition of the Statutes at Large so soon after the publication of the first.

We have used Judge Edmond's edition of the Statutes since its first publication, and speak from experience, when we say that it is admirably planned and ably executed, and far superior to any other edition ever published in the State.

There was always much that was unsatisfactory and objectionable in the editions in use prior to the work of Judge Edmonds. They were gotten up on a plan that was radically wrong. The editors attempted to incorporate into the text of the Revised Statute not only the amendments made thereto, but also the general statutes which had never been enacted by the Legislature as a part of the Revised Statutes. The result was chaos and confusion. Acts were divided and subdivided, and a part put in one place and another part in another place, and, in many instances, entire sections were omitted. In many instances, also, the compilers assumed to themselves the functions of the Legislature or the courts, by omitting, as repealed, acts which were not repealed by direct legislation. No one could learn from those editions what the law really was; no careful practitioner felt justified in trusting to the opinion of the editors as to the real purport of a statute, or as to the effect of a subsequent statute upon a previous one, and a reference to the original act became necessary in all cases of any importance.

There are no faults of this character in the work before us. Judge Edmonds' plan is simple and natural, and the only one on which the statutes of this or any other Stato can be successfully compiled. He has given, in the first two volumes, the Revised Statutes by themselves just as they stood when the work left his hands, divided as in the original edition, and in conformity with the original pag. ing. The General Statutes he has grouped together in the

subsequent volumes, so that the acts on any given subject are brought together in their chronological order. Wherever any statute, either Revised or general, is in any wise affected by any other statute, a reference is given, thus enabling one to readily trace the course of legislation on any subject, and to obtain an accurate knowledge of the existing law. Another feature of immense value to the profession is the citation of decisions bearing on the several statutes in connection with the statutes themselves. The editor assures us that he has endeavored to cite every case bearing upon the statutes, and so far as we have been able to examine, he has been mainly successful. The revisers' notes have also been given.

The edition before us contains all the statutes, both Revised and general, as they were on the first day of Januuary, 1867. Also a reference to all the adjudications up to the same time. A seventh volume is in preparation, and will shortly appear, which will contain the laws of 1867, 1868, 1869, and 1870.

This work will prove extremely useful to all officers to whom is intrusted the execution of the laws of the State, but to the members of the legal profession, who are compelled almost hourly to consult the statutes, it is indispensable.

The Supervisor's Manual: containing the Laws relating to the powers and duties of Supervisors, both in their individual and collective capacities, with an Appendix of Forms. By Isaac Grant Thompson, author of "The Law and Practice of Provisional Remedies," "Law of Highways," etc. Second Edition. Albany: John D. Parsons, Jr. 1869.

We welcome this book as likely to supply a need which has long been felt, both by the profession and by those officers to whose duties it relates. No systematic and well-directed attempt has ever before been made to bring together and arrange the numerous statutes and decisions pertaining to this important class of officers. Supervisors and lawyers have alike been left to search the statutes to ascertain the rights and duties of these "county legislators." The work before us will save a great amount of unprofitable and uncertain labor in this respect. It compresses within the space of three hundred pages the whole duty of the supervisor as laid down by the Legislature and the courts. The arrangement is such as to render a reference to any particular question or statute a matter of the greatest ease. Beginning with the election and qualification of a supervisor, it presents his duties individually as an officer of the town, including his duties as a town auditor and a county canvasser. Then follow the duties and powers of the supervisors acting collectively as a board. The decisions have been carefully examined, and wherever the courts have explained or modified a statute such explanation or modification is given.

The work cannot fail to prove of value to the profession, especially to those members of it living outside of the large cities, who are continually interrogated on the subjects to which it relates.

The Law and Practice in Bankruptcy: The Bankrupt Law of the United States, with all the amendments and the rules and forms as amended, together with notes referring to all decisions reported to October 1, 1869, to which is added the rules of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. Annotated by Orlando F. Bump, Register in Bankruptcy. New York: Baker, Voorhis & Co. 1869. This is the second edition of Mr. Bump's little book the first edition of which was published about a year ago. That one edition of a work of this character has been so soon exhausted, is of itself a very satisfactory proof of its value.

Mr. Bump is a Register in Bankruptcy and brings to the work a knowledge gained by extensive experience of what is needed by the profession. He has given especial attention to the practice in bankrupt courts—a subject of the greatest importance to the profession, and one on which most bankrupt manuals are defective. The rules and proceedings in those courts are so unlike the ordinary rules and proceedings in a State court that a practitioner therein, unless he has had great experience, feels out of his element, and needs a manual of practice to

guide him through the labyrinth of regulations and technicalities. The points decided by the courts have been arranged under the sections construed and have been fully and accurately stated. Mr. Bump's work is the best we have seen on the subject, and will greatly facilitate the labors of the practitioner in the bankrupt courts. It is a marvel of beauty in its typography, and is well bound.

General and Public Statute Laws of the several States of the United States relating to Fire, Inland-Navigation, Marine, Life, and Health and Casualty Insurance Companies, and Miscellaneous Laws pertaining to Insurance: Edited by George Wolford, LL. B., Deputy Superintendent of the New York Insurance Department, and one of the editors of the Fifth Edition of the Revised Statutes of the State of New York. Albany: Weed, Parsons & Company. 1870.

Mr. Wolford has brought together, within the compass of a single volume, all the existing insurance laws of the several States, together with the general statutes relating to insurance enacted by the Congress of the United States. These laws are given in extenso, a chapter being devoted to each State, and the States are arranged in alphabetical order. That the work will be of great service to the legal profession there can be no doubt. The subject of insurance has made remarkable progress during the last ten years. Companies, almost without number, have been formed and have established their agencies in every State in the Union. As a very natural result litigations arising from their transactions have become frequent-litigations the determination of which often depends on the construction of the insurance statutes of States other than those in which they arise. In all such cases the present volume will lessen the labor of both the bench and bar, by presenting in a compact and convenient form what otherwise might require hours to find. There is another way in which, we trust, Mr. Wolford's compilation will prove valuable, and that is in suggesting, by comparison, improvements on our present insurance system. In many respects the legislatures of several of the States have approved themselves bunglers in the construction of statutes relating to insurance, and a careful examination and comparison of the laws of other States will aid them materially in the correction of their errors.

One of the most commendable features of Mr. Wolford's book is its index, which covers over two hundred pages, and which has evidently been prepared with great care and labor. It will prove invaluable in facilitating reference to the statutes contained in the work. Copious notes and citations of adjudicated cases have also been given in the margin in connection with the statute to which they relate.

A Treatise on the Law of Negligence: By Thomas G. Sherman and Amasa A. Redfield. New York: Baker, Voorhis & Co. 1869.

We know of few books likely to prove of more value to the profession than this. The increase of actions grounded in negligence, during the last ten years, has been remarkable, and has created a demand for a separate treatise on the subject, in which should be gathered and classified the principles decided both by the American and English courts. This treatise of Messrs. Sherman & Redfield will meet that demand. They have cited upwards of four thousand adjudged cases, embracing all the American and English, and most of the Scotch and Irish decisions on that subject.

The work is written in a style both clear and concise, and the arrangement of topics and collocution of principles are logical and convenient.

The first three chapters are devoted to a consideration of the general subject of Negligence, the Degrees of Negligence, and Contributory Negligence. Then follows a consideration of the various relations of parties to each other, embraced in chapters on Parties to Action, Liability of Masters for Acts of Servants, of Masters to Servants, of Servants to third parties, of Municipal corporations, of Public officers, of Attorneys and Counsellors at Law,

etc. The other chapters treat of Animals, Bankers and Bill collectors, Bridges, Canals, Carriers of Passengers, Clerks and other Recording Officers, Injuries causing Death, Driving and Riding, Fences, Fire, Gas companies, Highways, Notaries Public, Physicians and Surgeons, construction and maintenance of Railroads, Railroad Fences, General Management of Railroads, Real Property, Sheriffs, Telegraphs, Water-courses, Miscellaneous cases, and Measure of Damages in actions for Negligence-subjects sufficiently various and important to attract the attention of any practitioner.

The large and constantly increasing number of actions arising out of railroad accidents, renders the chapters on Carriers of Passengers and General Management of Railroads of peculiar value.

As much may perhaps be said of nearly every chapter in the book. In fact we know of few law books which contain, within the same compass, so much useful and valuable information, upon questions which are constantly arising in our courts.

The authors claim-we believe correctly-that their work is "a pioneer in its peculiar field." There have been chapters in other words devoted to Negligence, but we believe no other book written exclusively on that subject, so far at least as the English and American law is concerned. The authors have therefore had but little assistance from previous works, and have had the whole ground to go over for themselves. This may account for the occasional errors that occur in the book. These errors, if we may judge from the examination that we have been able to make, are neither numerous, nor likely seriously to mislead the practitioner, and are confined mainly to the notes. For instance, on page 392, the authors say in a note to their definition of the term "Highway": "There must be a thoroughfare; in other words, a way which is open to the public to pass through it,'" and cite Rex v. Lloyd, 1 Camp. 260; Wood v. Veal, 5 Barn. & Ald. 454 (incorrectly cited as Ward v. Veal, 3 Barn. & Ad.), and Holdane v. Cold Spring, 23 Barb. 103. The note is not a correct statement of the existing law. In England, as late as 1852, in the case of Bateman v. Black, 14 Eng. Law and Eq. 69, the Court of Queen's Bench expressly held that there need not be a thoroughfare to constitute a highway, sustaining the decision of Lord Kenyon in the case of the Rugby Charity v. Merryweather, 11 East. 375, n. It must also be regarded as settled in this State, that both at common law and under the statute, a cul de sac may be a highway. People v. Kingman, 24 N. Y. 559; Wiggins v. Tallmadge, 11 Barb. 457; Hickok v. Trustees of Plattsburgh, 41 Barb. 135. There are a few other errors that we purposed noticing, but have not the space. Taken all in all, it is a work of great value, and we heartily commend it to the profession.

A Treatise on the Law of Set-off, Recoupment, and Counterclaim: By Thomas W. Waterman, Counsellor at Law. New York: Baker, Voorhis & Co., Publishers. 1869. The rapidly increasing number of decisions on minute points of the law, makes absolutely necessary to the practicing lawyer a work of this kind. The task of finding and reading everything that may have been written in the reports concerning the subjects of set-off, recoupment and counterclaim, would be impossible to one whose days must be spent in the contentions of the court and his nights in preparing for his daily labors. Eighteen hundred cases, each one studied critically, indicates to the professional man the labor required to produce this work.

We have examined, not as carefully and thoroughly as we would like, Mr. Waterman's treatise. It has one advantage over many law books published in New York city, in that it is well printed and well bound. That goes to the credit of the publisher, though we think it more than probable the author suggested much with reference to the style of publication. Another thing, and here the author has the whole responsibility, the work is well indexed. So many works of great value are rendered

practically useless by a poor index that we can almost say that the index is the most important part of the book. The valuable treatise of Judge Wait on Justices' Courts loses much by the imperfection of its indexes. His index is rather a summary of the subjects treated, of advantage indeed to the student, but no better than the pages of the book for the purpose of reference.

It is easy to criticise a work of this kind and point ont defects. Doubtless every one who has occasion to consult an elementary treatise upon any science finds mistakes, sometimes glaring ones, and in his mind condemns the author for his apparent want of knowledge. But let the critic try and state in clear language some abstract principle that he believes he fully understands, and submit the result to the public. He will find in one quarter and another doubt after doubt raised against his truth until they become as numerous as the exceptions to a rule in grammar. He will then appreciate something of the difficulty of writing a satisfactory scientific work. We must say that while we may have detected errors in Mr. Waterman's book there is nothing that will mislead.

Although the work was written and published in New York, it will be beneficial chiefly to the profession in other States. The sweeping changes of the Constitution of 1846 and the Code, have reached not only the practice but the very essence of the law. A liberality, aye a looseness now obtains in the courts, that renders valueless the technical learning of earlier days. Under other jurisdictions where the spirit of the common law still holds its vigor, Mr. Waterman's work will be better appreciated. And we are confident that here also in a little time, the traditions of our profession will snow themselves superior to the innovations of the day and enable us to restore a little of the technicality of our ancestors. When we can say that the law is determined by precedent and not by the discretion of a judge, we will obtain the full benefit of the researches of scholarly men. The work is needed, however, in every law library, and with the practicing attorney will be in almost daily use.

A Digest of New York Reports from the Organization of the State to the year 1869: containing the Decisions of all the Courts of the State, except such as are digested in Clinton's Digest. Second Edition, with references to the Statutes. Volume 1. By William Wait, Counsellor at Law. Albany: William Gould & Son. 1869. The second edition of Clinton's Digest was published in 1860, and so far as it went was an accurate and valuable work; but, unfortunately, the author's plan did not inolude practice cases, and a large number of practice reports were not digested at all. Notwithstanding its incompleteness in this respect, the care and ability with which it had been prepared rendered it a standard authority and an important aid to the profession. It was therefore with gratification that the announcement was received that a supplement was in preparation by William Wait, a lawyer of known ability and learning. Mr. Wait had displayed such vast research, such skill in extracting principles, and precision in stating them, and such method in arrangement, in his treatise on "The Law and Practice in Justices' Courts," that we had formed great expectations in regard to the forthcoming Digest. Thus far we are not disappointed. The volume before us is complete, comprehensive, and accurate; and, what is of the first importance in a digest, remarkably methodical and convenient in its arrangement. So well, indeed, has Mr. Wait performed his work, that we have only to regret that he did not commence de novo, and give us a uniform and entire digest of all the decisions of the State. The author says in his preface: "In the use of a digest, one of the principal difficulties is that which arises from the different modes of thought and reading. One person would classify a case under a title where another person would scarcely look for it. To obviate this inconvenience as far as possible, a very complete table of titles has been made, and a system of cross references has been adopted, which will do much toward directing attention to some

title under which any case may be found." As another aid to ready reference, an initial index has been prefixed to each title, giving the pages of the subdivisions, and the cases have been arranged alphabetically under appropriate catchwords, thereby enabling a given principle to be found at a glance. The points adjudged have been stated with clearness and precision, and with sufficient fullness to enable the reader to understand readily the principle involved. We know of no digest that we would rather have upon our office table and at our right hand, on any emergency or occasion of difficulty or of doubt. The preseut volume terminates with the title "Husband and Wife." The other volumes, two in number, are in press, and will be issued in the course of a few weeks.

COURT OF APPEALS ABSTRACT.

The People, Piffs. in Error, v. Joel B. Thompson, Deft, in Error. Not Reported.

The main question presented was whether the Supreme Court or the Court of Appeals, upon a writ of error, can review the conviction upon the merits, or whether such review is confined to questions of law arising upon exceptions taken upon the trial. The defendant in error was indicted for murder in the first degree. It appeared that the accused and the murdered man had met in the street and that almost at the instant of meeting the accused, actuated by some supposed insult or apprehended bodily harm, fired the fatal shot.

Hogeboom, J., who tried the case, charged the jury that they might convict the defendant of murder in the second degree if they found that his intent to effect death was less deliberate and atrocious than was requisite to justify a conviction in the first degree. No exceptions were taken to the charge by the defendant. On writ of error sued out by the defendant, the Supreme Court reversed the judgment and ordered a new trial. The People brought the proceedings to this court. The Court held that that portion of the judge's charge that the jury might convict the defendant of murder in the second degree, if they found that his intent was less deliberate and atrocious than what was requisite to justify a conviction in the first degree, was erroneous-the defendant in error not having been engaged in the commission of a felony at the time of the killing; but that having failed to except thereto at the time, the defendant could not now avail himself of the error, since, on a writ of error, the court could review the conviction only on questions of law arising upon exceptions taken at the trial. The question also arose as to whether a judgment convicting the accused of murder in the second degree under a common law indictment for murder was erroneous. Following its decision in the Keith case, decided at the June term, the court held that such judgment was proper.

(Bailey v. Ogden, 3 Johns. R. 398-418.) To constitute a contract there must be parties, a subject-matter and a consideration. In the written memorandum demanded by the statute all these elements must plainly appear. In the case of Calkins v, Falk the memorandum relied upon showed but one contracting party. The court held it not to be a compliance with the statute. In Champion v. Plummer, 4 Bos. & Pull. 253, decided under a similar statute, Lord Mansfield in deciding the case said: "How can that be

said to be a contract or memorandum of a contract which does not state who are the contracting parties? By this note it does not appear to whom the goods were sold. It would prove a sale to any other party as well as to the plaintiff; there cannot be a contract without two parties."

Daggett v. Keating et al. Not Reported. The parties to the action, after the commencement thereof in the Supreme Court, agreed to an arbitration-that judgment should be rendered upon the award by the Court, and that in the meantime the case be nominally continued. The award was in favor of the defendants, but was set aside at Special Term, which decision was reversed at General Term and the award confirmed. Plaintiff appealed from the judgment entered under this decision, and defendants now moved to dismiss the appeal, on the ground that the code did not provide for the case of awards, and that writ of error, and not appeal, was the plaintiff's true remedy. Plaintiff contended, in opposition to the motion to dismiss, that, as by the agreement the action was kept alive, the judgment was entered in the action and was therefore appealable. The Court concurred in the ground taken by the defendants, and dismissed the appeal.

John Flanagan et al. v. Patrick Cassidy. Not Reported.

This action was originally brought to recover a balance due for attorney's fees, and, on a motion that the cause be referred on the ground that it involved the taking of a long account, the defendant, to avoid a reference, offered to admit all the items except one, as to which he claimed that the negligence of the attorney had given an offset.

The Court below referred the case, and from the order of reference the defendant appealed. On the motion to dismiss the appeal it was argued on behalf of the defendant that the amendment to section 11, subdivision 4 of the present year authorized such an appeal.

The Court held that the amendment to the Code did not extend appealable orders, and therefore dismissed the appeal.

DIGEST OF AMERICAN DECISIONS,

To appear in the following State Reports: 38 Howard (N. Y.), Nathan Howard, Jr., Reporter; 6 Abb., N. S. (N. Y.), Benj. Vaughan Abbott and Austin Abbott, Reporters; 37 Iowa, E. H. Stiles, Reporter; 36 California, J. E. Hale, Reporter; 48 Illinois, Norman L. Freeman, Reporter; 59 Penn., P. F. Smith, Reporter. Cases marked N. R. are not reported.

ADVERSE POSSESSION.

1. Must be hostile.-Adverse possession, sufficient to defeat the legal title, where there is no paper title, must be hostile in its inception, and continue uninterruptedly for twenty years.