The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-09-04

From Little, Brown & Co., Boston, and for sale
by Cushings Bailey:
a TREATISE on MARATIME LAW. Including the Law of
Shipping the Law of Marine Insurance; and the Law
and Practice Of Admiralty. BY THEoPHILUs Parsons
LID Dane Professor of Law in Harvard University
and author of Treatises the Law of Contracts the
Elements of Mercantile Law and the Laws of business
for Business Men. In two vols, PIP. 7S0.S7I. 1859
Also:
THE LAW OF CONTRACTS. By THEoPHILUs Parsons,
LID, Dane Professor of Law in Harvard University
at Cambridge. Fourth Edition. In two vols. PIP. 722-
Love and opportunity" must prevail in the pro-
ductlon OF sound treatise upon questions of law
as well as IN the prosperous contamination of affairs
OF the heart. An enthusiastic affection for the
Science of Jurisprudence is rare, but it must be
found IN the successful legal author. Opportunity
must exist to exhaust the learning written in the
stupendous masses of text books and reports which
the votaries OF Themis have piled upon her affairs
ana which are not within the reach of every scho-
lar. 10 these must be joined patient analytic
mlrd, tIreless IN investigation, yet prompt to re-
cognise principle and pursue it through the mazes
OF complicated and contradictory decisions; and
hnaly, to devotion to the science unbounded access
TO Its accumulated treasures and patience and capa-
city to profit by them, must be Joined faculty for
clear and logical arrangement and acceptable pre-
sentation of the results. good style is not thrown
away, even upon law book-a fact which too
many writers of that class have never appeared to
recognise. In all these qualifications Professor
Parsons stands pre-emnent. If his claim to legal
distinction by purchase doubtful, he might al
most establish it by descent for that the son of the
great ChiefJustice of Massachusetts, should himself
be an eminent Jursconsult seems simply the order
of nature
The chair held by him with so much distinction
could not be filled by ordinary man, and bis
works, which now rank among the classics of the
law library, bear ample evidence alike to the pro-
foundy the scope and the availability of his learn
ing. The duties of a teacher have probably led
Mr.. Parsons mind particularly towards the most
appropriate mode representing to others the in
formation which it is the object of his office to i'm
part; but this alone will not account for the re-
marKaoly easy and flowing style which is even
more perceptbe in his miscellaneous writings,
because possibly, in them less constrained
oy the subject than in his elementary works on
different branches Of the law. He has obviously
large natural gift sedulously cultivated and i'm
proved. We scarcely know better speci-
men OF tho deaicaUory essay In ILLS
work on Contracts addressed to his friend Prescott
and intended to commemorate the authors re.
spect and generation for the father of the great
historian. And in whatever we have read from the
same pen we recognise the same graceful and facile
language, the same clear and orderly method and
the same capacity to explore and exhaust the
ces of cognate knowledge. As to the opportuni-
ties afforded to the Dane Professor of Harvard to
investigate every branch oflega science, they NAV
be said to be limited only by the bounds which en-
brace almost all that exists in the English Ian
guage on English and American law. In the
Law School at Cambridge, eve have" says
Mr.. Parsons, ga more complete collection than ex
lists elsewhere of law books in the English language;
for in England they have not far as know, full
collections of American law, and nowhere else in
this country is it attempted, as | suppose, to make
the series both of English and American textbooks
and reports absolutely perfect. This we aim at,
aud, with few exceptions, accomplish" Another.
great advantage protested by the distinguished
author, and duly acknowledged by him, is the con-
tlnua presence, at such law school as that of Har
Vard, Oh those to whom it is always labor of love
to share and relieve the drudgerv of reading and
verifying reports. When it is remembered that
more than six thousand cases are quoted bv name
and previously examined with proper and conscien
tious care in the work on Contracts alone 1t is an
parent that scarce any mans unassised energies
would have been competent to such a task
Among those who contributed their labor, we find
the name of A. w. Machen, Esq, at that time Ii
brarian of the Cambridge Law School, and at pre-
sent member Of our bar, where he has given I'M
mistakable evidence of the powers which made him
valuable assistant in the preparation of the great
work to which he lent his aid
We have not attempted any special review of the
books before us, for the double that in the
first place we have space for the proper perform
of such task, and which, however agreeable it
might prove, is, in the second place, unnecessary,
inasmuch as among the profession the works them
selves have already the reputation of standard
authorities. We have preferred to indicate the pc
culiar qualifications and advantages possessed by
the learned professor, for the line of authorship
which he has adopted and to bear testimony to the