New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-07-01

LAW STUDIES. by SAMUEL wAtRES. Edited with
Alterations and Additions by Isaac Grant Thompson.
l3nO. PIP. 405 Albany: John ID. Parsons, ir.
This excellent treatise by the well-known author
Of Ten Thousand Year" has received the sub
stantial approval of 80 years of popularity II not
an elementary treatise on law but guide for young
men beginning the study of the profession. 1t gives
them advice to their general and professional con-
duct, methods of reading, and mental discipline; it
points out the principal studies which need to be
pursued as auxiliaries of the law; indicates the
best methods of preparing and managing cases. and
acquiring tact and facility in pleading. The chapter
on the Ethics of the Bar" instructs the counsel
how far he may and may not go in defending the
guilty, aud we wish some we-known practitioners
in our own courts could be induced to read it. Not
only is DR.. Waren's advice sound and valuable out
ii is conveyed in a clear and interesting style
Astounding with apt illustrations.
The American editor has made whatever changes
In the text seemed necessary in consequence OF
changes in the law, and has omitted an elementary
treatise ON English jurisprudence which was APP
pended To the second edition of the original work.
but seemed unnecessary for this country. Mr..
Thompson appears to have performed his task with
care and Judgment.
A TREATISE ON FACTS, AS SUBJECTS OF INQUIRY
Bakor, VOORHEES, & Co.
Sir Edward Coke has left MS his opinion that some
knowledge of every science and art is not only use
full but even necessary to lawyer, and Chief
Justice Parsons the diversity of whose knowledge
was matter of wonder used to say there scarcely
anything he had learned which he did not find at
some time in way useful TO him as "a lawyer
OF a Judge But knowledge of such an extensive
range must of necessity be superficial and the advo-
Gates success in using it depends chiefly upon his
dexterity in manipulating the facts This dex-
md no pafur al nptDn
but more often it is acquired like other
dexterities only after profound study, long
practice and the careful training of those mem
tai powers which particularly it calls into exer-
else The object Of the work before us is TO explain
TO the advocate the principal phases and cOmbina-
tons which facts may assume, to suggest to his mind
methods of handling confronting them, and TO in-
dictate habits by which readiness in so doing may he
acquired. The treatise, of which this volume is an
American reproduction, has long enjoyed high
reputation in England where Mr.. Ram is well known
as scholar of wide and various attainments and as
an eminent practitioner of the law. The title sug-
gests a stubborn and dry topic, but the author
has elucidated it with the most agreeable
method and clearneSs, and enlivened it with
an affluence and variety of apt illustration,
almost unprecedented in q law book The
publishers of the present edition have improved
upon the original by securing the editorial services
of Mr. Townshend, the author of the (" Treatise on
Libel and SANDER and other works favorably known
TO the profession, who beside commenting upon the
text has appropriately quoted from recent American
cases and law literature and added to its practical
value by an appendix containing Browns " Golden
Rules" for the examination of witnesses, abrdg-
ment of Mr.. COx's work entitled "The Advocate"
and Dr.. Whewells Theory and Fact"
ANALYSIS OF AMERICAN LAW. BY THOMAS W.
POWELL. $40. PIP 10. j. b. LippincOtt d Co.
This book is designed an introduction to Con-
sttutional and Statute law, and a summary OF those
leading principles which pupils require as pre-
liminary 20 their professional studies and which all
men find il convenient to know at some time or
another in their lives Mr. Powell divides his subject
into four parts, treating of: l. Public Rights e
Private Rights 8. Private Wrongs; 4. Public
Wrongs In the LIST he gives q synopsis of cOnsttu-
tonal law with special reference TO the State of
Ohio in which it appears from the preface that he
resides In the 2d he examines the rights of persons
and property, the laws of real estate, success
sion, contracts bargain and sale, partnership,
corporations, husband and wife, &c. The Sd IS de-
voted to injuries of person and property, with the
provisions for redress, courts and their jurisdiction,
rules Of practice, evidence appeal, and equity. In
part 4th the author considers crimes msdemeanors,
and their punishment. This arrangement is con-
vcnent and natural and the subjects distributed
under il with cOmmendlbe system. We wish we
could say that Mr.. Powell knows grammar as well
az he knows law. 1t is hardly fair to look for ee-
ance of style in technical treatise of this sort but
We have a right TO demand of the author even of a
law book some little acquaintance with syntax, and
sufficient familiarity with the meaning of words TO
make himself always distinctly ineligible. When a
man writes that "In the whole range of lawyers
library there is no author in the law who
haze conferred upon the profession great a favor
by his labors as Mr. Gritty did by his Treatise on
Pleading and are now highly recommended 10 the
strdent;' or that ParsOnss Book for Business Men
is also highly recommended very usefulboOk for
the student notwithstanding its appearance, and the
pecnliar way its author merely recommends 1t to
men Of business 10 give it the appearance of those
books which are intended las they Pretend TO make
every men his own lawyer" or that sef-defense is
legal AZ means of redress; that the objects of
government are protection and safety (which is the
same thing to the people, and when their rights or
safety is disturbed injured that justice should be
speedily administered when man writes in this
way il seems To be time that pen and ink taken
away from him. 1t is wonderful that Mr.. Powell
should be ordinarily ineligible; but we must
frankly acknowledge that he is