THE Complete novel in the March issue of LIPPINCOTT's is "Dead Selves,” by Julia Magruder. “Farming under Glass," by George Ethelbert Walsh, is a clear and instructive exposition of what has been done which is very much-for human food by means of hothouses. John E. Bennett writes of "The Deserts of Southeast California," and Prof. L. Oscar Kuhns of the Origin of Pennsylvanian Surnames." D. C. Macdonald tells what is to be seen "In the Manuscript-Room of the British Museum.” 66 WHAT SHALL WE READ? This column is devoted to brief notices of recent publications. We hope to make it a ready-reference column for those of our readers who desire to inform themselves as to the latest and best new books. (Legal publications are noticed elsewhere.) PROF. CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS, in his new novel The Forge in the Forest,' has demonstrated that it is possible to write a story of absorbing interest and at the same time keep it pure and wholesome from be 1 THE FORGE IN THE FOREST. Being the narrative of the Acadian Ranger, Jean de Mer, Seigneur de Briard; and how he crossed the Black Abbé, and of his adventures in strange fellow. ship. By Charles G. D. Roberts. Lamson, Wolffe & Co., Boston and New York, 1896. Cloth. $1.50. ginning to end. An accomplishment which is worthy of note in these degenerate literary times. The scene of the story is laid in that region immortalized by Longfellow in " Evangeline," and the dramatic events described are based upon historical facts. The author's style is delightfully simple and at the same time unusually impressive. His delineation of the characters who are participants in the exciting drama shows the touch of a masterhand. We will not mar the reader's enjoyment by a description of the plot, but we can safely say that he who commences this book will not lay it down until he has read it to the very end. It is one of the very best stories of the day, and we are glad to learn that it is but the first of a series of historical novels which Professor Roberts has in preparation. The publishers are to be commended for the exquisite manner in which the book is made up. The man who garners and preserves in an abiding form the folk-lore of his country is a public benefactor, and the American people should pass a vote of thanks to Mr. Charles M. Skinner for his Myths and Legends of Our Own Land. With infinite pains he has collected a vast number of American legends which, but for his ferreting them out, would doubtless have passed into oblivion. The book is as interesting to the mature mind as a fairy-book is to children. There is not a dull page in it. There are legends of the Hudson and its hills, of the Isle of Manhattoes, tales of Puritan land, of the South, the Central States and Great Lakes, the Rocky Range, the Pacific slope, etc. The King Noanett is a most interesting love-tale, the scene of which is laid, in the beginning of the book, in Exmoor, England, in the time of Cromwell, and then changed to Virginia and later to Massachusetts. It gives a very vivid and, we should judge, faithful picture of early life in the colonies. Indians play an important part in the plot as the title indicates. It is an extremely pretty story, and the ending is totally unexpected and surprising. The story reminds one of "Lorna Doone," especially in the first part, though the development of it is very different. One of the most important publications of the month is The Life of Nelson, by Captain Mahan of the United States Navy. The distinguished author has examined with patience and with care Nelson's voluminous correspondence and despatches, and many 2 MYTHS AND Legends of OUR OWN LAND. By Charles M. Skinner. J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia, 1896. Two Vols. Cloth. $3.00. 3 KING NOANETT. By F. J. Stimson. Lamson, Wolffe & Co., Boston and New York. Cloth. 4 THE LIFE OF NELSON. The Embodiment of the Sea Power of Great Britain. By Capt. A. T. Mahan, D. C. L., LL.D. Little, Brown & Co., Boston, 1897. Two Vols. Cloth. $8.00. other sources of information. His aim has been to make Nelson describe himself, — tell the story of his own inner life as well as his external actions. He states that he has carefully analyzed Nelson's letters to detect the leading features of temperament, traits of thought, and motives of action; and thence to conceive within himself, by gradual familiarity even more than by formal effort, the character therein revealed." The work is admirably illustrated with portraits, plates in photogravure, maps and plans. It is a book that will afford the reader great pleasure and profit. We have received a copy of Caliban, by Ernest Renan, translated by Eleanor Grant Vickery, published by the Shakespeare Society of New York. The author has taken the characters in "The Tempest" and placed the scene in modern times and adapted to the ideas of the present day. It is supposed to be a continuation of The Tempest and will prove most interesting to thoughtful and philosophic readers. Lovers of Henry James will eagerly welcome his latest book, The Spoils of Poynton. There are few characters in his story, but those few are delineated strongly. The idea is well worked up, and the denouement quite startling. NEW LAW-BOOKS. THE LAW OF MARRIED WOMEN IN MASSACHUSETTS. By George A. O. Ernst. Second Edition. Little, Brown & Co., Boston, 1897. Cloth, $2.00; Law sheep, $2.50. The married women of Massachusetts, with this volume of Mr. Ernst for a guide, need feel no doubt as to their legal rights and liabilities; and a careful perusal of it by those who consider that they are still downtrodden and oppressed, will convince them that they really are not so badly off as they think. While written in a style which will appeal to the popular mind, the treatise is a thorough and exhaustive presentation of Massachusetts law regarding married women, and will be found a most valuable text-book for the profession. Mr. Ernst begins his work with a discussion of the delicate question, always interesting to the sex, of engagements to marry; he then treats of breach of promise to marry, of marriage itself, and then follow chapters upon the rights of a married woman to her person, to her children, to support from her husband, and to support under the pauper laws. Her right to hold office and positions of trust, to contract and do business, to sue and be sued, to 5 THE SPOILS OF POYNTON. By Henry James. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Boston and New York, 1897. Cloth. $1.50. acquire and hold property independently of her husband, are treated at length, and the book draws to an end with chapters upon Separation by Agreement, Separation by Divorce, Separation by Death, and their effect upon Property Rights. PRACTICE IN SPECIAL ACTIONS in the Courts of Record of the State of New York under Code of Civil Procedure and Statutes, with forms. By J. NEWTON FIERO. Second Edition. Matthew Bender, Albany, N. Y., 1897. Two vols. Law sheep, $11.50. New York practitioners fully appreciate the value and usefulness of this work of Mr. Fiero, and a second edition, thoroughly revised and made conformable to the many changes which have taken place in the Code, should receive a warm welcome. It is really almost indispensable to lawyers practicing under the New York Code. THE AMERICAN STATE REPORTS. VOL. 52. Containing the Cases of general Value and Authority decided in the Courts of last resort of the several States. Selected, reported and annotated by A. C. FREEMAN. Bancroft-Whitney Co., San Francisco, 1897. Law sheep, $4.00. This volume, like its predecessors, is to be commended for the excellent judgment shown by Mr. Freeman in his selection of cases, and for the full and exhaustive annotations which accompany them. THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF CODE PLEADING IN AMERICA AND ENGLAND. By Charles M. Hepburn of the Cincinnati Bar. W. H. Anderson & Co., Cincinnati, 1897. Cloth, $3.00; Law sheep, $3.75. Practitioners and students of jurisprudence will find this work of Mr. Hepburn of great interest. As the author says, code pleading is essentially a science of historical development, and to comprehend clearly what it is, one must see how it came to be so. After considering the nature and extent of code pleading in general, Mr. Hepburn discusses the causes which led to the overthrow of common law pleading, and narrates the historical movement in England and America for a statutory reform of pleading. codes of the different States are carefully examined, and the cardinal points of agreement and contrast pointed out. Altogether, the work is one which should appeal to all lawyers interested in the changes which have been brought about in our system of legal practice. The VOL. IX. No. 5. BOSTON. MAY, 1897. JOHN RANDOLPH TUCKER. JOHN RANDOLPH TUCKER, who died JOH at his home in Lexington, Virginia, on the 13th of February, 1897, was a man of distinctive and marked personality worthy of special mention and honorable remembrance. In his characteristics and his career, Mr. Tucker furnishes a fine illustration of the important influence of heredity. His grandfather, St. George, the first of the Virginia Tuckers, came to the colony from Bermuda, as a youth, in 1770. He received his education at William and Mary College, and became a lawyer in the Ancient Dominion. When the War of the Revolution opened, the young Bermudian not only took up arms in defense of the country of his adoption, but headed a secret expedition to his native island, which seized and brought off a quantity of military stores, which served to eke out Washington's scant supplies at the siege of Boston. As a colonel of cavalry, St. George Tucker also distinguished himself in Green's campaign, and was wounded at the siege of Yorktown. ceeded the eminent jurist, Edmund Pendleton, as president of the court of appeals.' Judge Tucker's legal decisions all tended to uphold and strengthen constitutional power as stronger and farther reaching than the laws of legislatures, or of Congress. His annotations of Blackstone's Commentaries are noteworthy for their discussion of the principles of government, and especially of constitutional government. They offered the first disquisition upon the origin and nature of the Federal Constitution, and upon its character and interpretation. Judge St. George Tucker's first wife was Mrs. Frances Bland Randolph, mother of the eccentric statesman, John Randolph of Roanoke. The first son of this marriage, Henry St. George Tucker, and a younger son, N. Beverley Tucker, were, like their father, educated at William and Mary College; and both of them became lawyers, and afterwards, like him also, judges and law professors. Henry St. George Tucker, with his bodyservant Bob, left tide-water Virginia for the American independence once established, newer country beyond the mountains, and Colonel Tucker resumed the practice of his began the practice of law in Winchester, in profession. In 1786, he was a member of 1802, when he had just come of age. His the Annapolis Convention, the precursor father promised to support him for three and originator of the Constitutional Conven-years, and during that time, the young law tion of 1787. The next year he was appointed a judge of the general court, and law professor at William and Mary College. He also performed excellent service as one of the revisers of the Virginia Code. These honors came to him before he was forty years old. Later on, Judge Tucker suc yer called upon the parental purse for three hundred and seventy-five dollars. At the age of twenty-six he married Miss Anna Evelina Hunter, through whom their children inherited a strain of Scotch-Irish blood. In the War of 1812 Henry St. George Tucker took up arms, as his father had done |