weather. But when it rains, it rains into the prison; when it snows, in the Sandchak uplands-it snows into the prison. People of the town take it as a deed of charity to step to the bars ever so often and feed the prisoners, as you or I might some pet bear at the Zoo. Within the prison wall there is just one huge cell, and whether you be guilty of blaspheming the prophet, or whether you have killed a Mussulman and are awaiting death sentence, you are in one and the same "box."

The origin of much of the lawbreaking in the Empire is, of course, the abominable tax system. Taxes are meted out from above. The Sultan tells the Vali, say of the province of Adrianople, that he must yield so much tax this year. The Vali adds a proportionate amount to pay himself, maintain his court, and then divides that sum among the district governors. Each is advised that his district must yield so much this year. This petty autocrat adds his own salary and squeeze, and then divides the amount among the county rulers. And they—

Well, instead of making a tax valuation, and then having it collected, they employ publicans. Men bid, each year, for the taxes of the given county. The one who pays the Pasha the largest amount is, of course, the winner. He pledges to pay the Pasha, at the close of the harvest, so many thousand medschidje. To help him get it, all the military, all the authority of the Porte, is invoked.

He comes to so-and-so, who's been raising millet, let us say and demands his tithe-for the tenth is the great tax of the region. The peasant complains that the measure is bulged; the tithe unfair. Well and good, the publican will send to Constantinople for another-meantime he'll collect elsewhere. And meantime which is going to be weary weeks the peasant's millet is ripe for the harvest, ripe for the granary. Storms drench it, it is rotting away, but not a blade may be harvested until the Sultan's tenth is gone. The peasant stands to lose all his crop, and his friends. deride him for his folly. When, in due course, the "new" measure arrives, the law allows the publican to take the equal of the original tithe out of the remainder that may be unspoiled.

Then there's another law that does havoc to the Christian. This is that it is not perjury for a Moslem to swear falsely against the infidel. Nor is it sin for a Moslem to

break the most solemn oath given a Christian; which means that any number of crimes can be committed against the Christians, and their Moslem perpetrators blandly swear they know nothing about them. Just for example, there is a law which requires every Moslem to serve five years in the armies of the Sultan. Christians, instead, are forced by law to pay a so-called war-tax. Backsheesh will free many of them from this; but one must know how to apply it. Every male, from the year of birth up to the age of eighteen, pays a matter of 83 cents-four days' earnings of a full-bodied peasant -as this tax. If such child die, though, for a year or more after, the Christian must pay the tax; for the authorities purposely delay filling out the death certificate, and the publican will take no one's word that the child is deadprofessing to believe him off in hiding.

In contrast to this reign of autocratic law is the freedom and ease of the Bulgarian. Notably since Ferdinand has thrown off the Turkish vassalage has the little upland kingdom prospered.

Its laws are modern indeed-and the place of their making bespeaks the tastes of the law-makers.

Travellers on the Oriental Express, dropping off at Sofia make a visit always to the Sobranje, or capitol building. The building is a two-story one, the exterior coated with the yellow plastering so common in the region, and bearing no evidence of graft in its erection. Just opposite is a splendid equestrian statue of Alexander II., erected by Russia as a gift to the land.

The centre front of this building protrudes a trifle, and, with a shield set on its top, it adds certain strength to the whole. One enters through this fore hall, neatly whiteplastered, into another corridor, serving as hat room. It seems strange that national Parliament Buildings should maintain so primitive a cloak arrangement as this.

From that hall you continue into the main Parliament chamber of course, a good-sized room that. At right and left is a balcony, part of the space beneath it walled off. At the centre, the chairs of the members are grouped, leading on to the rostrum. The effect of the room is white, with panels of a pale cream, richly adorned with decorations in gold for relief.

A door, at the rear of the Parliament chamber, admits into the library, a large, square room as well, lined with

innumerable small, separate bookcases. Here, in the summer, when the Sobranje is overhauled, are stored the pewlike seats of the law-makers each a bench divided into seats, and having at its rear the desk for the persons behind. Evidently lawmakers, the world over, are much the samenations provide libraries, but lawmakers don't use them, and between sessions the books gather dust.

At the rear of the library there's a bar and a lunch room; from these you go into the hall, that leads away to a newspaper room, racks of the papers on the bamboo splints, hanging on every wall. Three green-baized topped tables are crowded with weeklies-while from the walls two paintings of Czar Ferdinand look down on a floor of plain offices.

Round about here are side rooms devoted to offices, plain in their furnishings. A stair at the rear leads upstairs into another corridor, with more offices, that ends at a reception chamber. Paintings on the walls, chairs of neat upholstery, a throne-in case of necessity-shew the Bulgars to be able to put on appearance where and when they feel needful. And in the room for the stenographers, near by, a typist at work on a design for a menu, the whole done in signs used in shorthand-shew that these men have perception of the artistic. For simplicity this House of Parliament commends itself-it marks one extreme of the Balkan capitols. In Cetigne they have a still simpler structure.

The

Library

"And what of this new book?"-Sterne.

"Men disparage not antiquity who prudently exalt new enquiries."

-Sir Thomas Browne.

Canadian Reports, Appeal Cases.

Arranged, annotated and edited by Walter Edwin Lear, Esq., of Osgoode Hall, Barrister-atLaw. Arthur Poole & Co., Law Publishers, Toronto.

This series of reports published by Arthur Poole & Co., and edited by Mr. Lear consists of appeals allowed or refused by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council on appeal from the Dominion of Canada. The cases have been collected from the various English reports and are now for the first time presented in a convenient series which will enable counsel to not only look up any point decided in any particular case by the Privy Council, but he will find various cases to which reference is made and also to cases, if any, upon which the Privy Council's judgment is based. Each particular case in the Canadian Reports is first set out in a syllabus, then a statement of the case is given followed by the judgment at the trial, the judgment of the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. The full argument in the case before the Privy Council setting forth the points involved is in turn followed by the Privy Council's judgment. It will readily be seen that decisions of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council presented in this form must of necessity be a great boon to solicitor and counsel alike in that all Canadian appeals, including those in Newfoundland, are published in this series and the amount of time. and nervous energy which these books of reference will save is incalculable,-in addition to which owing to the fact that the knowledge that the law on a certain subject is to be found in compact form will mean much to Bench and Bar alike.

The reports are not yet quite complete, there being a portion of one volume still lacking, but the nine volumes already issued are a great addition to any library, and both

editor and publisher are to be commended for their work and enterprise in issuing so valuable and complete a series.

Ar

Students Leading Cases and Statutes on International Law. ranged and edited with notes by Norman Bentwich of Lincoln's Inn, Barrister-at-Law, with an introductory note by Professor L. Oppenheim, Whewell Professor of International Law_at_the University of Cambridge. Sweet & Maxwell, Ltd., London. 12s. 6d.

Essentially a book for students. This handy volume will be of material assistance to those who are beginning their study of international law, and should be of material assistance not only in the preparation for examinations but in imparting a knowledge of this most important subject. The book is divided into two parts,-part 1. "The Law of Peace," and part 2. "The Law of War," and the principles. set out in the different chapters under these sub-divisions are made much more interesting by being presented in concrete form by the aid of the principal cases to which the chapters refer, in addition to which, instead of a summary of the cases being given, the very words of the Judges setting forth the principles in each case are quoted, thus making the book a valuable one.

Chitty's Statutes of Practical Utility. Containing Statutes passed in 1912, down to March, 1913. By W. H. Aggs, M.A., LL.M., of the Inner Temple, Barrister-at-Law. Sweet & Maxwell, Ltd., 3 Chancery Lane, London; Stevens & Sons, Ltd., 119 and 120 Chancery Lane; Carswell & Co., Toronto.

This work is too well known to need much comment, but a mention of some of the Statutes passed will undoubtedly be of interest, especially the Aerial Navigation Act, 2-3 Geo. V. ch. 22, 1913; the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1912, 2-3 Geo. V. ch. 20, which will undoubtedly be of great importance to the members of the Bar in Canada, and the Pilotage Act, 2-3 Geo. V. ch. 21.

Outlines of Procedure in an Action in the King's Bench Division. By A. M. Wilshere, M.A., LL.B., of Gray's Inn and the Western Circuit, Barrister-at-Law. Sweet & Maxwell, Ltd., London, 7s. 6d. Carswell Publishing Co., Toronto. $2.00. This, as the author states, is a book for students and should be of great assistance to them in obtaining a know