THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE AND Agricultural Gazette, Feb. 8, 1873. "The author of this portable digest of the Commentaries of Blackstone' has had for his object to place before the student and the general reader, in the simplest form, the principles of the laws of England, adapted to the present time, leaving abstract speculations to be grappled with afterwards. Its contents are arranged in four divisions or books, 'each book embracing all the legal points and practical information contained in the respective four volumes of Blackstone as originally written, supplemented by subsequent statutory enactments and important legal decisions.' From its simple form and practical character such a digest should be useful not only to incipient law students, for whom it was specially prepared, but also to all those who take interest in acquiring a knowledge of our laws-a kind of knowledge, by the by, which ought to be much more generally acquired, since it is by it that we are required to govern ourselves in the interests of society at large. The pages devoted to the consideration of private wrongs and public wrongs may be referred to as containing information which every intelligent person ought to know, and which is here set before him in a very succinct form."

ERA, Feb. 23, 1873.

"People often say they would willingly abide by the law if they really knew the law, and it must be admitted by the warmest partisan of English legal practice that the law is, to say the least, a very difficult matter to comprehend. In point of fact, there are things to puzzle the most sharp-witted in the wording of many legal documents, even of those in daily use, and we often are tempted to class them with those matters complained of by Lord Dundreary as the sort of thing that no fellow can understand.' Even the conveyance of a private house or an ordinary business transaction is overladen with a formula as strange as Arabic to ordinary minds, and liable to dispute occasionally amongst those who actually make it their business to comprehend it. To simplify and render intelligible some of these abstruse problems appears to be the aim of the present author, and so far as we are competent to judge, we should say he has succeeded uncommonly well. At all events, by reading these practical and straightforward abstracts of difficult legal questions we do not find that bewilderment in our minds respecting the law which is generally occasioned by such reading, and we have little hesitation in saying that Mr. Aird has produced a work of very considerable value both to the professional man and the ordinary man of business, who, before undertaking an action or defending one, will do well to consult this concise work. To have brought within such reasonable compass the essence, so to speak, of Blackstone's elaborate work must have been a severe task, and we trust the author will be rewarded according to his merits for the useful labour he has accomplished. All who simplify and make intelligible our English laws are real benefactors to the public."

IRON, March 29, 1873.

"This volume of 352 pages, containing in its four books the legal principles and practical information embraced in the four large and costly tomes of 'Blackstone,' is fitly dedicated by permission to Lord Chancellor Selborne, who promises to make a knowledge of the law possible to that large class of men who squander among lawyers a vast amount of wealth, chiefly because their pursuits and the want of books

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like Mr. Aird's have rendered any acquaintance with the philosophy of law a sheer impossibility. Mr. Aird has perfected this capital work through years of careful selection and re-touching, and his hours have been well spent, for in condensing 'Blackstone,' and supplementing it by subsequent statutory enactments and important legal decisions, he has produced a work at once sound and useful, which is entitled to challenge a place among the best books of reference in the library of every gentleman in England."

SUNDAY TIMES, Jan. 25, 1873.

"The present is no longer a time for large books. Those who have time to study at length a work of utmost importance are not many, and the general mass of the public takes its information more and more constantly from short essay or compendious treatise. Without stopping to discuss at present the wisdom of this course, we point out a fact that few will dispute. From the prevalence of habits of the kind there has resulted a necessity for such work as Student's Hume, Student's Gibbon, and the like, for not even the masterpieces of learning can command respect and attention for the present most hurried of generations. Mr. Aird has, accordingly, rendered a genuine service to a large number of readers in bringing within the compass of one handy volume all the information contained in the four volumes of 'Blackstone's Commentaries.' Mr. Aird is himself a lawyer, and is master of the subject on which he writes. While leaving out, then, all such matters as are cumbrous, rather than useful, and giving an excellent digest of whatever is of value in Blackstone's noble work, he has carried the information to the present time, has incorporated in the book all recent statutes, and has rendered his volume a thoroughly sensible companion to all who are interested in the study of the law. It is seldom, indeed, so useful a task has fallen into so competent hands, or a work, so thoroughly practical in scope and in detail, has been executed so completely as a labour of love."

WEEKLY TIMES, Jan. 11, 1873.

"Law reform is a subject that is certain to occupy for some time to come the minds of all the legal magnates of the realm. It is not only simplicity in the law itself that is imperatively required, but the roundabout mode of procedure needs to be thoroughly recast in a more simple form. Whether the change will ultimately assume the lineaments of a code, or whether the 'learned gentlemen' will be satisfied with a condensation, remains to be seen. The anomalies of the law, as at present administered, crop up every day, and the unnecessary trouble and waste of time suitors are compelled to submit to is apparent to every judge on the bench, from the Lord Chancellor downwards. There is scarcely an Act of Parliament on which three judges can be found to agree, either as to its meaning or its application. The expenses and legal forms in the conveyance of property, whether land or houses, are such that they may be considered a disgrace to the State and people that tolerate them. No reason exists, except in the necessities of interested conveyancers, why the owner of a house should not be able to change it into money almost as easily as a five-pound note, or with equal facility as a railway share on the Stock Exchange. But these are not the only absurdities; our whole system of jurisprudence is a chaotic jumble, the language of the law a jargon, and its decisions a matter of accidentso much so, that 'the glorious uncertainty of the law' has passed into

a proverb. To all those who endeavour to help us out of this quagmire we ought to be deeply grateful; and Mr. Aird, in condensing Blackstone' within less than three hundred and fifty pages of a small octavo book, deserves well of his country. Mr. Aird addresses himself especially to students of the law, and in language which all can understand. He has divided his subject into four heads. Book I. treats of the 'Nature of the Laws of England'; Book II., the 'Rights of Things'; Book III., 'Private Wrongs'; and Book IV. refers to 'Public Wrongs.' As far as seems possible to condense Blackstone,' it appears to have been attempted here, and carried out successfully. The idea derives great interest from the fact that the book is dedicated, by his lordship's permission, to the Right Honourable Roundell, Baron Selborne.' We congratulate the author in having given us 'Blackstone in a nutshell.'"

NAVAL AND MILITARY GAZETTE, April 19, 1873.

"Hitherto men of liberal education in other professions than that of law have been prevented from becoming acquainted with legal principles as affecting the various ranks of men by the want of a book of this sort, and by the size and obscurities of existing works. There are plenty of handbooks for Common Law practice, of which the less one knows the better; but no elucidation in the philosophical spirit of Blackstone of those principles of English jurisprudence which ought to be—and may now be-familiar to every educated Englishman.

"The author of this excellent compendium, which gives, in the space of 352 pages, and in the simplest form, the legal principles and information contained in the four portly volumes of the original. He has done well in working at so admirable a condensation for years, and he very fitly dedicates it, by permission, to the most hopeful living law reformer, Lord Selborne."

THE CHRISTIAN STANDARD, Jan. 16, 1873.

"The title-page of this volume, though somewhat copious, does not convey an adequate idea of the value of the work. To popularise the leading laws of England, so as that all classes of the community should be able to form a practical comprehension of them, has long been felt to be one of the greatest desiderata of the age. It has been reserved for Mr. Aird to supply this desideratum. Though his work has chiefly in view the convenience and benefit of the student of law, he has written it in so simple, so perspicuous, and so popular a manner, that it will be read with hardly less interest and hardly less fullness of understanding by intelligent laymen, than by those who are studying for the Bar. From the evidences of arduous labour with which the work abounds we can readily believe that it has, as he states, occupied the author's leisure hours for years. It will greatly facilitate the acquisition of legal knowledge of the greatest importance on the part of all those who are preparing for the profession of the law. To such young men Mr. Aird will be found to have proved a benefactor. He has very ably executed his work, and we doubt not that it will become a standard book in the law literature of the land."

THE OXFORD TIMES, April 26, 1873.

"Both students and non-students of law will receive with gratitude this able condensation of a never-to-be-supplanted work. To the former it gives in the compass of one volume the substance of the four original

volumes of commentaries, supplemented by subsequent statutory enactments and important legal decisions, and to the latter it offers what till lately would have been despaired of as unattainable-a perfectly readable and comprehensible digest of the laws of England. The demon of common-sense which directs our age having effectually broken with its sacrilegious finger the magic web of legal tautology and ambiguity, we may expect that the study of law will no longer be confined to aspirants for the Bar, who were formerly supposed to be qualified with an especial taste for the unravelment of enigmas, but will become a recognised part of a sound and liberal education. By means of the interrogatory system which the author has adopted, there is no reason why one quite unacquainted with the subject should not soon become proficient in all the branches of the law which go to make up our complex Constitution; and if, from a professional point of view, the student should seek afterwards to gain an insight into old and obsolete enactments, it is at least certain their jargon of technicalities will do less to repel and bewilder a brain made conversant in ordinary phraseology with the principles which underlie even the most barbarous edicts. If we state that the work is enriched by an analysis of contents, and is for facility of reference divided into four books under the headings of 'The Nature of Laws in General,' 'The Rights of Things,' 'Private Wrongs,' and 'Public Wrongs,' we shall perhaps have said enough to show its practical merit, and lead all those who desire to obtain the knowledge which, says Edmund Burke, 'does more to expand and ennoble the mind than any other species of study,' to test for themselves its value."

OXFORD UNDERGRADUATES' JOURNAL, May 17, 1873.

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"To any undergraduate proposing to enter upon a course of study with a view to a knowledge of Modern Legal History and English Law, the above work must be acknowledged to be a most useful introduction. Founded upon and following the method adopted by the celebrated author of the 'Commentaries,' divided like that work into dissertations upon 1: The Nature of Laws in General.' 2. Upon the Rights of Things. 3. On Private Wrongs,' and 4. On Public Wrongs,' the reader finds in a small compass the compressed essence, so to speak, of that voluminous and laborious work, and of the equally voluminous recent editions of those Commentaries.' It must be a source of infinite satisfaction and laudation to the Undergraduates of Oxford that one of their own class ripened into the learned and accomplished author; that another has arrived at the all-coveted post of Lord High Chancellor of England. It may be noticed en passant that the permission to dedicate the above work to Lord Selborne was accorded to the author. The subjects treated of comprise the whole of those referred to by Blackstone, supplemented by statutory enactments and important legal decisions. The general character of the several topics commented upon by the author being the same as those contained in Blackstone's 'Commentaries,' naturally lead up to a knowledge of the necessary answers to be given to the questions propounded for the examination of those intending to pass for Modern History and Law,' by the University Examiners in those departments; a reference to those questions for the examination of 1872, as printed by the University authorities, will fully bear out the correctness of this assertion, and the student, instead of having to wade through the several editions of Blackstone, will here find in a condensed form all the information necessary to enable him to pass such

an examination. Upon the whole, it is unquestionably the First Book on English Law which should be placed in the hands of every student, or any other Englishman desirous of a general knowledge of the grounds of our Jurisprudence, and their practical application."

OXFORD CHRONICLE, Jan. 11, 1873.

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"The author of this very useful and well-timed work, which must have cost a great deal of thought as well as of labour, states, in his preface, that 'his object is to place before the student the "Principles of the Laws of England” adapted to the present state of the law, in a simple form, excluding all extraneous matter,' and this important point we think he has most satisfactorily accomplished. The work is divided into four books (each book containing many chapters). Book I., 'Of the Nature of Laws in General'; Book II., The Rights of Things'; Book III., 'Private Wrongs'; Book IV., 'Public Wrongs.' A copious index is added. The name of Blackstone still carries such weight in the legal world, that no better authority could have been adopted to win the public attention to any attempt to popularise and economise his great work, and to fit it to be the medium of all important additions, alterations, and improvements in the law made since his time. To fix attention the interrogatory system is adopted. Mr. Aird highly eulogises the advantage and profit he gained by attending the lectures of the respective Readers of the Inns of Court, and strongly advises all students to attend them, in spite of the invidious remarks made on them by some. He also acknowledges his obligations to his esteemed friend, William Heath Bennet, Esq., of Lincoln's Inn-a gentleman of large experience as a practising barrister, who has given the whole work, as it passed through the press, a careful revision.' Mr. Bennet, we believe, is now a resident in Oxford, and gives courses of lectures on law. With this valuable compendium in one hand and the original work of Blackstone beside him, the law student would find it a most interesting part of his professional course to compare both works, and to note down the alterations and changes introduced by Mr. Aird. This plan would rivet his attention the more, being the result of his own self-application; and the value and importance of Mr. Aird's laborious undertaking would thus be more thoroughly appreciated. The work is dedicated, by permission, to the present Lord Chancellor, the elder brother of the Oxford Professor of Latin."

CAMBRIDGE INDEPENDENT PRESS, March 1, 1873. "This neat little volume of 342 pages contains an excellent epitome of the larger edition of Blackstone's celebrated Commentaries.' It will, we think, prove of great assistance to the student, as it conveys a good general idea of the larger work, embracing the salient features, and giving just such an outline as renders it a less difficult and irksome task to master the more minute portions of the 'Commentaries.' The author has arranged the work in the form of questions and answers, which will prove useful to the student in testing the accuracy of his reading, while at the same time, for the general reader, this method has the merit of conciseness. The treatise of Blackstone is faithfully followed, and amplified by the most recent alterations in the law. We have tested the work in various ways, and in no case have we been at a loss to discover the information we needed, given shortly, but still with clearness, and without being disguised in legal phraseology, which might render the explanation difficult for any but a lawyer to understand. As