Telegraph By a recent decision of the Court of Civil Appeals of Texas, a provision on a telegraph message that the company shall be liable only for the cost of transmission, unless the Companies message is repeated, is waived if the sender, some time after sending the message, suggests to the agent that it be repeated, and the agent says that this would be useless, as the message had gone through "all right:" West. Union Tel. Co.. Reeves, 27 S. W. Rep. 318; but the Appellate Court of Indiana holds that a telegraph company is not liable to a penalty for failure to transmit messages impartially, when it inadvertently receives a message for transmission to a point at which it has no office: Peterson v. West. Union Tel. Co.,. 37 N. F. Rep. 810. Trade-Marka The Privy Council of England has lately rendered an interesting trade-mark decision, on appeal from New South Wales, in Natl. Starch Mfg. Co. v. Munn's Pat. Maizena & Starch Co. [1894] App. Cas. 275. The appellants had invented the word "Maizena" for their product in 1856, but had never registered it in the colony until 1889, although they had registered it and enforced it in other countries, and had allowed it to be used as a term descriptive of the general article rather than of their own manufacture. It was accordingly held that the word had become publici juris, and could not be registered as a trade-mark; and further, that as the respondents, in applying the word to their own manufacture, did not try to pass it off as that of the appellants, by the use of labels and packets calculated to deceive the public on that point, but on the contrary stated the name of the maker, the place of manufacture, and other necessary particulars, they would not be restrained from using it. Vendor and The Supreme Court of Kansas has ruled that when a vendor sells and delivers goods at prices and on terms of payment definitely fixed by the contract, but reVendee tains the right to elect to take back the goods remaining unsold by the vendec, as the property of the vendor, the latter is not the owner of the goods until after the actual exercise of such election, and creditors of the vendee, who attach those goods prior to any clection by the vendor, acquire a valid lien thereon: Moline Plow Co. v. Rodgers, 37 Pac. Rep. 111, But according to the Court of Errors and Appeals of New Jersey, when goods are sold on the terms that the vendce shall give notes for the purchase price, but that the title shall remain in the vendor until a mortgage given to secure the notes or the price is paid, and no rights of innocent third parties intervene, the title continues in the vendor, though he recovers judgment on the notes, and after such judgment he may reclaim the goods by replevin: Campbell Print. Press. & Mfg. Co. v. Rockaway Publ. Co., 29 Atl. Rep. 681. The Supreme Court of New Hampshire holds that specific bequests to named legatees, to take effect at the death of testator's wife, vest at the death of testator: Hall Wills v. Wiggin, 29 Atl. Rep. 671; and the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania has decided that if no trustees are appointed, a proviso that an absolute bequest of a life estate shall not be liable to the debts of the donec will not protect it from sale by creditors (which is a most wise limitation of the doctrine of spendthrift trusts): Ehrisman v. Sener, 29 Atl. Rep. 719; and that the word "between" in reference to twoclasses of devisees will make a distribution per stirpes, and not per capita, in spite of the frequent confusion of that word with the word "among:" Ihrie's Est. (Levy's App.), 29 Atl.. Rep. 750. [All legal works received before the first of the month will be reviewed in the issue of the month following. Books should be sent to W. S. Ellis, Esq.. 738 Drexel Building, Philadelphia, Pa.] DIGEST OF INSURANCE CASES, for the year ending October 31, 1893. THE LAW Of Pleading UNDER THE Codes of CIVIL, PROCEDURE. A TREATISE ON DISPUTED HANDWRITING AND THE DETERMINATION COMPOSITION OF INKS, ETC. By WILLIAM E. HAGAN, Expert in THE HISTORICal DevelopmeNT OF THE JURY SYSTEM. BY MAXIMUS THE LAW OF THE MASTER'S LIABILITY FOR INJURIES TO Servant. By W. F. BAILEY. St. Paul, Minn.: West Publishing Co. RESTRICTIONS UPON LOCAL AND SPECIAL LEGISLATION IN STATE CON. STITUTIONS. By CHARLES CHAUNCEY BINNEY, of the Philadelphia Bar. Philadelphia: Kay & Brother, 1894. AN ILLUSTRATED DICTIONARY OF MEDICAL BIOLOGY AND Allied SCIENCES. BY GEORGE M. GOULD, A.M., M.D. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. A LEGAL DOCUMENT OF BABYLONIA. By MORRIS JASTROW, Ph.D. From the "Oriental Studies" of the Oriental Club of Philadelphia. 1894. OUTLINE STUDY OF LAW. By ISAAC FRanklin Russell, D.C.L., LL.D. New York: L. K. Strouse & Co., 1894. THE NATURE OF THE STATE. BY DR. PAUL CARUS. Chicago: The Open Court Publishing Co., 1894. THE FOREIGN JURISDICTION OF THE BRITISH CROWN. BY W. E. HALL, M. A. MacMillan & Co.: New York, 1894. PRECEDENTS AND FORMS OF INDICTMENTS, INFORMATION, COMPLAINTS, ETC., ETC., ADAPTED TO PRACTICE IN UNITED STATES CRIMINAL AND CIVIL CASES. Together with Forms and Instructions pertaining to the accounts and fees of U. S. Attorneys and Commissioners. By OLIVER E. PAGIN, Asst. U. S. Attorney for N. D. of Illinois. Chicago: Callaghan & Co., 1894. We have also received the following pamphlets, etc. : JEWETT'S MANUAL FOR ELECTION OFFICERS AND VOTERS IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK, containing General Election Law and Town Meeting Law. With Notes, Forms and Instructions. Matthew Bender, Albany, N. Y. VANDEGRIFT'S HAND-BOOK OF THE UNITED STATES TARIFF, containing the Custom Tariff Act of 1894, etc. F. B. Vandegrift & Co., New York. REPORT OF THE FIRST ANNUAL MEETING OF THE TERRITORIAL BAR ASSOCIATION OF UTAH. 1894. TREATIES AND TOPICS IN AMERICAN DIPLOMACY. BY FREEMAN SNOW, Ph.D., LL.B. The Boston Book Company. 1894. For several years past the subject of the maintenance of peaceful relations between the leading nations of the world has received an unusual degree of attention. The most important of the resolutions adopted by the Pan-American Congress, which met in Washington in 1889, was that which favored the establishment of a system of international arbitrations which should settle all future disputes between ourselves and the republics of South America. A resolution has recently been introduced into Congress looking toward the introduction of a similar system as regards Great Britain. The highly satisfactory outcome of the Behring Sea Arbitrations has contributed much toward the substitution of a judicial procedure in the adjustment of international differences for the old-fashioned arbitrament of the sword. There never was a time when greater interest was taken in the subject of international relations than at present. It is, therefore, with especial interest that we make mention in these columns of the above-entitled work by Dr. FREEMAN SNOW, who has for many years occupied the chair of International Law at Harvard University. Although compiled primarily for the use of his classes in that institution, and of students of the same subject in other colleges, Dr. Snow has here given us a work which is likely to prove of the greatest value, not only to those who are interested in studying the history of our times, but also to those members of our bar who, in the practice of their profession, are called upon to deal with questions affecting international rights and the interpretation and enforcement of the provisions of the numerous treaties into which our Government has entered. The first half of this volume, denominated Part I, contains the full text of the most important treaties which have been 677 made either by our government with foreign powers, or between different foreign powers, with respect to the rights of this country, beginning with the Treaty of Utrecht between England and France in the year 1713, and ending with the convention for the settlement of the Behring Sea controversy in 1892. Among the treaties included by Dr. Snow in this collection may be mentioned the Treaties of Alliance and of Amity and Commerce, negotiated by Dr. Franklin with the French Government in 1778; the Treaty of Peace, negotiated with Great Britain in 1783; the Jay Treaty of 1794; the Treaty for the Cession of Louisiana of 1803, and the numerous treaties relating to the Canadian fisheries. This volume includes either the full text of, or large extracts from, treaties made at various times by our government with nearly every civilized nation. Part II of Dr. Snow's book is entitled "Topics in American Diplomacy," and contains a series of three carefully written essays upon the subjects of "The Monroe Doctrine," "The Fisheries Question," and "The Behring Sea Arbitration." Under the first of these three heads he discusses the origin and history of the Monroe doctrine, and points out how it has exerted an influence in bringing about general congresses and international conferences of the various nations of North and South America-such, for instance, as the Panama Congress of 1826, the Congress of Lima of 1847, and the Pan-American Congress of 1889, of which the late Mr. Blaine, who was then our Secretary of State, was president. Dr. SNow also discusses the effect of the Monroe doctrine, at different periods of our history, upon our relations with Cuba, San Domingo, Samoa and the Hawaiian Islands. His concluding essays upon "The Fisheries Question" and "The Behring Sca Arbitration" contain a succinct account of the manner in which the important questions involved in those famous controversies arose, became the subject of extensive negotiations, and were finally determined, in the one case, by a series of treaties, in the other by the adjudications of an impartial international tribunal. It is not too much to say that this volume fills a place and |
