714 MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND ART. 



tion, since it appears calculated to develope in the student a mere mechanical 

 ingenuity, similar to what is derived from a familiar acquaintance with the 

 diagrams of the Chinese puzzle. 



AN ALARM ON THE RIGHTS OF THE POOR AND PROPERTY OF THE RICH, IN 

 DANGER FROM A SUPPOSED LAW REFORM. BY GEOKGE STRICKLAND, 

 ESQ., M. P. JAMES RIDGEWAY, PICCADILLY. 



THIS is a pamphlet by the honourable member for one of the Ridings of 

 Yorkshire, upon the subject of the bills introduced into the House of Commons 

 in the present session, by the Solicitor General, for a very extensive alteration 

 in the laws of inheritance and dower. 



The first of these bills is for a limitation of the term of actions upon real 

 property, from a period of sixty years, which for centuries has been the law 

 of England, to twenty years, from and after the 31st December, 1833. This 

 change will very obviously operate to the signal disadvantage and defeat of 

 many unfortunate claimants of estates, who, by reason of poverty, the delay of 

 the law, or the wealth of opponents, may by this enactment be henceforth 

 shut out from all chance of prosecuting the most just claims. To those who 

 are aware of the extreme difficulty of forming a pedigree, which is always 

 indispensible, and usually, by reason of the' loss of parish registers, the 

 defacement or destruction of monuments, or the possession of documents 

 by the opposing party a process of many years in duration, it becomes appa- 

 rent that an unreasonable limitation of the term to a period of twenty 

 years, will bar the efforts of the majority of claimants, and shield the 

 unjust possessors of many large estates. The second clause has a retrospec- 

 tive operation, limiting the period for actions upon all now resting claims 

 to twenty years from- the commencement of the supposed right. A number 

 of instances of extreme hardship and oppression under this enactment have 

 been detailed in petitions to the House of Commons against the measure ; 

 and Mr. Strickland, in terms of great humanity, and with a very consider- 

 able knowledge of the law of real property, enters his protest against this 

 very unjust bill. 



By the other bill, the Solicitor General proposes to annul the right of 

 dower. This Mr. Strickland chivalrously opposes ; but we most cordially 

 applaud it. As the law now stands, a purchaser of any freehold is under 

 the necessity of getting it conveyed for a term of one thousand years or so, 

 to a friend, for the purpose of barring dower, otherwise he would never be 

 able to dispose of it again without the sanction of his wife. The proposed 

 bill would do away with this expensive absurdity. 



THE GERMAN READER. BY ADOLPHUS BERNAYS. LONDON : 



TREUTTEL AND Co. 



WE are no advocates for that new-fangled system of education " the 

 gallop of intellect," as it maybe called, which professes to make the student 

 clear the rugged hill of science at a leap. We are old-fashioned enough still 

 to put faith in the Italian proverb, " Chi va piano, va sano, ed anchc lonitano." 

 In education, we should say that M. Bernays is a doctrinaire, for he has hit 

 upon a "juste milieu " between the old and new systems. The interlinear 

 translations are so judiciously given, that the curiosity of the student is ex- 

 cited without being enervated, and the idiomatic peculiarities of the German are 

 so skilfully grouped, and placed in such juxtaposition, that they are mastered 

 at a single glance. The selections are pleasing and well chosen. In fact, 

 we have never seen a work more calculated to facilitate the acquirement of 

 the German tongue. Compared to many of its kind, the traveller will find 

 it is as superior as the macadamized highways of the duchy of Nassau to 

 the sandy roads of Hanover and the north of Prussia. 



