§12 
Book I. Of bankruptcy in general. 
Part 1. Commissions previous to is- 
suing a commission. 
Introductory chapter. 
Chap. 1. What persons are liable to be 
bankrupts. 
Chap. 11. The plan of dealing. 
Chap. 111. The debt of the petitioning 
creditor. 
Chap. 1v. The act of bankruptcy. 
‘The appendix gives all the statutes, 
with the cases at length, as far as they 
apply to the subject of the text. The 
analysis is similarly limited. 
At first sight it must occur to every 
reader, that the plan of Mr. Montagu is 
too voluminous, ‘Ihe notes upon the 
text contain a full statement of the sub- 
stance of the cases where there is any 
doubt. Can there then be any necessity 
to subjoin in the appendix the cases at 
length? All professional men have 
already upon their shelves, at no easy 
price, the cases of which the summary is 
given; and, it may be presumed, will 
consult their reports, whenever they have 
to form or advance an opinion on a ques- 
tion which may be agitated in the courts. 
‘Yo reprint, therefore, these cases in the 
appendix, appears to us not only unuse- 
ful, but high!) objectionable: it very 
greatly increases the size and price of 
the work without adding at all to its va- 
jue. But the author states in his pre- 
LAW. 
face that his reasons for doing this were, 
Ist, T'o exhibit a perfect body of the 
bankrupt laws, together with its growth 
and gradual improvement ; 2dly, To su- 
persede the necessity of referring to a 
whole library for the scattered decisions; 
3dly, To enable the reader to refer at 
once to the authority for the law stated 
in the text; 4thly, To prevent the pos- 
sible mis-statement of the import of a 
case in the notes from being the cause of 
error. 
We hope Mr. Montagu will reconsider 
these reasons before the publication of the 
further parts of his work. To us they 
are very far from carrying conviction, 
The public have only a right to exact 
from an author a faithful reference to, or 
statement of his authorities: m reason- 
ing upon them he is not to be expected 
to be infallible; nor is he intitled to more 
favour for his mistakes because he obliges 
his readers to pay over again for the 
means of their correction. 
For the text and subjoined notes Mr. 
Montagu is intitled to considerable 
praise. He has obviously read much, 
and digested his materials with great 
care; but from the compression of the 
matter in the text, and its strict analyti- 
cal arrangement, it is calculated more 
for the memory and occasional reference 
than for direct reading. 
Art. VIII. “4 Compendium of the Laws respecting the Poor, including the Digest of 
Bott's Poor Laws, with the adjudged Cases and Acts of Parliament, continued to Easter 
Term 1803. 8vo. pp. 821. 
THE great utility and extensive sale 
of Bott’s poor laws, as improved by Mr. 
Const, induced the editor to publish this 
enlargement of the digest which accom- 
panies that work, by adding the parlia- 
mentary provisions and legal adjudica- 
tions which have been since made. 
He also proposed to himself to pre- 
sent by this work an epitome of those 
laws which should furnish to the practi- 
tioners at sessions, and to parish officers, 
every necessary information, without oc- 
easioning them the trouble or expence of 
the compilation at large. But in order 
to make it of the most extensive use, it 
still contains the references, as an index, 
to Mr. Const’s book. , 
It may be regretted, however, that the 
editor did not thoroughly revise the 
work as a digest, and omit all obsolete and 
unnecessary matter; for though this might 
not have been required for it as an in- 
dex, and would have been laborions, yet 
it would have conferred much greater 
value upon the performance, and have 
secured that confidence which is neces- 
sary to it when intended to be used as 
an original work. 
’ In the appendix a sketch is given of 
one or two of those acts of parliament 
which have been found by particular pa~ 
rishes to have been so useful in the regu- 
lation of their poor. 
Art. FX. The Solicitor's Practice on the Crown Side of the Court ef King's Bench: with 
an Appendix containing the Forms of the Proceedings, &c, 
Selicitor. 
THE amthor’s view in this produc- 
tion is to assist professional men in the 
8vo. pp. 524. 
By Witiiam Hanps, 
actual practice of crown law. He has, 
in the first place, treated in distinct chap. 
