CONTEMPORARY FOREIGN LITERATURE.

Droit et Aerostats. By ERNEST NYS, Professor at the University of Brussels. Brussels: 1902.

This is a reprint of an article in the Revue de Droit International, and gives in a convenient form all the law, international and otherwise, arising from the development, partly actual, but mostly hypothetical, of aerial navigation.

Rassegna di Giurisprudenza Inglese in Materia di Obbligazioni. By MARIO SARFATTI. Milan : 1902.

This brochure of nineteen pages has a somewhat extensive title, making one wonder how so small a book can contain a review of the whole English law on the subject. It appears however, on examination, that there are only eight somewhat thin essays dealing with particular points, such as vis major, wagering contracts, and married women's property. The learned author, like most foreigners, finds some difficulty in quoting the English authorities. Il giudice C. Hardy needs a little thinking out, and so does Taylor v. G. Ry.

PERIODICALS.

Deutsche Juristen-Zeitung. 1 October-1 December, 1902. Berlin. At page 525 is an article by Dr. Manes, of London on the litigation which has arisen in England with regard to seats for the Coronation procession. He tests the matter by the provisions of the Civil Code, by which apparently some of the decisions would be good and others not. In other parts of this valuable periodical points which could not arise in England are discussed. For instance, who bears the costs of proceedings for divorce on the ground of lunacy? Can the decisory oath be administered to a party who has deposited security?

Rivista di Diritto Internazionale e di Legislazione Comparata. July-September, 1902. Naples.

Two articles will interest English jurists, one by Professor Enrico Catellani on consular courts in the East, the other by Professor Gennaro Mondaini on spheres of influence. Both have the advantage of being fully illustrated by original documents.

La Giustizia Penale. 29 September-1 December, 1902. Rome. This contains a complete digest of the more important Italian

decisions for over two months, and is edited with the skill and completeness which is expected in a periodical of such high standing. One or two decisions of interest may be noted. A witness supposed to be under fourteen gives evidence not on oath. It afterwards appears that he was over fourteen at the time. The evidence need not be rejected on appeal. It is apparently a matter for the discretion of the Court of Appeal whether or not it is to be taken into account (p. 1229). A soldier on active service is a person d'ignota dimora within Art. 311 of the Code of Penal Procedure (p. 1230). The cycle tax does not extend to automobiles (p. 1366).

JAMES WILLIAMS.

WORKS OF REFERENCE.

The Lawyer's Companion and Diary, 1903. Edited by E. LAYMAN, B.A. London: Stevens & Sons.

The Legal Diary and Almanack, 1903. London: Waterlow Bros. & Layton. These two well-known publications contain, in addition to a diary for every day in the year, much information both of a legal and general character, including a list of Stamp Duties, Tables of Costs, an Index to Practical Statutes, &c. The contents of both Diaries appear to have been carefully revised to date, and the various lists, so far as we have been able to test them, are free from inaccuracies.

The Lawyer's Remembrancer, 1903. Compiled by ARTHUR POWELL, K.C., London: Butterworth & Co.-A very useful little work. Special articles on the new Rules, and on the Conduct of a Trial are included in the present edition, and the whole of the contents has received a thorough revision. The handy size of the book allows of its being easily carried in the pocket.

Fry's Royal Guide to the London Charities. Edited by JOHN LANE. London: Chatto & Windus. 1903. This guide, giving as it does a full list of the various London Charities, together with their incomes and needs, will be found extremely useful by solicitors when settling testamentary dispositions, and by others who may have money for distribution. The information given is clear and concise, and is just what is wanted in these days when busy men have not the time to turn over thick volumes or read long statements.

Who's Who, 1903. London: A. & C. Black.-This well-known work of reference, which now reaches its fifty-fifth year of issue, is perhaps the best Annual of its class. Many of the tables that found a place in the previous issues of this book have had to be removed in order to allow more space for the biographical section, which has grown considerably during recent years. The publishers will, we understand, re-issue these tables separately in the near future, and we think this course far preferable to increasing the bulk of what is now a most handy biographical dictionary. The contents of the present issue have been revised to the end of September last, and are remarkably complete and accurate.

Whitaker's Almanack, 1903. London: Whitaker & Sons.-This Annual is so well-known and deservedly popular that any praise from us would appear somewhat superfluous. Some idea of the manner in which the Almanack has expanded may be gathered from the fact that since its foundation the size of the work has more than doubled, the present volume containing 792 pages as against 367 in the first number. Many new articles have been added, and the permanent features have all been thoroughly revised up to the time of going to press. Amongst the new articles are those on the Education Bill, An Aspect of the Temperance Question, Copyright, &c. The book treats of almost every subject, and is well-nigh indispensable as a work of reference.

Other books and publications received:-Addison's Law of Contracts; Carson's Real Property Statutes; Ashburner's Principles of Equity; Smith's Principles of Equity; Beven's Employers' Liability and Workmen's Compensation ; The Yearly County Court Practice, 1903; Dicey's Law of the Constitution; Williams and Macklin's Evidence on Commission; Ellis's Trustee Acts; A. B. C. Guide to Practice, 1903; Indermaur and Thwaites' Guide to Procedure; Every Man's Own Lawyer; Tomlinson and Wright's Statutory Prayer Book; Are Prayers for the Dead Superstitious? (Elliot Stock); The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science; Bulletin 76, New York State Library ; The Alaska-Canada Boundary Dispute (T. Hodgins, M.A.).

The Law Magazine and Review receives or exchanges with the following amongst other publications:-Review of Reviews, Juridical Review, Public Opinion, Law Times, Law Journal, Justice of the Peace, Law Quarterly Review, Irish Law Times, Australian Law Times, Speaker, Accountants' Journal, Canada Law Journal, Canada Law Times, Chicago Legal News, American Law Review, American Law Register, Harvard Law Review, Case and Comment, Green Bag, Virginia Law Register, American Lawyer, Albany Law Journal, Madras Law Journal, Calcutta Weekly Notes, Law Notes, Queensland Law Journal, Law Students' Journal, Westminster Review, Bombay Law Reporter, Medico-Legal Journal, Indian Review, Kathiawar Law Reports, The Lawyer (India), South African Law Journal, Yale Law Journal, New Jersey Law Journal, Columbia Law Review, Japan Register.

THE

LAW MAGAZINE AND REVIEW.

No. CCCXXVIII.-MAY, 1903.

THE

I.-LEGAL ETYMOLOGY.

HE etymology of legal terms has exercised the ingenuity of writers from Plato down to modern times. The combined fascination and utility (at any rate apparent) of the pursuit has led some writers to use quite enthusiastic terms about it. Thus Plato says, ὃς ἂγ τὰ ὀνόματα ἐπίστηται ἐπίστασθαι καὶ τὰ πράγματα (Cratylus, 435). This is quite in accordance with a philosophy which taught that the knowledge of words was ipso facto a knowledge of things. Coke, though no Platonist, approaches very near Plato where he says, "The names of things are for avoiding of confusion diligently to be observed,"1 a rule which he violates as often as he keeps. In another place he says, "Here (as in many other places) it appeareth how necessary it is to know the signification of words."2

In the Semitic languages the Talmud, the Zohar, and other works, are a mine of strange etymologies of legal terms, mostly depending on what is to the Western mind the wildest juggling with letters and numbers. Among non-Semitic peoples the Greeks and Latins early occupied themselves in the matter, partly in lexicographical works, such as those of Harpocration and Moris, and, in the Lower Empire, Suidas and the Etymologicon Magnum, partly in

distinct treatises, such as the Cratylus of Plato. The etymologies of the Cratylus are so amazing that Jowett suggests that the writer was partly in jest and partly in earnest, an explanation offered at a later date, as will be seen, in favour of some of the Latin ones. The only legal ones seem to be dikalov from diator, because justice runs through all things, and déov, obligation, suggested to be of foreign origin. Among the more specialised writers of a later date may be named Isidorus, Spelman, and last of all Ceci.1 The ordinary legal works, especially the Corpus Juris and Lord Coke passim, offer a rich field of research, and so do some of the works of non-legal writers, such as Aulus Gellius, Solinus, Dante, Stephanus (Thesaurus), and others, until we finally arrive at the last word-for the present at least-in Drs. Skeat and Murray.

The Romans seem to have attributed an undue value to etymology in law, if one may judge by what Gellius says of Antistius Labeo, Latinarum vocum origines rationesque percalluerat, eaque præcipue scientia ad enodandos plerosque juris laqueos utebatur. On this point the words of Dr. H. J. Roby may also be cited: "The practice of drawing inferences of law from etymology is not confined to the old Roman lawyers, and is not purged of its mischief by the etymology's being, as it sometimes is, probably right. The actual meaning of a word is determined by its use, not by its origin." The earliest Roman writer of importance for this subject

"3

1 The most modern authority seems to be Luigi Ceci, Le Etimologie dei Giurisconsulti Romani (Turin, 1892). By this learned writer the present writer has continually been guided in much of what follows.

2 xiii, 10. His derivations of frater and soror (see below) do not seem very happy results.

3 Roman Private Law, vol. i, p. xvi (1902). An example of an inference of law from etymology may perhaps be seen in testamentum, the accepted derivation of which no doubt led to a disproportionate discussion of the mental element in a Roman will. Another instance would be the Spanish etymology of Saracen (see below), which would tend to make the Spanish Christian regard the Mahommedan as subject to the legal disabilities attaching to the Jew..