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easy Latin, yet the two writers do not agree at all in putting it into English. Willoughby reads: "bound together by the compact of justice and the communication of utility." Carlyle, on the other hand, has it: "united under a common law and in enjoyment of a common wellbeing." These obviously are very different thoughts. The reviewer himself is on record as having rendered the passage in question as follows: "united by a common sense of right and by a community of interest." This of course is something quite different from either of the renderings given above. For one interested in the small things which in science are often great, it would seem worth while to give considerable attention to the question as to which of these three translations comes the nearest to the expression of Cicero's actual thought. Possibly, however, the whole situation arises from the fact that Cicero here, as a "well-mannered philosophical amateur," had no precise thought at all, but expressed a somewhat vague notion as to the foundation of a popular state in words that were instinctively selected more from the rhetorical point of view than with reference to precise connotation.

Still another topic which yields an interesting comparison of the two historians and indeed Professor Sidgwick also might be considered here is that of the Roman jurists' doctrines as to ius naturale and ius gentium. Willoughby devotes eighteen pages to this subject and presents therein with some fullness the ideas of Maine, Clark, Muirhead, Nettleship, Sohm and others whose names are suggestive of modern rather than ancient theories. Carlyle covers the general subject in only twelve pages (though there is further treatment under special heads later) and fortifies his discussion with citations from Gaius, Paulus, Ulpian, Florentinus, Tryphoninus and others whose names seem strikingly appropriate to the subject. But though the two historians differ most markedly in the method of dealing with the subject, the few facts and conclusions which are pertinent to a history of political theories are almost precisely the same in both works. And this raises the question whether it is really essential, in such works as these, to deal so seriously with the problems that cluster about the vagaries of Justinian's compilers in the selection of passages on the law of nature and the law of nations. Some half dozen phrases of the Digest embody all that has been historically of significance in the progress of strictly political thought, and this significance has come through reading into the phrases ideas of which the Roman jurists were wholly innocent. The subsequent history, not the prior history, of these phrases seems to be the field of the student of political theory. All the details as to relation of ius gentium and ius naturale in the Roman mind belong

really to the student of jurisprudence; and it will certainly be long before anything more in the way of material is necessary than what is so systematically and exhaustively presented in the great work of Voigt. WM. A. DUNNING.

Local Government in England. By JOSEPH REDLICH, edited with additions by FRANCIS W. HIRST. London, Macmillan & Co. Ltd., 1903. 2 vols.: xxvi, 427 PP; viii, 435 PP.

Reference has already been made in this JOURNAL (vol. xiv, p. 525) to the valuable scientific literature on English local government written outside of England. This work adds another to this class; and is distinctly the most comprehensive treatment of the subject yet published. The author is connected with the faculty of law and political science in the University of Vienna. Mr. Hirst has not merely translated the German text into a distinctively English style, but has also made corrections and many additions, including two new chapters written entirely by himself.

One half of the first volume is devoted to an historical account. After a brief survey of the development of the English constitution to the end of the eighteenth century, showing the relations between the central government and the local officials, there is a more detailed description of the steps in the reorganization of local government during the nineteenth century. This is not merely an account of parliamentary action; but discusses also the foundations of the new legislation in the political philosophy of Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, and its relation to the constitutional changes during the same period in the organization of the House of Commons. The results of the Reform Act of 1832 are seen in the reform of the poor laws and of the municipal corporations, the two measures being based on distinct and opposing principles - the one bureaucratic and plutocratic, the other democratic and autonomous. The next period includes the development of sanitary, police and educational legislation, and shows the tendency towards combining the contradictory principles of the preceding legislation into a harmonious system, based on a democratic franchise and central administrative control. And after the third Reform Act, there comes the measures by which the local government in the counties, county districts, poor law unions and rural parishes is made representative and democratic; while out of the patchwork of historical areas and conflicts of jurisdiction something like order and system is established.

Two-thirds of the entire work is a descriptive account of the existing local authorities and the system of central control. This again is much more than an analysis of statutory provisions regulating the administrative organization and powers; it includes also a careful investigation of the actual working of the various organs, the interpretation of difficult provisions of the statutes by the law courts, and the intricate financial arrangements.

Among the local authorities, first place is given to the municipal boroughs, the oldest of them, and the model for the constitution of the more recently created bodies. The description of municipal government adds a great deal to previous works on this subject. Besides a full statement of the legal position of the municipality and the statutory organization and powers of the town council, there are chapters on municipal politics, the internal machinery of town government, the functions of the boroughs and municipal finances. Of these, the accounts of political methods and the internal machinery of government are especially noteworthy. Municipal elections, we are told, tend to come more and more under the operation of the party system; but "the elections over, party color rapidly fades and absolutely disappears from the ordinary business of municipal administration." The methods of the town councils and the system of committees are fully set forth and illustrated; while for the first time one finds an adequate notice of that invaluable functionary in the English system, the town clerk. As is to be expected in a work written from the administrative rather than from the sociological point of view, the chapter on the sphere of municipal government is mainly a statement of statutory powers, and does not give illustrations of the detailed operations in different cities such as Mr. Albert Shaw has given in his books.

In its broad outlines county organization presents a similar picture to that of the municipal boroughs. In its operation, the democratic franchise has not given the mastery, nor even any direct share in county administration, to the agricultural laborers; and the county councils are composed mainly of the propertied classes, - "government by horse and trap." Even counties sending radicals to Parliament often elect councils conservative in tone. Nevertheless it can be said that the people now govern through the ruling classes, instead of being merely governed by them; and a spirit of progress has been superimposed "upon the traditional honesty and thrift of the old patriarchal style of administration."

Little more than mention can be made of the chapters on county districts, urban and rural, poor law unions, parishes and local educa

tional administration. The last includes an account of the Education Act of 1902 by Mr. Hirst. In general it may be pointed out that the legislation on all of these subjects applies the same main principles of local organization which govern the borough and county systems, while leaving ample room for local variations to suit widely different conditions. In this respect, the whole body of legislation on English local government is well worth the study of those trying to remedy the evils of special legislation in the United States.

One serious omission in the description of local authorities must be noted. There is no account of the administrative organization of the metropolis; and no satisfactory reason given for the omission.

In the examination of central administrative control, most attention is naturally given to the Local Government Board, with special reference to its two main divisions of poor law and public health. But there are also short descriptions of the supervision over local authorities exercised by the Home Secretary (mainly in reference to police), the Board of Education, the Board of Trade, the Board of Agriculture, and temporary commissions of inquiry. In this discussion, emphasis is constantly laid on the difference between the English methods of central control, and the bureaucratic centralization in the countries of continental Europe. The basis of the English system may be found in the dictum of John Stuart Mill that while "power may be localized, knowledge to be most useful must be centralized." This principle is applied by means of reports, inspections, audits of accounts, executive orders authorized by statute, and certain limited quasi-judicial powers of deciding appeals. And the results of these methods are strongly commended, as may be illustrated by the following extract with special reference to the police control:

Any attempt to set up a central department with power to lord it over the local authorities would be regarded as a direct encroachment upon the constitutional rights of citizens. It would be treated as an attack on the independence of the courts of law, and must inevitably fail. On the other hand, the leaders of conservative opinion would readily agree with liberal and radical statesmen that a return to the complete decentralization and independence of local police authorities which characterized the older system is unthinkable. It is universally recognized that the methods of prevention and detection used by the police should be similar in all parts of the country.

Concluding the descriptive section is a chapter on the control of Parliament and the law courts over local government. Here the author

repeats literally Mr. Dicey's statement that there is no administrative law in England, a statement which is at least open to misunderstanding. Mr. Redlich's own account itself shows that while there are no special administrative courts and no separate system of Administrative Law, there is a large amount of substantive administrative law, established by legislation, by executive orders and by judicial decisions, and incorporated in the law of the land. To say that England has no administrative law is almost as erroneous as to say there is no equity jurisprudence in those American states which have no separate body of chancery judges.

The third division of the work is a criticism of Professor Gneist's well known works on English local government and constitutional history. Not content with showing that recent legislation renders Gneist's books out of date as a description of present conditions, Mr. Redlich attacks the earlier writer's theories and general attitude in true German polemical style, and with an acerbity which seems to be actuated by a standing Austrian hostility to anything done by a Prussian.

In spite of these points of criticism, the solid constructive work of the authors ranks this as distinctly the best account of the existing English system of local government. Its scholarly character is further indicated by the apparatus of bibliographical references, footnotes, a table of law cases, a table of statutes and a fair index at the end of each volume.

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN.

JOHN A. FAIRLIE.

A Treatise on International Law. By WILLIAM EDWARD HALL. Fifth Edition, edited by J. B. ATLAY, of Lincoln's Inn, Barrister-atLaw. Oxford, at the Clarendon Press, 1904. — xxiv, 764 pp.

In the nine years that have elapsed since the appearance of the fourth edition of Hall's treatise, events of great importance in the intercourse of nations have occurred. Many of them will occupy a larger place in the history of diplomacy and foreign policy than in that of the law of nations; but some of them are of great importance for international law, and deserve a fuller treatment than that of the mere chronologer. We have in the United States excellent examples of two methods of editing a celebrated book on international law the editions of Wheaton's Elements by Lawrence and by Dana. Lawrence's notes generally are long, and often are almost encyclopedic. Dana's take the form of brief monographs, discussing concisely the principles

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