THERE is an old saying, "The man who is his own lawyer has a fool for his client." With that adage I heartily concur. Every prudent man has, or should have, a qualified legal adviser to whom he may have recourse when need arises. But for want of a little knowledge of the law, lawyers are consulted a good deal oftener than is really necessary, and, on the other hand, are. often riot consulted when " taking advice " would be the client's safest and therefore cheapest course.

This little book has been written with the object of placing within the reach of the reader some slight knowledge of those portions of English law which are most likely to concern him in every-day life. It does not attempt to give him more than an elementary view of the subjects with which it deals, still less does it profess to make him independent of his solicitor. The field of English law is so vast, that a work of this size can only present a bird's eye view of a small portion of it. Commercial law alone, if treated adequately, would require a whole volume to itself, but the hints here given may help even the commercial man to avoid many pitfalls. Indeed, there is no one of the following pages of which any man can safely say, for present and future, "it concerns not me."

H. L. L.

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