"The plan followed in 'Famous Trials' is to take a given topic, like forgery, confessions, mistaken identity or circumstantial evidence and to illustrate the points best worth remembering by some actual and interesting case in which they were strikingly brought out. "The instance of mistaken identity described by Mr. Abbott at some length is really much more curious than the Tichborne case, though the affair, having taken place many years ago in France, has been almost totally forgotten. The true husband's name was Martin Guerre, a man of fair social position and some property, who, after living happily with his wife Bertrande for about a dozen years, disappeared suddenly, and nothing was heard of him for eight years. At the end of that time the same Martin Guerre, as all the town people supposed, came back, recognizing his old neighbors and friends, and looking just as he used, except that he had grown stouter and sunburned. His wife also recognized him as readily as did his neighbors, and gave him an affectionate welcome. To innumerable questions about occurrences in old times, he returned satisfactory and explicit answers. To his wife, in particular, he rehearsed incidents of past years that had completely faded from her memory. When they awoke, for instance, on the morning after his arrival, he asked her to 'Bring me my white breeches trimmed with white silk; you will find them at the bottom of the large beech chest under the linen.' She had long forgotten the breeches and even the box, but she found them just as he had described. In the face of such evidence it seemed impossible to doubt that this man was the genuine Martin Guerre. Yet he proved after all to be an impostor, whose real name was Arnauld Du Tilh. Yet strange as it may seem, on the impostor's trial, although confronted with the man whom he was personating, he was able to answer questions about the past life of the Guerre family more minutely and accurately than the rightful claimant. Being disavowed, however, by the great majority of witnesses, including the wife, on the appearance of her true husband, he was sentenced to death for his fraud. Before his execution he made a confession, saying that some intimate friends of Martin Guerre, misled by the astonishing resemblance, had accosted him by that name, which gave him the idea of claiming Guerre's position and property; and that he had gained his intimate knowledge of Guerre's life partly from Guerre himself, whom he had known slightly in the army, and partly from several common acquaintances. With this slender outfit of material he came within an ace of effecting his design, thanks to an exceptionally tenacious and ready memory."--_Extract from notice in "New York Daily Sun," of "The Travelling Law School._" D. Lothrop & Co. $1.00. * * * * * AMERICAN BOOKS IN ENGLAND.