Page:Legal Bibliography, Numbers 1 to 12, 1881 to 1890.djvu/61

Legal Bibliography PUBLISHED AND DISTRIBUTED GRATUITOUSLY AT IRREGULAR INTERVALS, By CHARLES C. SOULE, Law Bookseller, 26 Pemberton Square, Boston, Mass. No. 7. 5 Mr. Soule, in ( and sells all addition to publishing and importing, buys kinds of law books, old as well as new. I April, 188G. CONTENTS. PAGE PAGE 0om ant) Albany Law School S A Most Important Law Book 2 Austin's Farm.Lair and Game Laws (new) 3 Bargains 5 Boston University Law School 5 Civil Service Reform 8 Coke in Rhyme 3 Coke, Sketch of (with Portrait) 4 Comment and Commendation 2 EngUsh Law Books Englisli Reports 3 Law Quarterly Review g Law Students, Good Manuals for .... 3 Littleton, Sketch of (with Portrait J . ... 4 Marshall, Chief Justice 8 New Law Books i Notes and Queries i Schouler's History of the United Stales . . 5 Stlmson's American Statute law (new) 6, 7 Wood on Railffay law (new) s Future numbers of this paper will be mailed, without charge, to any judge, lawyer, or latv student who tvill send his name and address to the jtublisher. NEW LAW BOOKS. The most noteworthy publication of the year — perhaps even of this generation — is Stimson's American Statute Law, described at length elsewhere in this paper. One of the brightest and keenest of iMassachu- setts lawyers exclaimed, on looking over the advanced sheets, " This is an epochal book, — it is a new idea, and marks an epoch in law literature ! " Never before have the statutes of all the States been brought together, analyzed, and compared. Now that the work is done, one wonders why it had not been done before ; the practical value of such a digest is self- evident. What might be called its sentimental value is perhaps greater. It illustrates the parallel developments of the common law, as applied, re-enacted, or modified in nearly fifty sister commonwealths. It calls attention, sharply and clearly, to incongruities of legislation in neigh- boring communities. It contrasts the common law embodied in the statutes of most of the States with the French Civil Law still prevailing in Louisiana, and the fragments of Spanish law surviving in the States carved out of Me.xico. Every lawyer, in substantial practice, will buy Stimson's American Statute Law. Every thoughtful lawyer who buys it will run through its pages with a keen interest not always evoked by a new law book. Wood on Railway Law has been the most successful book of its kind published for many years back. The importance of the subject and of suits which touch upon it, the large experience of the author in such litigation, his still larger experience in writing law books, and the tact he has developed for selecting the important cases, and giving just enough of them, in clear and pointed language, to satisfy the reader, all combine to render his book intensely practical. Published late in the year 1885, and not yet six months old, it has already had a very large sale, and become established as the leading authority on the topics it treats of Austin's Farm Law is a new book (February, 1886), which will interest lawyers practising in agricultural communities. In clear language and an easy, attractive style, the author has grouped together the princi- ples of law which apply to a farmer's work, interests, and property. A chapter is also given to the game laws of the different States. Supplement to the Lawyers' Reference Manual. — Business has pressed too closely upon the author of the Manual to allow sufficient time, as yet, for preparation of a supplement; but he hopes to have leisure in the summer, and to issue it in November or December of this year. {Corresfondeyice as I0 blind citations, or other matters of interest pertaining to law books, is invited by the publisher.'] Not all Law Books are Law. — The Epilogue to Littleton's Tenures might well be repeated as a preface to some of our modern text-books, thus : 2iiti knoto thou mg soimc, that E bail! not that tljou bflrrbr, tljat all that 3; ijaljc satli in lljc saiti i3oof;rs is lialu, for Hjat C bJili not take upon mr nor presume : 53ut of those tljings tljat be not lain, inquire anij leanic of m Inise IHastcvs leanuS in tl]e lata. Why, certainly! — In No. 6 of Legal Bibliography the ques- tion was asked, '-What do the letters C. mean in the background of Sir Matthew Hale's portrait ? " The conjecture was advanced that they might stand iox Carohis Rexj but letters from Washington, D.C., Wilmington, N. C, New Bloomfield, Pa.. Newark. N. J., and elsewhere, remind the somewhat obtuse querist that " C. R." in such a connection undoubtedly means Curia Regis. Catalogue Errors and Absurdities. — It is difficult, even with the closest care, to keep errors out of catalogues. A State librarian writes : " In the report of additions to the Iowa State Library, I find the follow- ing entry :' Thomas, B. (Sir). Reports, &c. 2 vols. 2d ed., &c. Lond., 1794.' Can you give me any information as to this book ? I can find nothing concerning it in the Lawyers' Reference Manual or else- where." A little study disclosed the probability that the book meant was Shower's Reports, and that the printer had '-transliterated Shower into Thomas. The catalogue of the auction sale of Richard T. jMerrick's law-books contained some amusing instances of careless entries, — probably the result of calling off titles to an amanuensis unfamiliar with law literature. The most absurd mistake occurred in entering Devereux's Kinne's Black- stone, which appeared in print, " for this occasion only," zs Blackstone on Devereux's Crime ! An intelligent but inexperienced young man, who was put recently to the task of relabelling a lot of old books, made some startling combina- tions. " Tything Tables, by W. C, Bach, of the Civil Law," came out as "Bach's Tything Tables": '-The Royal Charter of London, taken out of the Records by S. G., Gent., was lettered " Gent's Charter of London " ; and " La Graunde Abridgement, collect & escrie par le Judge tresreuerend Syr Robert Brooke, Chivalier." owing to the division on the 'atle-page of Chiva-lier. in two lines, in somewhat battered type, greeted the eye as "La Graunde Abridgement, by Robert Brooke China." Digest of the Older English Reports. — In No. 6 of Legal Bibliography, it was suggested that the reason the English common law digests — Harrison, Fisher, and Mews — all begin with the cases of 1756, and include no reports back of that date, lay in the fact that Viner's Abridgment serves as a digest to the older reports. An accomplished lawyer of Baltimore writes : " Have you not overlooked the fact that Viner (and Petersdorff) ceased to fill the gap after the publication of ' Coventry and Hughes' Digested Index to the Common Law Reports from the time of Henry III to the Commencement of the Reign of George III. (1760), 2 vols., London, 1828, reprinted in Philadelphia, 1832 ' " This fact was overlooked. In order to have a complete digest of all the English Common Law Reports, it is necessary to own Coventry and Hughes', as well as Mews', Digest.