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The Green Bag.

commented upon. Cases that have been merely cited in an opinion, without comment, are ignored. The first volume contains an alphabetical list of cases, and a citation of the reports and pages where they have been commented upon or discussed. The second volume is a regular digest, arranged by subjects; and the comments upon a particular case are copied under the appropriate head. In the first vol ume is a reference to the page in the second book where the particular case is discussed. In some re spects this is an admirable work. With it it is pos sible to tell the exact status of a case that has been discussed, without reference to the report; but be yond this it does not go. A work on citations should contain a complete table of cases reported, and a complete list of all cases cited, both American and English. It is not necessary to give the name of the case where a case is cited, but only the book and page where it will be found. By thus doing, space and labor will be saved. Designating a case as overruled, doubted, etc., is really an unnecessary labor, and of but little value. In almost every respect Cockroft's Table of Cases was an admirable one. It was increased in bulk by unnecessarily giving the names of the cases where a case was cited. The present work in use in Indiana is the best I know of. It gives all Indiana cases reported in the American Decisions and Reports. It is to be regretted that so few lawyers fully appreciate the value of a table of citations. It is among the most, if not the most, valuable book in a lawyer's office. It gives you almost unerringly the status of every case, or enables you to trace its status. If you find a case very nearly in point, it is possible to follow up this case where cited in sub sequent reports, and find a case directly in point. Suppose you have a foreign case, found cited in a text-book for instance, and it supports you, but you have not been able to find anything of the rule an nounced in it in your own reports: by taking a table containing foreign citations, you may find this foreign case cited in your own reports, and thus not only learn how your own court regards it, but even dis cover a case well in point which your search had failed to reveal. A work citing all the cases reported in America and all the citation of cases made in our reports would be of great and incalculable value. It would do much to harmonize the future decisions of our courts, and serve to reveal the many inaccurate de cisions. It would tend to show the value of each case, and how it is considered by other courts. Such a work would be a great undertaking, but not be yond the possible; nor would it be as laborious and costly as several enterprises already pushed to a successful end. Who will undertake it? W. W. Thornton.

LEGAL ANTIQUITIES. Edward VI. repealed all former laws against vagabonds, and passed an act by which all vaga bonds, who were described as able-bodied men or women loitering, wandering, and not seeking work, or leaving it when obtained, were liable, on apprehension by their master from whom they had run, to be marked with a V, and to be the slaves of such master for two years. Should they run away again, they were to be branded with an S, and become their master's slaves for life. Iron rings might be riveted about the necks of slaves, who might also be punished by their masters, at will, with beating and with chains. Bread and water, or broken food, was to be their only diet. Unclaimed vagabonds were to be arrested and to become the slaves of the parishes to which they belonged; and the work of all slaves might be let, sold, or be queathed. Impotent and needy folk were to be duly cared for by the parishes in which they were born, or in which they had dwelt for three years, and collections were to be made in church every Sunday towards a relief fund. Queen Elizabeth was even more severe to wards vagrants. In a commission issued to Sir Thomas Wilford, she commanded him "to repair to all common highways near to the city which any vagrant persons do haunt, and with the assistance of justices and constables, to appre hend all such vagrant and suspected persons, and them to deliver to the said justices, by them to be committed and examined of the causes of their wandering; and, finding them notoriously culpable in their unlawful manner of life, as in corrigible, and so certified by the said justices, to cause to be executed upon the gallows or gibbet some of them that are so found most notorious and incorrigible offenders."

FACETIÆ. Not long since an attorney at a county court deemed it necessary to impugn the respectability of a Mr. Butterworth, but the witness he relied on proved a good deal too much for him. The legal gentleman commenced thus: — "Do you know Mr. Butterworth?" "Yes, I do."