Page:Legal Bibliography, Numbers 1 to 12, 1881 to 1890.djvu/104

 lO SOULE'S LEGAL BIBLIOGRAPHY. LEONARD A JONES. This portrait (taken from Mr. Soule's Short Cat- alogue OF Law Books) will give our readers some idea of the appearance of the author of An Index to Legal Periodical Liter- ature. The following biographi- cal items regarding this dis- tinguished legal author are culled mainly from the Re- ports of the Harvard Class of 1855, and from Apple- ton's Cyclopedia of Ameri- can Biography. Leonard Augustus Jones was born at Temple- ton, in Worcester County, Mass., Jan. 13, 1832. He at- tended school at Lawrence Academy, Groton, Mass., and entered Harvard College in 1851, graduating in the class of 1855. Mr. Jones began his work of authorship when in college, being awarded in his senior year the prize for the best Bowdoin dissertation. Directly after leaving college he accepted the place of teacher of the classics in the High School of St. Louis, Mo., where he remained till the summer of 1856; when, after declining an appointment as tutor in Wash- ington University, he returned to Massachusetts and entered the Harvard Law School in the autumn of that year, from which he graduated in 1858 with the degree of LL.B. While in the Law School he won the prize open to resident graduates of tlie University, and a prize in the Law School for an essay. He studied law for a few months in the office of C. W. Loring, Esq., of Boston, and was admitted to the Suffolk Bar in 1858. The same year he opened an office in Boston, and has there con- tinued in the practice of the law to the present time. For a few years he was a partner with John Lathrop, Esq., now the Reporter of Massachu- setts Decisions, and with Edwin Hale Abbot, the well-known railroad lawyer. During his early years at the bar Mr. Jones was a frequent contributor to the literary periodicals, among which may be mentioned the "Atlantic Monthly," the " North American Review," the " Christian Examiner," and the " Old and New." He has also contributed numerous articles to the law periodicals, — the "Monthly Law Reporter," the "Southern Law Review," the " Central Law Journal," and the " American Law Review." Of the last-named Review he has been one of the editors for the past three or four years. Mr. Jones is the author of the following legal works : — A Treatise on Mortgages of Real Property, 2 vols., editions 1878,1879,1882. " " Mortgages of Personal Property, i vol., editions 1881, 1S83. " " Railroad and Other Corporate Securities, i vol., 1879. " " Pledges, including Collateral Securities, i vol., 1883. " " Liens, 2 vols., about to be published, 1888. Forms in Conveyancing, i vol., 1886. Index to Legal Periodical Literature, r888. Editor of Volumes 9 and 21 of Myers's Federal Decisions. GOOD READING. It ought to be a duty as well as a pleasure for lawyers of taste to take The Law Quarterly Review. Addressing only a constituency of thouglitful men, this magazine, — though published in England, — draws many of its articles from our country, and addresses itself chiefly to themes which interest us as much as they do our English brothers. The tliree volumes already completed abound in sound and readable articles by able lawyers. Bound volumes are sold in sheep for $3.50 net, in half calf for $4.00 net. The subscription price (including postage) is $2.75 net. If you wish to take a law magazine which will give you good reading on the higher planes of your profession^ send fifty cents for a specimen number of The Law Quarterly Review, and examine it carefully. THE COMIC BLACKSTONE. The new edition of this entertaining classic — now issued for the first time in large readable type, on clear white paper, and with new full-page illustrations in colors, from the pencil of Harry Furniss, the most promi- nent and popular of living English humorous artists — is getting the large sale it deserves. The price ($375 "long," or $3.00 net to lawyers) is very reasonable, considering the style in which the book is published. A few quotations, taken at random, will indicate the dry wit of the book; thus, — Of the Countrifs Subject to the Laws of En(land. Wales continued a long time independent of England ; and Caesar, who seized on almost everything, did not so soon seize upon that. The people lived, says Tacitus, in a pastoral state, having probably no other food but Welsh rabbits, until Edward the First introduced his heir to them as their Prince ; and the people having shown the white feather, it is supposed that it was immediately taken from them and placed in the Prince's hat. The finishing stroke to Welsh independence was given by the statute 27th Henry VIII., chapter 26, which may be said to have played old Harry with their liberties. The only remnant of in- dependence left to Wales has been taken away by the ist of William IV., which puts an end to its independent law-courts, — which were indeed independent, not of law alone but of justice. In those courts law, instead of being paid for, as in England, through the solicitors, used to be purchased directly of the judge, who, instead of giving consideration to the facts, used to take a consideration from the parties, and decide accordingly. The students who have struggled with Blackstone's " Table of De- scents" will appreciate the following skit : — Descent depends upon consanguinity, which is either lineal or collateral, the former being the sort of relationship that exists between old Jones and young Jones, supposing young Jones to be the son of old Jones; and all the little Joneses would be lineal descendants through as many generations as there hap- pened to be of them. Collateral consanguinity is the sort of relationship exist- ing between a couple of gooseberries growing on different branches of the same root; as, if Smith (the root) has two sons (the branches), each of whom has a son (a gooseberry), there is a clear collateral consanguinity existing between the young Smiths ; that is to say, the early gooseberries. We shall not, however, take the reader through the awful labyrinth, pouncing at one moment upon Stiles's paternal grandfather's mother, now plunging down after his maternal grand- mother, then suddenly emerging from the blood of the Bakers to wade through the collateral consanguinity of the Whites, the Thorpes, and the Willises. No: if Stiles's heir is an object of interest to any particularly curious reader, let him exercise his own ingenuity in searching for Stiles's heir amid the amusing puzzle of bits of riband, squares, hexagons, octagons, demi-hexagons, demi-octagons, hands, lines, and numbers, which, in the Table of Descents given in the prdinary editions of Blackstone, surround the name of John Stiles. The finale of the Comic Blackstone, quoted below, leads up to a tail- piece by the artist, representing the dejected and exhausted suitor seated at the door of the almshouse, with a weeping donkey sympathetically lick- ing his bald head. Motto: "The End of All Law." This is of course a gross libel ; but it is amusing. Thus have we traced our rude plans and maps of our laws and liberties. We have endeavoured to evince a proper admiration for the great monument of law, which, in the capacity of showman, we have sought to exhibit in such a way as to render it attractive to the public at large. We have attempted to do for the law what the brute-tamer has done for the tiger ; and it has been our effort to show that the law is not such a formidable monster — tearing to pieces every one that comes within its grasp — as is too generally supposed. We have been anxious to show that it may be approached playfully, and without horror, until a familiarity is established between the student and the law, as pleasant as the understanding between the brute-tamer and the brute. Let us hope we have shown that Blackstone, like another black individual, is not so dingy as he is painted. The Comic Blackstone will be sent by Mr. Soule, charges prepaid, on receipt of $3.00. KEEP POSTED IN POLITICS. Now that the tariff seems to be coming squarely before the people as a political issue, it becomes all citizens to keep well informed in regard to what the present tariff is. Williams's Tariff Law of the United States (cloth, $1.50 net) contains a full statement of the present law, with references to decisions of the Treasury Department.