Page:Legal Bibliography, Numbers 1 to 12, 1881 to 1890.djvu/109

 SOULE'S LEGAL BIBLIOGRAPHY. (autllets of ti)e iLato, Buy them All, and have it over. — A State librarian, in ordering English reports, closes thus : " Drat the books ! I feel a good deal about them as my ' gret-granther's ' hired man did about the bottle of New Eng- land rum at one end of the field in haying-time, when he said, ' Come, Uncle Henry, let 's drink it up, so there won't be no more hanker.'' " Copiously Cited. — That excellent little manual, "Beach on the Law of Wills," recently issued in the " Pony Series," cites very freely Stim- son's American Statute Law under the different sections. Although it has been largely used by lawyers and judges, this is the first instance we have noted where a text-book writer has done full justice to the importance of Mr. Stimson's great work. Modernizing his Name. — A stenographer, taking down the decision of a learned Vermont judge, rendered Henri de Bracton as Henry D. Bracton, which would have surprised the old gentleman himself, if he had Hved to hear of it. Sheldon on Subrogation Judicially Praised. — " These propositions are very clearly stated in a useful monograph on the Law of Sub- rogation, by Henry N. Sheldon, and are well established by the authorities which he cites." — Mr. Justice Miller, in ^tna Life In- surance Co. V. Middleport, 124 U.S., 548. " Congromolated " is Good. — A St. Louis friend sends the following copy, verbal, et Hterat., of an exception filed by an attorney in a Missouri court: "Because said Referee in his said report is wholly disregarding the issue and only issue under the pleadings, presents to this Honorable Court a congromolated mass of what he presents as a moving machine to his surprising (not to say legal, mind) which brings him to this conclusion, that the defendants under the pleadings and evidence that has occupied the Court's time for several months in examining the evidence in said case and the report of the Honorable Referee filed therein, that the plain- tiffs are entitled to something, however small it might be, which is wrong and unjust, and ought to be set aside by your Honorable Court." Distinctively American. — A prominent lawyer of Franklin, Tenn., writes as to Schouler on Wills : " It is the most valuable work I have yet seen on the subject, and just what we need, — something dis- tinctively American." The same remark would apply to Schouler on Executors, the second edition of which is just published. Extraneous Matter. — The following note from a customer explains itself: " On page 341 of Vol. L of Throop's Digest, purchased of you yesterday, is to be found a preserved cockroach, which we have not paid for. As we do not wish to take undue advantage in trade, will you kindly send another copy in place of this ? " ROOM FOR THE GREEN BAG. The new magazine, announced in this number, has reason for existence in the fact that there is nothing, and has been nothing, in England or America, devoted entirely to the entertainment of lawyers. In this country, everything is tending to the "practical," until now we have our case law in copious weekly doses, to which The Green Bag may prove a welcome antidote. The accomplished editor of the Albany Law Journal, to be sure, scintillates on the first and last pages of his maga- zine ; the editors of the American Law Review, in their " Notes," give refreshingly interesting and vigorous comments on current affairs ; and the editors or contributors of our many other excellent periodicals as- cend occasionally into the realms of humor or entertainment. But through all the rest of the innumerable pages of the periodical law litera- ture of the day, the decisions of our multifarious courts, and the glosses and comments of writers thereupon, drag their slow lengths along, with- out break and without relief. The modern law magazine is only the vol- ume of reports or the text-book in undress : and the lawyer who tires of everlasting work and study must look entirely outside of the literature of his profession to get recreation or amusement. This ought not to be so. In their intercourse and conversation, lawyers find enough of fun and fancy and enjoyable anecdote concerning their profession. If in con- versation, why not also in literature ? From this query The Green Bag is born. How long it is to live depends upon the favor of the legal fraternity. THE SELDEN SOCIETY. We print below a paper, signed by distinguished legal names, which can hardly fail to bring it home to lawyers, as a debt due to their profes- sion, that they should join the Selden Society. Much which is very important to our legal scholars lies still in manuscript, and the only way in which it can be made accessible here is through such an organiza- tion as this. The first year of the Society was 1887. The volume for that year, and also that for 1888 (which will soon be published), can be had by subscribing for the year named. The yearly subscription (due for each year on January i of that year) is one guinea ($5.18), payable to the General Secretary, or to any of the Local Secretaries. We append also a list of the American Secretaries ; but we are compelled to omit from this number the full circular of the Society, which can be obtained on application to any of the Secretaries. The undersigned have assured themselves of the great importance of the work of The Selden Society, — an organization formed with a view, as one of its main purposes, to put into print certain legal records and manuscripts hitherto unpublished. The circular of the Society is appended to this paper. Such an organization cannot^accomplish much unless its membership be large. It has seemed to us that our brethren of the legal profession might be widely induced to join The Selden Society, if their attention were directly called to the matter ; for we are persuaded that in every way our law will gain much from the careful historical and scientific investigations which are now going forward in many quarters, and w-hich this Society will materially assist and promote. (Signed) Melville V. Fuller. Horace Gr.y. Oliver W. Holmes, Jr. Russell S. Taft. J. I. Clark Hare. Theodore W. Dwight. C. C. Langdell. Wm. G. Hammond. Edmund H. Bennett. Geo. Tucker Bispham. Henry Wade Rogers. Henry Hitchcock. J. D. Cox. M. M. BiGELOW. Wayne McVeagh. R. C. McMurtrie. Joseph H. Choate. Geo. W. Biddle. Wm. Henry Rawle. HONORARY SECRETARIES. America: General Secretary, Prof. W. .. Keener, Cambridge, Mass. Local Secretaries. Illinois: Chicago, Colin C. H. Fvffe, 23 Portland Block. Maryland : Baltimore, William T. Brantlv, 225 St. Paul Street. Massachusetts : Boston, Charles C. Soule, 155 Beacon Street. Worcester, Rockwood Hoar, 9 P. O. Block. Michigan : Detroit, Thomas Spencer Jerome, Griswold Street. Minnesota : St. Paul, Henry B. Wenzfll, National German American Bank Build- ing. Missouri: St. Louis, P. T. Br Street. H. Oli' New York: New York City, Jc Houston, 346 Broadway. Ohio: Cincinnati, Joseph D. Br 30 W. 4th Street. Cleveland, Wm. E. Cushing, M« Bank Building. Pennsylvania : Philadelphia, -Abr. Wintersteen, Bullitt Building. Pittsburgh, Johns McCleave, 82 Bake- well Building. Rhode Island: Providence, Amasa M, Eaton. Wisconsin: Milwaukee, Charles E. Shepard, S6 New Insurance BuildinK. Honorary Secretary and Treasurer, P. Edward Dove, 2j Old Buildini Lincoln's Inn, London, W. C. SCHOULER'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. Vol. 4 of Schouler's '-History of the LTnited States under the Con- stitution," published this month, covers the administrations of Jackson, Van Buren, Tyler, and Polk; Social Manners; Progress of Railways, Press, Telegraph, etc. ; Downfall of United States Bank: Contentions of Whigs and Democrats ; Tariffs : Sub-Treasury ; Anti-Slavery Agitation ; Texas Annexation ; War with Mexico. Vol. 5, which will complete the work to 1861, will be published soon. Of this excellent work, which should be in every lawyer's library, good authorities say: — His work is well done. There is evidence on every page of serious, careful study, and of earnest thought. His style is nervous and strong, with a decided tendency toward the picturesque. — Philadelphia Times. The most real history of the United States yet produced for the period which it covers. — iVew York Natioti. I recognize in all I have read faithful investigation and superiority to preju- dice. — Hon. George Bancroft. I am moved to tell you how interesting and instructive I have found it. — President Gilma7i, fohns Hopkins University. The price of the Series in cloth binding is $2.00 per volume.