Page:Legal Bibliography, Numbers 1 to 12, 1881 to 1890.djvu/112

 6 SOULE'S LEGAL BIBLIOGRAPHY. ALL THE ENGLISH REPORTS IN FIFTEEN VOLUMES. Chitty's Equity Digest, Fourth Edition, will be completed with Vol. VIII. , to be published in March. Value of this Digest in America. Of all the English decisions, those of the Chancery Courts are the most generally applicable and valuable in this country, and are most frequently cited in important cases. No English Equity Digest has been published since the third edition of Chitty, in 1853. Since that time over one hundred and fifty volumes, reporting cases from the Chancery, Vice-Chancellors, and Rolls Courts, have been published. Peculiar Merit of Chitty's Digest. In addition to its thoroughness in covering the whole field of English Decisions in Equity, this Digest has the merit — which lawyers will particularly appreciate — of being sufficiently full in statement, both of the facts and of the decision of the court, to enable the reader in most instances to decide from the Digest itself, without refer- ence to the original report, whether a case will serve him or not. Its Reasonable Price. English books generally seem expensive to American lawyers. The volumes of Chitty are published in London at from 31 shil- lings to two guineas each, in cloth binding, — equivalent, with duties added, to $10.50 and ^13. 00 per volume bound in half calf or law sheep, and deliv- ered in America. Nor is this dear ; for each volume contains, on the average, 1,050 pages of two columns each, so closely printed that each column contains as much as an ordinary page of our reports, — a volume of Chitty being thus equal in printed matter to three volumes of reports, of 700 pages each. But by special arrangement with the publishers, the new edition of Chitty's Digest is offered in this country, in law sheep or in half calf (as the buyer may choose), for eight dollars per volume, — cheaper, in proportion to the contents, than most of our State and National Digests. Nearly every lawyer in America has eitlur Harrison's Digest, Fisher's Di- gest, Jacob's Fisher's Digest, or the later and better Mews's Common Law Digest. Neither of these Digests covers the Equity Cases ; so that Chitty's Digest is needed to make either one complete. Mews's Common Law Digest (7 vols., half calf, $56.00 net) is the latest and by far the best edition of the English Digests, known successively as Harrison's and Fisher's. It possesses the same merits as Chitty's Digest. Mews's Digest and Chitty's Digest, together, cover the whole range of the English reports, from 1756 to date. The fifteen volumes will be sold together for %o. 00 net. Whoever owns Chitty's Equity Digest and Mews's Common Law Digest has at hand the whole range of English case law. The Reports before 1756 are digested in Coventry and Hughes's Digest. This is now out of print, but a good copy can generally be had for $6.00. Overruled Cases. — A valuable companion to the digests is Dale and Lehmann's Digest of English Overruled Cases, an admirable work, in which the ordinary plan of such compilations is extended and improved by giving all that portion of the later case which qualifies or reverses the earlier one. It is in two volumes, half calf, price, $14.00 net. JONES'S INDEX TO LEGAL PERIODICALS The review of this book in The Railway and Corporation Law Journal very felicitously describes its merits, as follows : — " The titlepage of this elegant volume is its sufficient advertisement. It is precisely what it purports to be, — an index to law literature from the earliest time to Jan. I, 1887, arranged both topically and by names of authors. Nothing need be said in commendation of such a work. It will be indispensable not only in law libraries, but in every sort of a public library, and in the office of every practitioner who would be ' up ' in the details of his profession. Its use in brief- making and in the collection of authorities goes without saying. It is a dull lawyer that does not know that an invaluable mass of learning is hidden in the oceans of trash with which the columns of the law periodicals are inundated. Mr. Jones's laborious work brings all that is valuable in this fugitive matter to hand, and makes it easy of ready reference. The arrangement is intelligent ; Mr. Jones's reputation for industry and skill is a warrant of its accuracy and re- liability ; and the publisher has left, in respect of paper and printing and luxu- rious binding, nothing to be desired. The work will be invaluable in every good sense to all intelligent lawyers." The critical Nation, after calling attention to one minor error, says : " But such a book as this should not be left with fault-finding as the last word ; rather with the most hearty thanks to both author and publisher for so great a help to legal studies, — thanks in behalf of all English-speaking lawyers for what will be no less useful in England and its dependencies than here." W. F. Poole, librarian of the Newberry Library of Chicago, and compiler of Poole's Index to [General] Periodical Literature, writes: — " You are, I think, mistaken when you say that the sale of Jones's Index will be confined to lawyers who have large libraries and extensive practice. Any and every library of any pretensions ought to have it, and I believe will have it." AMERICAN STATUTE LAW. The publication of a Supplement to Stimson's American Statute Law has intensified interest in that admirable book, of which the late Chief-Justice VV^aite wrote : " Its great value becomes more and more apparent as it is used. It has saved me much time in my every-day work." It is interesting to note that Mr. Schouler, in Vol. 3 of the United States Jurist, published in 1873, spoke thus of the need of such a book as Stimson's : — " It is a long time since we have had anything like a digest of statutes to ex- hibit the comparative legislation of the States for each year. Lawyers have the annual products of the law-expounding branch of every State government before them, in an accessible form, ready for reference ; but as to the law- making branch and its annual work, even upon matters pertaining strictly to the courts, they grow more and more ignorant each year. Yet the study of our American jurisprudence must be partial and one-sided, as long as it consists of judicial decisions alone. More than thirty years ago the old American Jurist, edited by Charles Sumner, gave to its readers a selected quarterly 'digest of legislation, together with that of the reports; but we have seen nothing of the sort bearing a later date. Perhaps the publication of such an annual digest of American statutes would not pay ; but we should be glad to see it attempted. The information furnished by such a work, properly conducted, would be so valuable, and so much would be gained toward assimilating the laws of the differ- ent States by its regular publication, that, as it seems to us, State Governments themselves, or an institution like the Smithsonian, for ' the diffusion of knowl- edge,' might well afford to shoulder the comparatively trifling cost of the enterprise." Here is what the American Law Review says about the Supplement : " The importance of ' American Statute Law ' can scarcely be exaggerated. Our chief concern in the legal profession and in the legislatures is with statutes and statutory laws, rather than with the common law. So wide-spread is the commercial relation between the different States, that there is a constant require- ment to know the legislative enactments of other States as well as those of the particular State in which we live. Mr. Stimson's original work was marked by a thoroughness of research and a skill in condensation and arrangement worthy of the highest admiration. The same excellence is found in this First Supplement. Since the original edition of ' American Statute Law,' six States and Territories have adopted new codes or revisions ; sixty-two volumes of annual or biennial or extra sessions have appeared, all of which, so far as they modify or relate to the matters contained in the first volume of 'American Statute Law,' have been duly incorporated in this Supplement, bringing the original edition down to the first of January, 18S8. All this new matter has been brought within one hundred and seventeen pages and a very useful Index of four pages. The press and the typographical accuracy of the work deserve much praise." The Supplement to Stimson can be had separately in sheep for $2.00 ; or the original work, with Supplement bound in, for $7.50. MACHINE VERSE. It is astonishing what fatal facility in rhyme a man is sometimes af- flicted with. The following lines are the result of instructions to our advertising clerk to prepare a " taking notice " of the Comic Blackstone for Legal Bibliography. The perpetrator was at once discharged, and his stanzas are only printed here as a horrible warning to young men contemplating a career of versification : — $. ¥c Stulfcnt. To wade through the stupid old tomes of the law Is about as hard as to crack stone ; But the student may get a diverting guffaw From conning the Comic Blackstone. KK. ¥c 2,ato|fcr. Whene'er the industrious counsellor Overburdened with cases, lacks tone. What freshens and quickens his faculties more Than an hour with the Comic Blackstone "> Jjfifi. Yr .Dusttcc If our judges, descending fatigued from the bench, To having their nerves all relaxed, own, What tonic more sure than their systems to drench With draughts of the Comic Blackstone 1