Page:Legal Bibliography, Numbers 1 to 12, 1881 to 1890.djvu/30

 6 SOULE & BUGBEE'S LEGAL BIBLIOGRAPHY. POKING FUN AT LAWYERS. Mr. Browne thus begins the Introductioa to his new volume, "Law AND Lawyers in Literature " : — It is ray purpose to show how the Law and the Lawyers have been depicted in Literature. I shall do this by extracts from the chief dramatists, novelists, historians, essayists, and moralists, with occasional notes of illustration, suggestion, or protest. There is, undoubtedly, and always has been, a tendency on the part of mankind to rail against and make fun of all the learned professions. To call the clergyman a hypo- crite, the physician a murderer, and the lawyer a liar, has long been one of the favorite amusements of a numerically considerable part of mankind. Much of this is mere badinage, but a good deal is serious ; and in the portion that is not avowedly serious, there is frequently a grain of earnest. The mass of men do not love men who are able to get a living, and attain honors, without the use of money or muscle. The capitalist thinks very little of those who do not lean upon capital ; the merchant has no great respect except for the results of trade; the mechanic is envious of one who is not obliged to toil with his hands. So, from all these classes, there is a continual undercur- rent of chaffing of the professional men. They are only tolerated because and when they are indispensable. The clergyman is called in to scare away the terrors of sick- ness and death ; the physician is summoned to cure the pains and ills of life ; the lawyer is retained to rescue estates, to make wills, to defend against criminal accusations. Quite in proportion to the carelessness and indifference, or the hostility and envy, with which the learned men have been regarded, are the slavishness of the dependence and the implicitness of trust which are shown when the learned men become necessary or convenient. A man who is or imagines himself dying forgets the sport he has made of the clergyman's long face, sober dress, solemn ways, set speech, and quarrels with other sectarians, and has him in at once to pray over him. Even if he has neglected and scoffed at him all his life, he is pretty sure to want him toward the last. So, when a man has the gout or the stomach-ache, he forgets what he has merrily said about cal- omel and high dilutions, the fatality of medical councils, the appropriateness of the doctor's heading the funeral procession, and the like, and the shrieks for the doctor in a roaring army. And so when a man wants a contract or a will drawn, or to sue, or to defend a suit, or to get rid of his wife, or to prevent his wife's getting rid of him, or to res- cue his own estate, or to capture somebody else's, he retains legal counsel, and forgets all about his long speeches and long bills, his wig and his gown, and his green bag, his willingness to serve the first paying comer, and his zeal, which, like the affliction of the hired mourner in the East, is at the service of his client without much regard to his deserts. Men must have somebody to laugh at and abuse, and they do not always restrict themselves to the learned professions in this regard. There are certain trades- people who serve a like purpose;. as, for example, undertakers and plumbers, who are avoided as much as possible, but who must be sent for in a hurry when the water-pipes burst, or the pitcher is broken at the fountain. SHELDON ON SUBROGATION (NEW). The doctrine of Subrogation was originally merely a minor subdivision of equitable practice, but its importance has of late years much increased. Its principles are now of very general application ainong successive claim- ants of the same property by mortgage, lien, or purchase ; among principals and sureties ; sureties who successively become liable for the same debt ; co-sureties ; joint-debtors ; and persons whose property is held to answer for the same debt or burden, whether the obligation, upon themselves or their property, is primary or secondary. Its doctrines are also frequently resorted to for the purpose of settling the rights of successive parties to bills and notes ; of executors, heirs, devisees, legatees, and other persons interested in the administration of a decedent's estate. It is also of general application in the law of insurance, not only for the benefit of the insurer himself, but also for the protection of persons who have conflicting rights to the property insured. The contents of Mr. Sheldon's treatise are as follows : Definition and General Nature ; Cases where different parties have Successive Claims upon the same Property, by Mortgage, Lien, or Purchase ; Cases of Suretyship ; Among Joint Debtors ; Among Parties to Bills and Notes ; In the Administration of Estates ; Under Contracts of Insurance ; Subro- gation of Strangers ; Index. This is a very refreshing book, evidently written with the deliberate intent to state the law as it is, in the clearest and briefest way. . . . For the purposes of the prac- titioner, the work is done to admiration. Its arrangement is logical, and its statements terse, vigorous, and abundantly supported by authorities. It is not only honest, but able, and we take great pleasure in welcoming it as a valuable accession to the liter- ature of our guild. — American Law Review. The price of Sheldon on Subrogation, either in law-sheep or in half law calf, is $3.50, net ; if to be forwarded by mail, twenty cents additional for postage. SPECIAL LIST OF BARGAINS. We offer, from remainders of libraries now in stock, the following sets at specially low prices (net cash). They are all in good, sound second- hand condition : — United States Digest. First Series. (Last revised edition, complete to 1870.) 14 vols. $50.00. United States Digest. New Series. Vols, i to 4. (1S70-1873.) New. $14.00. United States Circuit Court Reports. Gallison, 2 vols. ; Mason, 5 vols. — together 7 vols. $40.00. Decisions of the Commissioner of Patents. 1869-1880. Bound in 9 vols. $18.00. Massachusetts Reports. 17 vols, (best edition), and Pickering's Reports, 24 vols., making 41 vols. In excellent condition. $90.00. Abbott's National Digest. 7 vols. (To 1877.) $21.00. American Law Register. From its commencement in 1853 to 1878. [This set is valuable for its series of annotated leading cases.] 26 vols. $52.00. Admiralty Reports, as follows: Betts' U. S. Decisions, bj Olcott; Betts' U. S. Decisions, bj Blatchford & Howland; Peters' U. S. Admiralty De- cisions, 3 vols. ; Edwards' English Admiralty Report, i vol. ; Chs. Robin- son's English Admiralty Reports, 6 vols. — in all 11 vols. $25.00. Campbell's Lives of the Lord Chancellors, 13 vols. ; Lives of the Chief Justices, 6 vols. ; Index, i vol. ; Life of Lord Campbell, 2 vols. — uniform set, 21 vols. Cloth. $25.00. Law Reports (English), 1865-1871, as follows: Chancery Appeal Cases, 6 vols. ; Equity Cases, 12 vols. ; Qiieen's Bench, 6 vols. ; Common Pleas, 6 vols. ; Exchequer, 6 vols. ; Admiralty and Ecclesiastical, 2 vols.; Probate and Divorce, i vol. — in all 39 vols. American edition. [These volumes intervene between the commencement of the Law Reports, and the first volume of Moak's "English Reports," and are valuable to any lawyer who has the latter set.] Together, $75.00. English Chancery Reports, as follows : Atkyns, 3 vols. ; Eden, 2 vols, in i; Equity Cases, Abridged, 3 vols, in 2; Maddock, 6 vols, in 3; Mose- ley, I vol. ; Schoales & Lefroy, 2 vols. ; Cases temp. Talbot, i vol. ; Vernon, 2 vols. — in all, 20 vols, in 15. Sound but old, Dublin and Ameri- can editions. $25.00. English Chancery Reports (another set), as follows: Atkyns, 3 vols. ; Ball & Beatty, 2 vols. ; Brown, 4 vols. ; Cox, 2 vols. ; Maddock, 6 vols. ; Merivale, 3 vols. ; Peere-Williams, 3 vols.; Swanston, 3 vols. — in all 26 vols., good editions. Together, $53.00. Irish Chancery Reports, temp. Sugden, as follows : Lloyd & Gould, i vol. ; Drury, i vol. ; Drury & Warren, 4 vols. ; Jones & Latouche, 3 vols. — in all 9 vols. $30.00. English Ecclesiastical Reports. American reprint (containing Philli- more, Adams, Haggard, Lee, and Curteis), 7 vols. $17.50. King's Bench Reports, as follows : Tenn Reports (Durnford & East), S vols. ; East, 16 vols. ; Maule & Sehvyn, 6 vols. ; Barnewall & Alderson, 5 vols. ; Barnewall & Crosswell, 10 vols. ; Barnewall & Adolphus, 5 vols. — in all, 50 vols. English editions, good condition. $60.00. King's Bench Reports: "Collateral Series," 1821 to 1844, as follows: Dowling & Ryland, 9 vols. ; Manning & Ryland, 5 vols. ; Nevile & Manning, 6 vols. ; Nevile & Perry, 3 vols.; Perry & Davison, 4 vols.; Gale & Davison, 3 vols. ; Davison & Merivale, i vol. [These volumes, were either omitted from, or only partially reprinted- in, the " English Common Law" Series.] — In all, 31 vols. $108.50. Common Bench Reports, and Common Bench Reports, New Series. American edition. 37 vols. $55.00. Bingham's Common Pleas Reports, and Bingham's New Cases. American edition. 16 vols. $16.00. Hargrave's State Trials. 11 vols, bound as six. Tall folios. Clean copy, good condition. London, 1776. $18.00. Meeson & Welsby's English Exchequer Reports. With Index. (American Notes by Hare & Wallace.) 17 vols. Good copy. $34.00. English Exchequer Reports, American edition, as follows : McCleland 6 Younge, i vol. ; Younge & Jervis, 3 vols. ; Crompton & Jervis, 2 vols. ; Croinpton & Meeson, 2 vols. ; Crompton, Meeson, & Roscoe, 2 vols. ; Meeson & Welsby, 16 vols. ; Welsby, Hurlstone, &L Gordon, vols, i to 7 — in all 33 vols., bindings worn, but sound. Together, $55.00. English Law and Equity Reports. 40 vols, and Index. (Complete set, fine condition.) $50.00. Vesey Junior, Sumner's Edition. 20 vols. $70.00. Cobbett's Parliamentary History of England, from 1066 to 1S03. 36 vols. Royal octavo. Half sheep. $50.00. Viner's Abridgment. 30 vols. $35.00. PetersdorfF's Abridgment. 20 vols. $20.00. Bacon's Abridgment. Bouvier's edition. 10 vols. -1856. $30.00. Harrison's Analytical Common Law Digest. (English Reports from 1756 to 1851.) 7 vols. $IO.OO. Fisher's English Digest. Supplement to 18S0. 2 vols. Calf. $16.00.