Page:Legal Bibliography, Numbers 1 to 12, 1881 to 1890.djvu/68

 8 SOULE'S LEGAL CHIEF JUSTICE MARSHALL. Several letters have been received, explaining that the profile portrait of Chief Justice Marshall in No. 6 is copied from a mezzotint by C. B. J. P'evret de Saint Memin, a French artist who took portraits of many of our prominent men in the early part of this century. " His profiles," writes a Philadelphia correspondent, " were produced by the use of the 'physionotrace ' of life size on a reddish paper, and the outline filled in with crayon. From this, by the use of the pantograph, the portrait was reduced in size to about 2^ inches (on copper), and finished in mezzotint. These plates became the property of the sitter, who had them printed as he needed copies, as we do now with photographs. Saint Memin kept his sets of proofs of all the portraits he did, — about nine hundred in number, — and one of these sets is now deposited in the Corcoran Gallery at Washington. E. Dexter, a New York print-dealer, published in 1862 a quarto volume containing photographs from all of these proofs. I may add, that I have in my office a silhouette full-length of the Chief Justice, cut by W. H. Brown in 1S33." Another Philadelphia lawyer gives similar information, and says : " Tliis portrait was drawn in Richmond in 1808. The Chief Justice was therefore 53, not 45, when the portrait was taken." He adds : " Wirt's description of the great Chief Justice is certainly very misleading, when he says his muscles were so relaxed as to disqualify him apparently for any vigorous exertion. All his biogra])hers write in testimony to his muscular strength and activity in his youth, and the Hon. Horace Binney bears this incontrovertible evidence as to his later years : ' After doing my best, one morning, to overtake Chief Justice Marshall in his quick march to the Capitol, when he was nearer to eighty than seventy, I asked him to what cause in particular he attributed that strong and quick step ; and he replied, that he thought it was most due to his com- mission in the army of the Revolution, in which he had been a regular foot practitioner for six years.' See Binney's Leaders of the Old Bar of Philadelphia, p. 82." But perhaps the most interesting letter, out of all the correspond- ence called forth by the portrait of Marshall in Legal Bibliography, No. 6, was one from Fielding Lewis Marshall, Esq., of Orange Court- House, Va., — the grandson and oldest living lineal male descendant of the Chief Justice. He says, " The profile portrait was taken about 1803, when my grandfather was 48 years of age." This date differs, it will be noted, from that given above. He writes further: " I was in my sixteenth year when my grandfather died, and now remember distinctly his features and form. The full-face portrait you give, by Inman, when he was 75 years of age, is not, I think, as good a likeness as that taken by Hubard about the same time, which now belongs to the Washington and Lee University at Lexington, Va. There are also two full-length miniatures of him by Hubard (oil paintings) in the possession of my uncles' (J. K. and Ed. C. Marshall's) families. I have in my own possession a full-length silhouette miniature, in a standing position, with his hat on, in the act of walking, which recalls him to me more vividly than all the other likenesses put together. It was taken when he was about seventy-seven or seventy-eight years of age, and is an exact like- ness from head to foot. ... I think Wirt's description is correct, except as to his apparent disqualification for vigorous muscular exertion. He was a loose-jointed man, of large bone, forbidding the idea of activity, but by no means of strength. When standing or walking, he was erect as an Indian. When sitting, his long bony legs frequently interlaced with each other. I have seen him often at Oak Hill playing quoits, in the latter years of his life, — the distance sixty-three feet, — and rarely beaten by men half his age. . . . His injunction on his children was never to write his biography, saying that his life was in his decisions, which would live if right, and be reversed if wrong." CIVIL SERVICE REFORM. Lawyers and others sympathizing with the Civil Service Reform movement, or wishing information con- cerning it, are invited to correspond with WILLIAM POTTS, Secretary, ■ 4 Pine St., New York City, N. T. BIBLIOGRAPHY. WOOD ON RAILWAY LAW : A GREAT SUCCESS. No law book of late years has found so quick and wide a sale as Wood on Railway Law. The author's industry in gathering cases, and his happy faculty in presenting just enough of each important case to explain its bearing without overloading the text, have never been more conspicuously shown than in this book. He was more fortunate than many modern writers, in having had a large experience in this branch of the practice before he ventured upon legal authorship. It is so rarely that a lawyer in large practice finds time to write and publish, that his brethren of the Bar appreciate the work of any one like Mr. Wood, who comes to his book through the practical paths of the brief. He is no callow youth, trying his pen upon virgin legal cap, or airing his law-school theses ; but a veteran lawyer, setting forth with skill and experience the law he has searched in reports and tested in the courts. Considering the importance of his subject and the practical excellence of his work, it is no wonder Wood on Railway Law has been a great success. Specimens of the commendations this work has attracted are given else- where. It will be only necessary here to give its contents, as follows : — Chapter I. Railroads; What are; How created. — 11. Capital Stock: What is; Subscriptions to. — III. Stockliolders. — IV. Forfeiture of Shares. —V. Preferred Stock, etc. — VI. Transfer of Shares. — VII. Municipal Subscriptions. — VIII. Corporate Meet- ings and Directors.— IX. Officers and Agents.— X. Corporate Powers.— XI. Acquisition of Right of Way. — XII. What Acts are legalized by Legislative Grant. — XIII. Eminent Domain. — XIV. Eminent Domain, contitiued. — XV. Construction of Railroads. XVI. Mechanics' Lien. — XVII. Railroads as Carriers of Passengers. —XVIII. Negli- gence. — XIX. Injuries by Fire. XX. Torts, Liability for. — XXI. Tickets ; Expulsion of Passengers. — XXII. Sleeping and Parlor Cars. — XXIII. Liability to Employees. — XXIV. Fellow-Servants. — XXV. Baggage. — XXVI. Injuries resulting in Death. — XXVII. Injuries to Live Stock. — XXVIII. Carriers of Things. —XXIX. Mort- gages. — XXX. Receivers. — XXXI. Consolidation; Leases. — XXXII. Legislative Control. — XXXIII. Forfeiture of Charter. Wood on Railway Law is published in three volumes, law sheep, at $15.00 tiet. No young lawyer should make up a library without it: no older lawyer should fail to add it to his library from his first spare fees. THE LEADING LAW PERIODICAL. The New York Nation, one of our best critical authorities, speaks thus of the English Law Quarterly Review : — " The first volume of the Law Quarterly is now finished, and number five, for January, 1886, lies before us. This excellent magazine (London, Stevens & Sons; Boston, C. C. Soule) is edited by Professor Pollock, and gives expression to some of the very best legal learning and thought of the present day. It de- serves the support of every lawyer who is interested in perfecting the science of law. In its first number, a year ago, it presented a most valuable ' Digest ' of the law relating to section 17 of the Statute of Frauds, the combined work of Mr. Justice Stephen and the editor. Of like immediate use to the practising lawyer have been the articles of the editor on ' Certain Topics in the Law of Torts,' and of Dr. Melville M. Bigelow on ' Mistakes of Law,' to say nothing of man)' short and good book notices, and the presentation of the contents of foreign law journals. But the marked excellence of the Review has been in its contri- butions to the learning of the law. Mr. Maitland's really delightful article (the phrase is not too strong) on ' The Seisin of Chattels ' ; Judge Holmes' paper on 'Early English Equity'; Mr. Pike's article on 'Common Law and Conscience in the Ancient Court of Chancery'; Vinogradoff's, on 'The Text of Bracton,' with its incidental crucifixion of Sir Travers Twiss for his shameful edition of Bracton; Dicey's 'Federal Government,' since incorporated into his book on ' The Law of the Constitution '; — these are among the treasures of the first volume. There is no law journal within our knowledge that represents the higher walks of legal study with anything like the ability of the Law Quar- terly. That there are, here and there, articles of small merit, and that a specialist may sometimes grumble at what seems to him to fall short as touching his subject, are things to be expected in all such undertakings." In these days of " Reporters " and weekly journals of case-law, it is refreshing and stimulating to read such a magazine as this. Subscription, $2.75 per year. Vol. I. bound, $4.00. ALBANY LAW SCHOOL. Established in 1851. For circulars, gi'ving full information, address HORACE E. SMITH, LL.D., Dean, Albany, N. Y.