Page:Legal Bibliography, Numbers 1 to 12, 1881 to 1890.djvu/8

 2 SOULE & BUGBEE'S LEGAL BIBLIOGRAPHY. ment, combination, and cataloguing of the books now in the hbrary, intelligent expenditure through a series of years, directed to perfecting sets, and collecting all books, old and new, on every topic of the law, would make in time an almost perfect law-library, and utilize a vast amount of material now practically useless. In all the points which make a good law-library — in completeness of its collections of all the reports, laws, and text-books of England and America ; in systematic arrangement ; in effective cataloguing ; and especially in the accessibility of the books, and in the facilities offered to students — the Law- Library of Congress, at Washington, is very greatly superior to the Library of the British Museum. ODDITIES OF THE LAW. This collection of wise, witty, and odd remarks and comments by the famous judges, the great lawyers, and the law-reporters, will be found exceedingly amusing and instructive, not only to the legal pro- fession, but to the general reader. No man was so well qualified to make a good book of this kind as Mr. Heard, who has an intimate and peculiar knowledge of English courts and court reporters. We present the following as specimens of the contents : — " In the year 1598 Sir Edward Coke, then Attorney-General, married the Lady Hatton, according to the Book of Common Prayer, but without banns or license, and in a private house. Several great men were there present, as Lord Burleigh. Lord Chancellor Egerton, etc. They all, by their proctor, submitted to the censure of the archbishop, who granted them an absolution from the excommunication which they had incurred. The act of absolution set forth that it was granted by reason of penitence, ayid the act seeming to have been done through ignorance of the law." " Nihil habeat forum ex scena is one of Bacon's maxims; but he there refers to fictitious cases brought into the courts in order to determine points of law. Sergeant Maynard, who died in the reign of William III., is said to have had ' the ruling passion strong in death ' to such a degree, that he left a will purposely worded so as to cause litigation, in order that sundry questions which had been ' moot points ' in his lifetime might be settled for the benefit of posterity." " When Plunket was driven to resign the Irish Chancellorship, he was succeeded by Lord Campbell. The day of the latter's arrival was very stormy, and a friend remarked to Plunket how sick of his promotion the passage must have made the new-comer. 'Yes,' he replied ruefully; 'but it won't make him throw up the seals.' " "There is a very ancient precedent of judges going cimiit. 'And he went from year to year in circuit to Bethel, and Gilgal, and Mizpeh, and judged Israel in all those places.' — i Sam. vii. 16." LIBRARIES BOUGHT OR APPRAISED. We are ready to buy libraries in bulk, whenever they are offered at prices which will allow us a fair profit. It will be well, however, for executors, or other persons who have books to sell, to remember that text-books, odd volumes of reports, and old editions of English and American reports, do not find a ready sale. To get cash for a lot of such books, the prices must be put low. Full sets of the best editions of good reports in fair condition command better prices. Wherever it is desired, we will appraise libraries at a moderate charge. STAR-CHAMBER CASES: A REPRINT. We have in press, for publication in December or January, a reprint of the "Star-Chamber Cases," a small quarto of only fifty-five pages, originally printed in 1630, now become scarce. Mr. Wall.-vce finds these cases so interesting that he devotes to them six pages of " The Reporters." We reprint it in imitation of the old style, upon such paper and in such binding as will make it a choice example of the perfection which the manufacture of books has attained in America. A DICTIONARY OF ABBREVIATIONS. The range of quotation from reports is so great in modern text- books, and the citations used are so various, no two authors citing on the same system, that every lawyer needs to have on his desk for instant reference a complete dictionary of ail possible abbreviations, — a dictionary which shall define the citation if it is correct, or sug- gest some definition if it be insufficient or erroneous. Lists of abbre- viations are given in various places, — in the booksellers' catalogues, in the law-dictionaries, and elsewhere. In the catalogues the Enghsh and American abbreviations are printed separately; apd in all the lists only the correct abbreviations are given. But, when a lawyer comes across a blind abbreviation in a book or brief, he does not know whether it is correct or incorrect, whether it is English or American, whether it is a text-book or report. What he wants is an alphabetical list embracing all forms of all supposable citations, with notes wherever there might be a likelihood of confusion. Such a list will be one of the features of " The Lawyer's Reference Manual " to be published in January next. SPECIAL LIST OF BARGAINS. The books in this list were bought low, and are here catalogued at special prices, which we cannot agree to adhere to after the copies advertised are sold. The books are all sound and perfect, and bound in law sheep. The condition of the outside of each set is indicated by letters, — a signi- fying good ; b, fair ; and c, shabby. The prices given are all net. b. Dickenson's Quarter Sessions. 1845. ^5.00. Starkie on Criminal Pleading. 2 vols. 1828. ^6.oo. b. Gabbett's Criminal Law. 3 vols. 1843- $12.00. Hawkins's Pleas of the Crown. 2 vols. 1824. $13.00. c. Massachusetts Reports. 17 vols. $20.00. a. Irish Chancery Reports [lemp. Sugden). 9 vols. $30.00. English Crown Cases, 1852 to 1865 (Dearsly, Dearsly and Bell, Bell, Leigh and Cave). 4 vols. New half-calf, $28.00. b. Johnson's New York Reports. 20 vols. $30.00. b. English Chancery Reports (namely, Vernon, 2 vols. ; Peere Williams, 3 vols. ; Atkyns, 3 vols. ; Ambler, 2 vols. ; Merivale, 3 vols. ; Swanston, 3 vols.). t6 vols., good editions. $35.00. Benton's Abridgment of Congressional Debates, from 1789 to 1850. 16 vols. $32.00. i. Simon's Vice-Chancellors' Reports. English edition. 17 vols. $34.00. a. Jacob's Fisher's Digest. Vols, i to 7. $35.00. c. English Law and Equity Reports. 40 vols. $40.00. c. English Bail Court Reports (namely, Dovvling, 9 vols. ; Dowling, new series, 2 vols.; Dowling and Lowndes, 7 vols.; Lowndes, Maxwell, and Pollock, 2 vols.). 20 vols. $45.00. b. Law Reports. Equity cases, 1S65 to 1875. 20 vols. $60.00. a. United States Digest (both series). Latest edition. 25 vols. $85.00. a. Moak's English Reports. 27 vols. ; and Index, 28 vols. $90.00. b. Law Reports : Common Law Series. 1865 to 1875. (Queen's Bench, 10 vols. ; Common Pleas, 10 vols. ; Exchequer, 10 vols.) 30 vols. $90.00. c. English Common Pleas Reports. 18 to to 1846 (namely, Taunton, 8 vols. ; Broderip and Bingham, 3 vols. ; Bingham, 10 vols. ; Bingham, new Cases, 6 vols. ; Manning and Granger, 7 vols.) ; in all, 34 vols. English editions. $68.00. b. English Chancery Reports. 43 vols. $110.00. a. American Reports. 33 vols. ; and Digest, 34 vols. 115.00. a. Irish Reports. 1827 to 1880 (including The Law Recorder, 10 vols.; Irish Law and Equity Reports, 26 vols.; Irish Common Law and Chancei7 Reports, 34 vols.; Irish Reports, Common Law and Equity Series, 22 vols.; Irish Law Reports, 6 vols.) ; in all, 98 vols. $450,00. Also, sets of Massachusetts, Maine, and Rhode Island Reports, which will be priced on inquiry. In truth, as was said by Chief Justice Wilmot, " the common law is nothing else but statutes worn out." — Frotn " Oddities of the Law."