Page:Legal Bibliography, Numbers 1 to 12, 1881 to 1890.djvu/80

 8 SOULE'S LEGAL BIBLIOGRAPHY. does not come from the pen of any stranger. The reputation which Mr. TiEDEMAN has acquired as a writer is a sufficient guaranty of the abihty and research displayed in Police Power. Its price is $6.00 net. Index to Legal Periodical Literature. — During the last fifty years there have been in England and America a large number of excellent law journals and reviews, numbering among their contributors the ablest lawyers of each generation, and containing thousands of valuable articles on legal topics. These monographs — often covering points not enlarged upon in the standard treatises, and invaluable if they could be found — are now buried away in back volumes of periodicals, forgotten even by their authors. Many years ago it occurred to Leonard A. Jones, while hunting up material for one of his excellent law-books, that an Index to Legal Peri- odicals, similar in plan to Poole's Index to Periodical Literature (which excludes law), would be practically useful to any lawyer who had occasion to examine a subject thoroughly. Impressed by this idea he commenced at once the preparation of such an Index, which is now nearly completed, and will probably be ready for publication in May, 18S7. The price is not settled, as the size of the volume cannot as yet be accurately calculated. One price will be fixed for those who subscribe in advance, and another, twenty per cent higher, for purchasers after publi- cation. Subscriptions will be received by Mr. Soule. An Entertaining Periodical. — In June, 1883, a novel enterprise in the way of legal journalism was begun in London, under the title Pump Court, The Temple Newspaper and Review. Published monthly in quarto form, it seems to eschew case-law and reports, but to include all tlie wide range of discussion, review, biography, comment, gossip, and humor which interests the practising lawyer. Its editorials and short paragraphs are written in vigorous English, with a light play of fancy and humor that are refreshing after the solemn articles of the law reviews. Each number is illustrated with portraits of eminent English judges and lawyers. Among these have been good likenesses of Huddleston, Rus- sell, Benjamin, Giffard, Coleridge, Chitty, Balfour, Williams, Ballantine, Webster, Pollock (C. E.), Hawkins, Selborne, Brett, Herschell, Wills, Harcourt, Cross, Bramwell, Bacon, O'Hagan, Grove, Cairns, etc. Mr. Soule can sell the three volumes now completed, in handsome cloth binding, for ^7.50 net, and take subscriptions for the current volume at ^2.00 per year (including postage). He also has extra copies of the full-page portraits of Huddleston, C. E. Pollock. Hawkins, Selborne, Brett, Denman, and Cairns, suitable for framing, for 50 cents each. JURIDICAL POESir. The compiler of Legal Bibliography, searching about for profitable matter to fill its columns, came across a copy of Mode's " Specimen of a New Edition of State Trials," wherein the author, introducing a rather heavy volume of poetry, extols in a lighter vein "cheerfulness and re- freshment " of versification in the law. " What student indeed," he quotes, " has not felt the gravity of the Poor Laws enlivened, and the sterility of Settlement cases agreeably refreshed, at that flower of poesy thrown by Sir James Burrows into his report of Shadwell v. St. John's Wapping ? " A woman having a settlement Married a man with none. The question was, he being dead, If that she had was gone } " Quoth Sir John Pratt : ' Her settlement Suspended did remain, Living the husband. But, him dead, It doth revive again.' " Chorus of Puisne Judges: ' Living the husband ; but, him dead, It doth revive again.' "The indelible impression made by those verses on the memory; the pleasing accordance of their rhythm and metre widi a grave and useful question of Sessions law ; and the picturesque description of unanimity, which so happily prevailed on the bench at that decision, seem to evince that similar assistance and recreation might be extended to other points." This excursion into verse incapacitated the Legal Bibliographer for further serious work ; and turning to the amusing " Lyrics of the Law," edited by J. Greenbag Croke, Esq., he refreshed his memory with various amusing verses, among which he ventures to quote, for the benefit of other people cf idle dispositions, two head-notes, by Eugene F. Ware, of Fort Scott, Kansas, the comic poet laureate of the American bar: — LEWIS vs. STATE. SYLLABUS. La7U-Paw- Guilt- Wilt. When upon thy frame the law Places its majestic paw, Though in innocence or guilt, Thou art then required to wilt. LAW OF HUSBAND AND WIFE. superior couRr, may term, 18J7. THE state v. henry DAY. Semble, that if A kills his bride. Such kilHng is not suicide. Baron and feme are only one, If any ill the wife hath done ; If any crime the man doth do, Baron and feme are clearly two. In either case, or one or two, The baron must the penance do. The following are the concluding verses of "The First Client," by Irwin Russell: — " Tlie prisoner, Joseph Scroggs, was then arraigned upon this charge, And plead not guilty, and of this he threw himself upon the country at large ; And, said Joseph being poor, the court did graciously appoint Mr. Smith to defend him, — much on the same principle that obtains in every charity hospital, where a young medical student is often set to rectify a serious injury to an organ or a joint. " The witnesses seemed prejudiced against poor Mr. Scroggs ; And the District Attorney made a thrilling speech, in which he told the jury that if they didn't find for the State he reckoned he 'd have to 'walk their logs.' Then Mr. Smith arose and made his speech for the defence. Wherein he cited Shakespeare, Blackstoue, Archbold, Joaquin Miller, Story, Kent, Tupper, Smedes and Marshall, and many other writers ; and everybody said they ' never heered sich a bust of eloquence.' " And he said : ' On this hypothesis, my client must go free ; ' And : ' Again on this hyjiothesis, it 's morally impossible that he could be guilty, don't you see ' Again : 'Then on this hypothesis, you really can't convict ; ' And so on, with forty-si. more hypotheses, upon none of which, Mr. Smith ably demonstrated, could Scroggs be derelict. " But the jury, never stirring from the bo. wherein they sat, Returned a verdict of guilty ; and his Honor straightway sentenced Scroggs to a three-year term in the penitentiary, and a heavy fine and the costs on top of that ; And the prisoner, in wild delight, got up and danced and sung; And when they asked him the reason of this strange behavior, he said : ' It 's because I got off so easy ; for, if there 'd ha' been a few more of them darned hypothesises I should certainly have been hung.' " To break off this nonsense without too sudden a snap, and to let the reader gently down to the level of prose, it may be well to quote from Judge Story's " Advice to a Young Lawyer," as follows : — " Be brief, be pointed ; let your matter stand Lucid in order, solid and at hand ; Spend not your words on trifles, but condense ; Strike with the mass of thought, not drops of sense ; Press to the close with vigor, once begun ; And leave (how hard the task ! ) — leave off when done. He who would win his cause, with power must frame Points of support, and look with steady aim ; Attack the weak, defend the strong with art, Strike but few blows, but strike them to the heart; All scattered fires but end in smoke and noise, The scorn of men, the idle play of boys. Keep, then, this first great precept ever near : Short be your speech, your matter strong and clear, Earnest your manner, warm and rich your style. Severe in taste, yet full of grace the while ; So may vou reach the loftiest heights of fame, And leave, when life is past, a deathless name."