Page:Legal Bibliography, Numbers 1 to 12, 1881 to 1890.djvu/9

 SOULE & BUGBEE'S LEGAL BIBLIOGRAPHY. AMES'S CASES ON BILLS AND NOTES. We shall publish Nov. i " A Selection of Cases on the Law of Bills and Notes and other Negotiable Paper : with full References and Citations, and also an Index and Summary of the Cases. Prepared for use as a Text-Book in Harvard Law- School. By James Barr Ames, Bussey Professor of Law in Harvard University." 2 vols. Bound in English half calf, $12.00 net, or delivered for $12.50 net. As the title explains, this work was prepared for the use of stu- dents ; but the number and thoroughness of the annotations, and the concise statement of the law of bills and notes contained in the Summary, give it a peculiar value for practitioners also. The Preface says, " With the design of rendering these volumes useful to the prac- tising lawyer, the editor has attempted to collect in footnotes all the cumulative and adverse authorities, English and American, upon the points decided in the principal cases. In the Summar, the editor, while aiming to state as concisely as possible the actual result of the decisions, has ventured to express with considerable freedom his opinion upon the points decided." The cases are presented (as in Professor Langdell's collection of Cases or Contracts) without syllabi. They number over six hun- dred, and are divided by chapters and sections into groups cor- responding with the divisions of the Summary. Thus Chapter I. treats of " Formal Requisites ; " Section i, "A Bill must contain an Order," then four cases illustrating this point ; Section 2, " A Note must contain a Promise," -with thirteen apposite cases ; Section 3, " The Order or Promise must be unconditional," with fifteen cases; and so on. These cases are very fully annotated in footnotes. The advantage of works of this class lies in their completeness. They combine treatise and report ; and the cases they contain can be offered in court as authority more binding than the statements in a text-book. We bind Ames's Cases only in half calf, after the English style. This does not increase the cost of the book, and is handsomer and more durable than law sheep. NEW REVISION OF MASSACHUSETTS LAWS. The Public Statutes of Massachusetts, comprising all the general laws of the State now in force, have been consolidated and arranged by a commission of three able and experienced lawyers, appointed for that purpose by the Governor, under a resolve of the Legislature. The work of the commission has been examined and approved by a committee of the General Court ; and a special ses- sion is to be held in November to enact the whole body of statutes, and fix a time when they shall go into effect, — probably on the first day of January next. The State printers (Messrs. Rand, Avery, & Co.) have the work now in type, and will be prepared to print it as soon as it receives the official approval. The whole work, including an analyti- cal index, and a glossary of law-terms, prepared by an able lawyer, will make a volume of fourteen hundred or fifteen hundred pages, a little larger than the second edition of the United States Statutes. There has been no revision of the general laws of Massachusetts since 1859 ; and the revision of that date (printed in i860, and re- printed in 1873, the plates having been destroyed by fire) now sells for $3.00 net. The two supplements, containing the general laws enacted between 1S60 and 1880, sell for $5.50 net. The new edition, covering all the laws in force at this time, will probably be sold for substantially the cost of printing, binding, and distributing (the State owning and permitting the use of the plates); and the price will not exceed $3.50 in sheep. We are now prepared to re- ceive orders for the work, and will fill them in the order in which they are received, and at the price fixed bv the State authorities. L816 This is a work of general interest, not only to law-students and lawyers throughout the country, but to all men doing business under the laws of the State, or having business connections therem. LAWYERS' REFERENCE MANUAL. One of the first and most pressing wants of a law^r who uses books is a reference manual to lie on his desk, and give him information about editions of reports, about the English and American treatises on any subject he is looking up, and especially about citations and abbreviations. Such a book we shall publish in Januaiy or February next, under the title of The Lawyers' Reference Manual. It will contain, in condensed form, the information now given in library or book- sellers' catalogues, in the large works on legal bibliography, in para- graphs Of the lav/ dictionaries, and in scattered chapters of other works ; together with much more not before printed. The dictionary of abbreviations, designed to put a -reader on the track of even the bhnd- est citation, will be very full and useful. The price of the manual will not exceed $3.00. A discount will be made to any lawyer or student who will buy a number at one time for the purpose of selling them by personal canvass, and to hbraries which require a dozen or more copies for the use of readers. THE IDEAL LAW- LIBRARY. What should a law-library comprise, to occupy the largest field of usefulness ? This is a question which many librarians and library officers are pondering over. There are a dozen libraries in .•merica with sufficient incomes to aspire, through gradual growth, to an ideal completeness, if completeness can be defined. To this question we offer an answer, based on a study of the sub- ject, and on discussions with librarians and lawyers, covering a book- selling experience of fifteen years. The perfect law-library should have — 1. Every edition of every published volume of American, English, Irish, or Scotch Reports, with digests. 2. The Reports of all the British Colonies, and of countries (like the Sandwich Islands) which have imitated the English or American system of reporting. [See •' Lawyers' Reference Manual " for a fist of such reports.] 3. All the original session laws, and compilations of statutes of the United States, the separate States, and Great Britain. 4. Every edition of every American or English elementary work or treatise, old or new. [The old editions would be valuable to students for comparison and collation.] 5. A collection, as complete as possible, of special reports of trials, catalogued not only by tides and general subjects, but also with reference to the particular points of evidence, rulings, or argu- ment, which may render them valuable. 6. Pamphlets on legal subjects, properly catalogued. 7. All books on legal bibliography. 8. Histories of the law. and of courts ; works on the philosophy of law, legal biographies, legal speeches, legal anecdotes and miscel- lanies. 9. The classic law-books of the civil law and of foreign countries. 10. The Codes or Collections of Statutes in force, of all civilized countries and colonies. 11. .All the treatises and published decisions of foreign countries on commercial, maritime, and international law, and on other sub- jects where their law resembles ours, or interests us. it ^. LAW imm