Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 08.pdf/536

 The New Abridgment of the Laws of England.

493

THE NEW ABRIDGMENT OF THE LAWS OF ENGLAND. (An Interview with the Editor.)

AS Mr. Wood Renton'sname is familiar to many of your readers, I thought I should like on their behalf to learn at first hand some particulars concerning the mag num opus of which he has undertaken the editorial responsibilities. I accordingly look ed in one afternoon upon Mr. Wood Renton at his pleasant chambers in Garden Court Temple. The customary prelimina ries over, I invited the editor to tell me all about his enter prise. "It is not correct to speak of the pro posed work as my enterprise," he re plied, " for I am purely the ministerial officer, so to speak, charged with its due execution. The credit of the idea belongs exclusively to Mr. Charles Green of A. WOOD Edinburgh, the head of the Scottish Law Publishing House, Messrs. Wm. Green & Son, who, encouraged by the phenomenal success of his Encyclopaedia of Scots Law, bethought him to essay the infinitely great er scheme of presenting in somewhat simi lar form a complete statement of English Law. The conception of such a work has occurred to very many lawyers, but it has only now assumed a definite and practical shape. "Messrs. Sweet and Maxwell of London are to collaborate in the publishing department

with Messrs. Green, * so that as far as trade prestige is concerned the work will make its bow to the public under the most favorable auspices. After mature deliberation we decided to adopt the term ' Abridgment' for the nomenclature in preference to Encyclo paedia, Digest or Epit ome. There was in this respect the sanc tion of tradition — a great matter here in England — for was not abridgment the term used by Viner and Bacon to describe their historic labors? The publishers and myself, after consult ing with a number of leading lawyers, have determined to limit the extent of the work to twelve vol umes of five hun dred pages each; in the case of many subjects it will naturally be very difficult to restrict their treat RENTON. ment within limits proportioned to this general scope, but almost every practical advantage is on the side of keeping the work within manageable compass, notwith standing the obvious temptation to se cure exhaustive statement by increasing its size. "The absolute rule for contributors will be the omission of all antiquarian elements and narratives purely historical. We shall in sist upon a simple, straightforward deline ation of the rules of law as they exist at the • The Boston Book Company will be the American publishers.