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THE GREEN BAG

gone, as too tedious or too expensive, or a few casual sources have been summarily made to suffice, or the whole matter has been placed in the hands of a continental lawyer. It will now be possible to ascertain ade quately here at home the foreign law; and thus either a resort abroad will become wholly unnecessary or the foreign attorney's services will be needed only for proceedings taken abroad. In any event, much time and expense may be saved, and a more intelligent handling of the case will be possible. The probabilities of the Library's practical use fulness in this direction have come markedly to the surface since the first announcement of its acquisition, and appear now to be much greater than was originally expected. In the selection of materials and the plan ning of the library's uses, the school has sought advice from the consuls and other skilled persons here who are in touch with this particular need. The school is prepared to place the library at the service of those of the profession who thus would utilize it, without other than a nominal charge to cover the expense of making known its resources. The plan, as at present formed, is to permit the use of the Gary collection to any member of the bar in Chicago upon only this nominal charge; and, for the benefit of practitioners in other parts of the country, to appoint a staff of local practitioners, one for each foreign country, skilled in the respective languages, and to commit to them for investigation any case stated which may be sent to the school, charging for this a small minimum fee and handing it to the particular local practitioner who makes the investigation and supplies the opinion. No doubt a considerable service can by this means be rendered to the profession as well as to the entire community in the West and Northwest. b. English Historical Material. The scope of this collection now being installed is to include all printed material before 1700 which is not already in Chicago.

c. Ancient and Oriental Law. This collection is to include (i) for Europe, the printed sources of Germanic, Scandina vian and Slavic Law up to the end of the Middle Ages; including the Lex Salica and kindred laws and ordinances; the legal docu ments, records of local customs, etc., so far as printed; (2) for Asia and Africa, and Oceanica, the laws and customs of primitive or extinct tribes and peoples, and the more developed systems, such as the Hindu and Mohammedan. Geographically, therefore, this will cover Afghanistan, Armenia, Caucasus, Persia, India, East Indies, China, Japan, Siam, Mongolia and Siberia, African tribes, Oce anica, and Australia. By systems, it will include the Hindu, Mohammedan, Hebrew, BabyIonian,* Egyptian, Greek, Chinese, and Japanese systems. It will not include in the present plan the'modern colonial law of Ger many, France, Great' Britian, Spain, Nether lands, Denmark, Portugal, and Italy, so far as thel legislation -of those countries has 'affected the indigenous law of their colonies : but it will include the modern legislation of the above great systems in the independent countries f which still maintain them, i.e. Turkey, China, Japan, Siam, and Persia. So far, however, only'}Turkey and Japan are thus represented in the collection. The nucleus of this'department has been a collection formed from the libraries of Pro fessors Dermesteter, Gaston Paris, and three others, recently coming into the market in Paris. This collection was rich in those rare pamphlets and old editions, which are diffi cult to procure on demand in the market, and contained few of the large treatises which may be procured on order without difficulty. It thus furnished the best sort of a nucleus for such a library. Among these may be mentioned Chasseand's account of the Manners and Customs of the Druses of Lebannon (1855); Rogiere's Formules Inedites (1853), from documents in the Monas tery of St. Gall in Switzerland, the greatest