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THE AMERICAN REPORTS.

THE MOST VALUABLE SERIES OF REPORTS EXTANT.

THE FOURTH VOLUME

Of the AMERICAN REPORTS is now ready, and contains all cases of any general interest reported in the following twelve State reports:

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The selection of cases for these reports is most carefully made by three experi enced lawyers, and is designed to

Include Everything

of any general interest in every State report published in the Union.

Each volume contains between 750 and 800 large octavo pages in small type, thus enabling us to publish, per volume, from one-third to one-half more matter than is contained in any other volume of reports.

The first three volumes contain all the decisions in the following State reports: 31 32 and 33 Maryland; 100 101 and 102 Massachusetts; 24 and 25 Wisconsin; 27 Iowa; 42 Vermont; 62 63 64 and 65 Penn. St.; 41 42 and 43 New York; 57 Maine; 48 New Hampshire; 19 Michigan; 15 Minnesota; 19 Ohio; 51 and 52 Illinois; 32 Indiana; 40 Georgia; 22 La. Ann.; 39 California; 1 Heiskell, (Tenn. ;) 46 Missouri; 20 Grat. (Va. ;) 6 Nevada; 34 New Jersey; 7 Bush., (Ky.) Thus furnishing to the profession, at a cost of only eighteen dollars, all that is of any value in thirty-four volumes of reports, which would cost at the lowest cash price, the sum of $175.

The price of the American Reports is $6.00 per volume, post-free. Orders for a single volume or for the series, should be addressed to the publisher.

JOHN D. PARSONS, Jr.,

LAW BOOK PUBLISHER,

ALBANY, N. Y.

AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONS.

Edited by FRANKLIN B. HOUGH.

This work, in two large octavo volumes, embraces

The Constitution of each State in the Union, And of the United States,

WITH THEIR LATEST AMENDMENTS.

Each is preceded by a carefully prepared Historical Account of the Origin and Principal Changes of the Constitution; the Conventions that have been held; the Results of Elections upon various questions submitted with reference to Conventions; the adoption of New Constitutions; Amendments, etc., and a large amount of other Historical Information relating to constitutional subjects. Each Constitution is also preceded by a FULL SUMMARY, and, in nearly every instance, is followed by a LIST OF THE DELEGATES OF THE CONVENTION by which it was prepared. Numerous NOTES are added, explaining the effect of amendments, and other subjects requiring notice.

A sketch of the various abortive attempts in the formation of State governments since the beginning, and of the several Territorial Organizations, past and present, is also given, extending down to and including the measures now pending in Congress for the formation of new Territories, and the admission of States. A considerable part of the second volume is devoted to a carefully prepared

Classified Analysis of Constitutions,

In which every existing constitutional provision in the General or State Governments is arranged according to its subject, with reference to article and section, and (where not otherwise indicated), in the exact phraseology of the Constitutions. Their various shades of difference, comparative resemblance or identity, is thus conspicuously shown, and the study of Constitutions facilitated to a degree never before attained in any work offered to the public. A portion of this Analysis is in comparative tables, where the subject could thus be most conveniently presented.

There will also be given a table of

REFERENCES TO JUDICIAL DECISIONS,

Embracing the more important, from the organization of the Federal Government to the present time. The
second volume will contain AN ELABORATE INDEX, by which, either directly or through the Classified
Analysis, reference may at once be made to every subject in the work, and for each State.
Án attractive and valuable feature of the work consists in a series of carefully engraved fac similes of

THE GREAT SEALS OF THE UNITED STATES,

AND OF EACH STATE AND TERRITORY IN THE UNION,

Made with actual impressions of the Seals before the artist, and in every instance intended to be faithful copies in SIZE, DESIGN and DESCRIPTION. In cases where pendant seals are required by law, both sides of the seal are represented. These seals, nearly sixty in number (including the reverse sides), are printed separately by States, etc., with tinted ground, and will be found widely different in many cases from the commonly received ideas of State seals, derived from erroneous engravings in other books. As specimens of art they will bear favorable comparison with the best.

There will also be included in the second volume

A HISTORICAL MAP,

Showing the various changes of boundaries of States and Territories, from the beginning to the present time, and other information capable of representation by chart.

VOLUME I, containing the portion relating to the United States, and to the several States in alphabetical order to NEVADA, inclusive (viii and 886 pages), is completed. The second volume is far advanced in press, and will be issued at an early day.

Price, $7.50 per volume, sent free on receipt of price.

WEED, PARSONS & CO., LAW BOOK PUBLISHERS,

39 and 41 Columbia St., ALBANY, N. Y.

The Albany Law Journal.

ALBANY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1872.

LEGAL JOURNALISM.

A remarkable feature of the last half century is the development of legal journalism. No department of life, in fact, which lays any claim to greatness or power can now afford to do without its literary vehicle of expression. That the law was the last of the great professions to accept journalism as a means of advancement and power is not at all marvelous when the characteristics of the legal profession are considered. Law being a practical necessity for the whole people, and being constantly brought to their personal knowledge, was in no need of being communicated by any literary medium from afar. Law being arbitrary, and clothed with real or assumed infallibility, and with authority from which there was no appeal save to arms, there was little use for discussion and criticism either of positive or judicial law. The law being in the nature of a "secret" to the profession, and being easily communicated without the intervention of literature among the brotherhood, there was no pressing demand for any literary embodiment except statute books, judicial reports and elementary works. The processes of making law, except in the department of legislation, were as mysterious to the people as were the doings in the cave at Delphi. An institution devoted to the public criticism of judicial decisions, of rules of law, of forms and institutions of law, and of legislation, to the suggestion of law reform, to the improvement of legal education, to the modification of legal systems, the judiciary and the jury, to the amendment of fundamental and constitutional law, to the exposition of the modes in which rules of law came to be such, and the various modifications, dissensions and approvals with which each rule has met in its advance the history of the law-such an institution was deemed a profanation of law, an invasion of the sanctity of the courts, and an intolerable thing. But at the present we have just such an institution in legal journalism. Moreover, the province of legal journalism is enlarged, and made to be an almost indispensable auxiliary to the profession by the early publication of legal news, of important decisions from all parts of the world, of abstracts and digests of opinions of judges in the courts of last resort far and near, and of well-written, able and elaborate articles on new or doubtful legal subjects. Law journals are also the means of the dissemination of the views of distinguished men upon topics of vital interest to the profession, not only in its internal and legal relations, but in its external and social and political relations. The field

is certainly immense, and the alacrity with which the profession respond to the wants of legal journalism shows that they perceive its utility and power and its constantly increasing importance. And there is abundant reason to believe and to hope that we are in the beginning of an era of legal journalism which shall be brilliant in success, powerful in the accomplishment of law reform, indispensable in the mutual improvement of the members of the profession, and distinguished for the literary, as well as legal, lustre which it shall reveal in the law and the lawyers.

ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION.

The complete absence of any connection between church and state in the United States has been the ground of much interesting observation and speculation on the part of transatlantic nations, and the source of some anxiety as well as much exultation on the part of ourselves. The rare spectacle has been presented of a large and populous nation, within whose borders all sorts of creeds and religions have found refuge, toleration and prosperity, without any positive assistance from the government or any direct authority from the courts. Ecclesiastical law has been as varied as the religious notions of the majorities of the communities constituting the several denominations. Each denomination has made and executed its own ecclesiastical laws, with reference to spiritual matters. But the validity of denominational rules, when applied to temporal things, to property and material rights, constituted the ground of anxiety and contention. Occupying an independent position, the churches would naturally, only as a last resort, seek redress for material wrongs, even, in secular tribunals. The courts, on the other hand, recognizing no theological or spiritual subjects as coming within their jurisdiction, were at a loss to know how much to arrogate to themselves, and at what bounds their jurisdiction should cease. But the ecclesiastical adjudication of this country has now attained such a magnitude as to prepare the way for a pretty definite and wellsettled rule of law in reference to ecclesiastical jurisdiction. A foreign writer,* in commenting upon the principles laid down in Watson v. Jones, decided in the supreme court of the United States last winter, says, that "the transatlantic key is very simple, but it remains to be seen how much it will unlock. It is very much our interest to watch it. It may no doubt be possible, under our doctrine of contract, for equity to spell out (by inquiry into each case) all that the American common law holds (without inquiry) to be involved in ecclesiastical jurisdiction. But the legal process is laborious and vexatious, and the judicial results, both in England and Scotland, have hitherto been timid and feeble and vacillating. The American doc*Journal of Jurisprudence and Scottish Law Magazine, July, 1872.

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