CHAPTER IV.

THE LIBRARY.

FOUNDATION, PROGRESS AND ARRANGEMENT.

T the time of laying the foundation of the noble pile of building described in

the preceding pages, an inscription was deposited with the stone, intimating that a structure was about to arise which would be ennobled by the banquetings and festive meetings to be held within its walls. If the magnificent apartment which now forms the dining-hall of the Society be honoured by such uses, how much more highly dignified is that portion of the building appropriated to their Library, where the taste and skill of the architect have been exerted to provide a suitable repository for their valuable collection of books; where stores of intellectual wealth from every clime and age are accumulated; where the mind of the student may be enlightened by the writings of the learned of his own profession, animated and guided

in the onward path of duty by the lessons of the divine, and encouraged by the bright examples recorded in the pages of the historian.

The long prevalent opinion, which had been regarded in the profession almost as an axiom not to be questioned, that law must be divorced from literature, has given way to juster views of the character of legal science. "From Lord Bacon, whose legal acquirements formed a massive framework for those visions of future wisdom in which he half anticipated the discoveries of ages, down to the present time, the annals of the bar are rich in histories of men who have loved literature not only well, but wisely. The old lawyers exulted in blending their classical recollections with their professional learning."

" *

The great importance of literature and science to the practical lawyer is ably demonstrated in an essay on Legal Education in the Law Review. The writer maintains that a foundation should by all means be laid broad and deep of general learning; that the classics ought chiefly to be studied, as the most efficient means of refining the taste and attaining proficiency in the oratorical art; and that the moral and physical sciences are also very essential, the former being eminently useful to those who have to reason upon evidence

Law Magazine.

and probabilities, to discuss points of duty, and to discriminate between shades of guilt; and the physical sciences demanding attention, because cases continually occur in the courts of justice which turn upon principles of natural philosophy and niceties in the mechanical and chemical arts.* The same writer adds that no man can be an accomplished lawyer without a knowledge of history, especially that of his own country, and some acquaintance with the legal systems of other countries; and that they who have studied the ablest arguments in our courts must be aware what sources both of reasoning and illustration the comparative view of other systems has afforded.

The original foundation of the Library of Lincoln's Inn is of earlier date than that of any now existing in the metropolis. In the 13th year of the reign of Henry VII. A.D. 1497, "John Nethersale, late one of this Society, bequeathed forty marks, partly towards the building of a Library here for the benefit of the students of the laws of England, and partly that every priest of this house,

* The importance of a knowledge of chemistry was exemplified in a case which occurred some years ago at Caermarthen on a charge of uttering two counterfeit sovereigns, when the solicitor employed for the defence proved the coins to be genuine by immersing them in nitric acid, by the action of which the coating of mercury, with which the gold had become accidentally amalgamated, was removed.

in the celebration of divine service every Friday, should sing a mass of requiem, &c. for the soul of the said John." This building, the site of which is not now known, was finished in the 24th Henry VII. Previously to their removal to the edifice in which they are now commodiously arranged, the Looks occupied a suite of rooms in the Stone Building, to which they had been transferred in the year 1787 from the Old Square. There are various entries in the records of the Society relating to the Library in the reign of Elizabeth. It seems, however, that little progress was made in the accumulation of books; for, at a Council held in 6th James I. A.D. 1608, "because the Library was not well furnished with books, it was ordered that for the more speedy doing thereof, every one that should thenceforth be called to the Bench in this Society should give twenty shillings towards the buying of books for the same Library; and every one thenceforth called to the Bar, thirteen shillings and fourpence, all which sums to be paid to Mr. Matthew Hadde, who, for the better ordering of the said Library was then made Master thereof." Three years afterwards it was ordered that Mr. Hadde, thus constituted the first Master of the Library, an office now held in annual rotation by each Bencher, "should buy and provide for the Library Fleta' and such other old books and

manuscripts of the Law, and to cause those that be ill bound to be new bound." At a subsequent meeting it was ordered "that ten pounds should be paid by Mr. Hadde out of the money received from Sir William Sedley for copies of 'Corpus Juris Civilis,' in six volumes, and 'Corpus Juris Canonici,' in three volumes, and that he should cause them to be bound with bosses without chains, and pay the charges of binding out of that money."

The Library has been enriched at various periods by donations from members of the Society. One of the earliest of these benefactors was Ranulph

* It was formerly the custom in public libraries to fasten books with chains to the shelves or book-cases; and many of the volumes in Lincoln's Inn Library still retain, attached to their covers, the iron rings by which they were secured. In these cases an iron rod was passed through the rings of the books as they were ranged on the shelves, and fastened by a padlock at the end;-an usage practised till the last century in most collegiate and public libraries. A curious instance of what certainly has some appearance of laxity in the custody of libraries in former times is thus naïvely related by Dugdale, in his account of the Middle Temple : "They now have no Library, so that they cannot attaine to the knowledge of divers learnings, but to their great charges, by the buying of such bookes as they lust to study. They had a simple Library, in which were not many bookes besides the Law; and that Library, by meanes that it stood allwayes open, and that the learners had 'not each of them a key unto it, it was at the last robbed and spoiled of all the bookes in it."—Origines Juridiciales, p. 197. ed. 1680.