with reference either to the subjects or to the sizes of the volumes. The main object of a catalogue is to facilitate the use of the library; of course, such arrangement should be adopted as will best subserve this end; and this appears to be the alphabetical arrangement. The inquirer can turn, as readily as in a dictionary, to the name of the author he wishes to find.”

The books are arranged on the shelves in classes, and on taking a survey of the Library from the entrance near the east oriel window, the eye of the visitor may range over a vast collection of Treatises on every branch of English jurisprudence from the earliest period to the present day; then over the Reports of Cases argued in all the Courts of Law ; and then over the voluminous collections of the Journals of the Houses of Parliament, and the Cases heard on Appeal before the House of Lords and the Privy Council, passing on to the volumes containing the Statutes of the Realm, Public, Local, and Private. On the opposite side of the room the observer may notice a goodly assemblage of the works of English and foreign divines, with editions of the Bible in various languages; the poets, historians, philosophers, and orators of Greece and Rome; dictionaries of various languages, and other

*American Jurist, xiii. 383-4.

philological works; the principal writers, ancient and modern, on English History and Topography; Foreign History; and a selection of works on Civil and Foreign Law. In the Upper Gallery is ranged a collection of books on Civil and Foreign Law, occupying nearly the whole of one side of the room; and on the opposite side of the gallery may be observed the more voluminous historical works, such as Grævius and Gronovius, Muratori, &c., with the Mémoires de l'Académie, and that monument of the wondrous extension of the Papal power and dominion, the Bullarium Romanum.

In his notice of the various classes of books, in the former edition of this work, the librarian had thought fit to begin the description with the class of Theology, as forming the basis of laws and social institutions; but as this library is designed expressly for the prosecution of legal studies, he now deems it more appropriate to begin the survey with the books on jurisprudence, giving bibliographical details of the earlier writers on English Law, with some notice of those on Civil and Foreign Law, and, owing to the narrow space imposed by the limits of this work, touching but slightly on the class of Theology, and passing very briefly over the other

classes of Literature.

۲۰

ENGLISH LAW.

I. TREATISES. 2. REPORTS. 3. STATUTES.
4. TRIALS.

So well stored are the shelves of the Library with books on every branch of English jurisprudence, that some hesitation may be for a moment felt in making a selection for primary notice. How vast has been the increase of books on the study and practice of the law since the days of Lord Coke, the following extract from the Preface to the third part of his lordship's Reports may be sufficient to show: "Right profitable are the ancient books of the common law yet extant, as Glanville, Bracton, Britton, Fleta, Ingham (Hengham), and Novæ Narrationes; and those also of later times, as the Old Tenures, Old Natura Brevium, Littleton, Doctor and Student, Perkins, Fitzherbert's Natura Brevium and Staunford." After mentioning with commendation the Abridgments of Fitzherbert and Sir Robert Brooke, as also that of Statham, the Book of Assises, and the " great Book of Entries,” and the “exquisite and elaborate Commentaries of Master Plowden, the summary and fruitful observations of Sir James Dyer, and his own simple labours," the Lord Chief Justice continues: "then have you fifteen books or trea

tises, and as many volumes of the Reports, besides the Abridgments of the Common Law; for I speak not of the Statutes and Acts of Parliament, whereof there be divers great volumes."

In addition to the fifteen treatises mentioned by Lord Coke, the Library contains about 1200 volumes of Treatises on the Law; about as many volumes of Reports; of Abridgments of the Law about fifty volumes; and the Statute Law is extended to forty-seven volumes in quarto, continued since the year 1869 in octavo.

Law books were among the earliest works that issued from the press in England on the invention of the art of printing. It does not appear, however, that any of these were given to the public by the Father of the English press, with the exception of the Statutes of Henry VII. printed by William Caxton shortly before his decease. By Lettou and Machlinia were printed Littleton's Tenures, about the year 1481, the "Vieux Abridgement des Statuts" and some of the Year Books. By Wynkyn de Worde were printed Lyndewode's Provinciale, Carta Feodi Simplicis, and a few other law books; by Pynson, Littleton's Tenures, Liber Assisarum, Liber Intrationum, some of the Year Books, &c. Statham's Abridgment was printed either by or for Pynson. By John Rastell were printed Littleton's Tenures, Tables to Fitzherbert's Abridgment,

Abridgment of the Statutes, &c.; by Redman, the first edition of Britton, and many other treatises; by Berthelet, some of the Year Books, Littleton, Natura Brevium, the Statutes, &c. Richard Tottel, who enjoyed a special licence for the printing of law books, printed the first edition of Bracton, and most of those which had appeared previously were by him again given to the public. The first edition of Fitzherbert's Abridgment has been attributed both to Wynkyn de Worde, and to Pynson.

The earliest of the ancient writers mentioned by Lord Coke in the passage just cited is Glanville, and it may be convenient to notice these works nearly in the order in which they are there enumerated; with the addition of Horne's Mirror of Justices, Fortescue, and Lambard.

GLANVILLE. Tractatus de Legibus et Consuetudinibus Regni Angliæ, tempore regis Henrici secundi compositus, Justicia gubernacula tenente illustri viro Ranulpho de Glanvilla, Juris Regni et antiquarum Consuetudinum eo tempore peritissimo.

It is supposed that this summary or digest of the laws of England was drawn up by the command of king Henry II., in order to perpetuate the improvements he had made in the Norman laws, and to render the practice of the law more uniform