Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 23.pdf/471

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437

The Editor's Bag comparison with the original one to be fully understood could not attain any real utility. On the other hand, there are undoubt

edly many examples of new editions issued merely to include latest citations

of Congress are lawyers.

In the Senate

there are thirty-two Republican lawyers

and the same number of Democratic lawyers. In the House the Republicans have ninety-nine lawyers and the Demo crats one hundred and forty-five. Thus

and record minor changes in the law, entailing few radical changes in the

seventy per cent of the Senators are members of the bar, and sixty-three per

original text.

cent of the Representatives. The repre

In such cases the supple

mental volume would be a boon to

many practitioners not caring to spend too much for new law books, but it is

evident that it would not be a time saver, as it would be necessary to con sult both the supplemental volume and the original edition. Moreover, there is always a definite market demand for the late revision of a standard work, and there is the important element to be considered of those who

sentation of other occupations in Con gress is so small as to be insignificant as compared with the army of lawyers. SIR WILLIAM GILBERT HE death of Sir William Gilbert, as the result of a manly attempt to rescue a young girl from drowning, was, as the coroner said, “a very honorable

to buy new editions, rather than old. A publisher cannot afford to run the risk of being outclassed by competitors,

end to a great and distinguished career." We take pleasure in quoting from an article in the London Law Journal the following references to Sir William's satires of the profession to which he

and an author will naturally take a

had belonged: —

would prefer, in stocking their libraries,

selfish interest in keeping his book before the public in the most up-to-date form possible. The solution seems to be that it is hopeless to think of driving the new revised editions from the market and

substituting ‘for them thin volumes of annotations. Within narrow limits, however, there may be a field for the annotation system; it might be tried in the case of a few books which after five years need to be brought up-to-date yet do not call for revision throughout. It might thus supplement the system

“Sir William Gilbert was never happier than when aiming his shafts of wit at the members of the profession of which he was once a practising member. The Law is the true embodiment Of everything that's excellent. It has no kind of fault or flaw, And I, my lords, embody the law —

so sings the Lord Chancellor in ‘Iolanthe,’ perhaps the best of all Sir William Gilbert's legal characters.

Who but a

legal dramatist could have created the problem which vexes a ‘highly suscep tible Chancellor’ who falls in love with

now in vogue without seeking entirely

a ward of Court?

to supplant it.

Lord Chancellor who is in love with a ward of Court are not to be envied. What is his position? Can he give his own consent to his own marriage with his own ward? Can he marry his own ward without his own consent? And if he marries his own ward without his

LAWYERS IN CONGRESS CCORDING to figures published by the St. Paul Pioneer-Press, three hundred and four of the four hun dred and eighty members of both houses

‘The feelings of a