within the power of the legislature to make such offences triable before a justice of the peace without indictment; nor does the provision contained in the twenty-eighth section of the same article, which declares, that "the right of trial by jury shall remain inviolate," extend the right of trial by jury to cases which were unknown at the adoption of the constitution, both to the common and to the statute law. Tims vs. The State.

Criminal Law-Unauthorized discharge of jury equivalent to acquittal. The constitutional guaranty of a trial by jury "in all criminal prosecutions,” includes the right to have the deliberations of the jury continued when once they have begun the trial and heard a portion of the evidence, until the occurrence of a sufficient legal reason for their discharge, and the chance of acquittal at their hands during all that time; and therefore the unauthorized discharge of a jury in any criminal case, either for a felony, or for a misdemeanor, is equivalent to an acquittal. (Chilton C. J., expressing no opinion). McCauley vs. The State.

Criminal Law-Demurrer to evidence, object and effect of.—The object of a demurrer to evidence is, not to substitute the judge for the jury as a trier of the facts, but to ascertain the law upon an admitted state of facts, and its effect when issue is joined, is to admit every fact which the evidence tends to establish. Bryan vs. The State.

Criminal Law-Demurrer to evidence not allowed except by consent.—In criminal prosecutions, neither party can be permitted, except by mutual consent, to withdraw the trial from the jury to the court by a demurrer to the evidence. Brister vs. The State.

Criminal Law-Homicide not excusable when committed to prevent a trespass.-While every citizen has the right to resist any attempt to put an illegal restraint upon his liberty, his resistance must not be in enormous disproportion to the injury threatened, he has no right to kill to prevent a mere trespass, which is unaccompanied by any imminent danger of great bodily harm or felony, and which does not produce in his mind a reasonable belief of such danger. Noles vs. The State.

Damages-In cases of collision, when both vessels are in fault.—The general rule of the common law is, that if both vessels are in fault, neither can recover damages for injuries caused by the collision; but this rule applies only to faults which operated directly and immediately to produce the collision. Owners of steamboat Farmer vs. McCraw.

NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.

An Essay on the Life, Character, and writings of John B. Gibson, LL. D., lately Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. By William A. Porter. Philadelphia: T. & J. W. Johnson.

We have read with much interest this appreciative sketch of the intellectual and moral character of one, whose talents and virtues so long illustrated and adorned the jurisprudence of Pennsylvania. The rich legacy which Judge Gibson bequeathed to the profession in the fruits of so many years of judicial labor, imperatively demanded a more than passing acknowledgment. It is true, that on the very spot which had been the theatre of his triumphs when living, in the Supreme Court itself, there was pronounced a tribute to him, when dead, which, if paid to any less great than he, might have obscured its subject by its own intrinsic splendor. But that eulogy was necessarily brief and general. Much remained to be said, and to have been the first to attempt to supply the deficiency, is of itself no slight praise to the author of this memoir. But he is fairly entitled to the greater praise of having succeeded in the attempt. He has delineated the great mind and heart of Chief Justice Gibson, in colors which a calm sobriety of judgment has prevented from being too glaring. The contemplation of the merits of his subject has not blinded him to its defects, and he has produced a picture whose chastened tone bears the impress of fidelity.

It is not, however, only as an offering to departed worth that we commend Mr. Porter's essay to the attention of our readers. To the professional reader certainly, the history of the life of such a man as John B. Gibson must be at once instructive and interesting. He must feel a natural curiosity to know something of the education, associations, tastes, habits and peculiarities, something of the private life of one whose public life the jurisprudence of our State commemorates more eloquently than the most glowing eulogy, which the warmest admiration for his great qualities could inspire. Such curiosity Mr. Porter has done much to gratify, since he has succinctly traced the manner of life of the Chief Justice, from his athletic and vigorous youth, through his lofty and self reliant manhood and his venerable age, to the time when the solemn messenger came to summon him from the judgment seat to be himself judged.

The style is easy and perspicuous, the reflections interspersed just and apposite, and if the time devoted to the preparation of this memoir left the author a gainer, as he himself assures us, we have great confidence that the time devoted to its perusal will produce a similar result for the reader.

G.

THE

AMERICAN LAW REGISTER.

FEBRUARY, 1856.

OFFICE DUTIES.

No man intends to pursue a profession for life, in which he be-lieves he will be unsuccessful. But success, in our profession, is not ordinarily the fruit of great abilities or of great learning. There are splendid exceptions. Our vanity is flattered to hear it called a learned profession: and the lustre of great names shines far down the ranks, upon men not learned and not great. To the mass of practioners, the law is not, except on some rare occasions, an intellectual pursuit. Truth compels us to own, with Wordsworth, that "the demands of life and action," with us, as with men of other pursuits, "but rarely correspond to the dignity and intensity of human desires." We are clever men of business, as a mass, and no more. It is our BUSINESS TALENTS, our PROMPTNESS, ACCURACY, and DILIGENCE, that commands success, respect and influence.

Our legal education seems to ignore much of this. A superficial knowledge of a few books, "qualifies" us in common view, for our life-duties. In the course of ten years' practice, we learn to look back with just contempt on our acquirements when sworn into this learned profession of the law; and we wonder why some older friend was not kind enough to tell us the results of his experience. Few

men perhaps, would advise others to try the same paths by which they have climbed into their position. All seem to think an easier way might have been found. To endure hardness, is not accounted the necessary condition of good soldiership. Undeterred by such considerations, a practitioner, who mainly by the labors of authorship acquired means to fit himself for his profession, offers to his younger brethren the following suggestions. They are the fruits of a real experience, and not the theories of the closet.

THE OFFICE.

The office is a place for business, and for business only. The business community by whom you live, are quick to detect in trifles, the bent of a lawyer's mind. Their judgments are as severe, as they are irreversible. In their opinion, easy chairs, pictures, busts, expensive and showy furniture, are as incompatible with an earnest interest in their affairs, as the chess-board, the violin, or the fishing tackle, that betray the professional idler. An office scrupuously neat, plain, in good order, and plainly furnished, recommends its inmate more than columns of newspaper advertisements. To be always in the office, punctual as the hours of business; to leave word, if called away, when he will return, and to return at that hour; earns, so far, the reputation of a prompt man of business. In one word, if you desire to become successful, MAKE YOUR OFFICE A PLACE OF BUSINESS ONLY, and always be found there, in business hours, ready for business.

THE LIBRARY.

In intellectual, as in mechanical matters, dexterity is the result of exercise. The good workman uses few tools. Books are not knowledge; they are mere tools. A thorough familiarity with a few good ones, is better than the ownership of thousands. It may be a convenience to have them; but many books are by no means indispensable to the young practitioner: they are often an injury. The "Select Law Library," attributed to Professor Greenleaf, contains about three hundred and fifty works, including some of the

most expensive law publications. They will cost fifteen hundred dollars. The young men who are earning their way to the bar, read this list in despair. No one man ever read these works; no man ever will. Every lawyer, who has practiced seven years, can show on his shelves numbers of books, which he has never, during that time, consulted. Practitioners commonly have some work, with which they are very familiar, and they always recommend that particular work. Let us draw the just inference; they find that that book answers the demands of their practice.

The list of books which lawyers buy and never read, is a curiosity in legal literature. Over and over, and over again, the same point is decided and reported, till the reading lawyer sickens at the iteration. There never was any doubt at all on the point, for the last century; but counsel would not read their books; and so over and over and over again, the cases roll through the courts.1

BUY BUT FEW BOOKS: and such only as a present, actual want suggests to you. For the mass of books, access to a public library answers all useful purposes. The young lawyer who buys a few good books and MASTERS THEM, is a safe counsellor, difficult to match in argument, and is daily achieving a position. Before Lord Eldon ever had a case, he knew the name, and volume, and page, of every case in the chancery reports of his day. Thurlow, was amazed to hear a youngster, whose name was almost unknown in Westminster Hall, demolishing, upon a review of the authorities, the judgment of Sir Thomas Sewell, in Ackroyd vs. Smithson, 1 Brown's Chancery Cases, 503.

To make a selection for others is difficult; but the following works are useful, whether one practices on seaboard or prairie. Kent's Commentaries; Adams' Doctrine of Equity, with notes by Collins, Ludlow and Wharton Smith's Mercantile Law, by Holcomb and Gholson; Williams on Real Property, a new edition of which by Mr. Rawle, of Philadelphia, is now advertised; Byles on Bills by Sharswood; Sugden on Vendors and Purchasers, by Perkins, and Greenleaf on Evidence. He who, in three years after coming to the bar, has mastered these books, and the statutes and reports of

13 Kent, 126, 169.

2 Townsend's Life of Eldon.