360 HISTORY OF COMMON LAW 



feet on the mantelpiece ad lib., as the best aid to the exercise of the 

 historical imagination. If a box of Havanas, by Ihering's prescrip- 

 tion, could be furnished to judges with every copy of Pollock and 

 Maitland, perhaps we might expect something. For most judges, 

 such artificial stimulus must be provided. 



Fortunately, there are always exceptions. Where the instinct of 

 culture, that is, of a worthy and high-souled curiosity is seated 

 beneath the judical ermine, there will be found a judicial regard for 

 the history of our law, as in Doe of New Hampshire, Gray of 

 Massachusetts, Mitchell of Minnesota, Daly of New York, Cooley 

 of Michigan (to name some of those who have passed away), and 

 among, those still active, to name only two or three prominent ones, 

 Holmes of Massachusetts and of the Federal Court, Dillon, now 

 retired, McClain of Iowa, and Baldwin of Connecticut. 



(2) So, also, for the practitioners at the Bar, it is too late to do 

 anything directly except for those who still realize that knowledge 

 is unending and who continue to be students of the law. 



(3) The great practical question therefore becomes, What can we 

 do to teach the knowledge of history to students of law, and that 

 chiefly, of course, in our schools of law? 



(1) In the first place, the materials now existing in the English 

 language must be collected from scattered corners and brought to- 

 gether in a series of accessible volumes. It is practically impossible 

 to set a class of students at work on the material in its present form, 

 because for the purposes of a large body of students multiplicate 

 entire sets of the periodicals or copies of rare pamphlets would be 

 required. For example, an acquaintance with Professor Ames's 

 indispensable researches into the history of the civil actions cannot 

 be completely exacted of an entire class of students, simply because 

 a school cannot ordinarily possess a sufficient number of the entire 

 sets of the Review in which alone they are now accessible. The best 

 practical service that can at this moment be rendered to the study 

 of legal history would be the work of a committee doing two things: 

 (a) the compilation of a bibliography of all articles in periodicals, 

 all pamphlets, and all special chapters in general treatises, dealing 

 with the history of any part of our law; (6) the selection, from this 

 bibliography, of the most useful articles, pamphlets, and chapters, 

 for reprinting in a series of ten or twelve volumes, to be used by 

 instructors as reference materials in all subjects and for all grades 

 of students; the volumes to be subscribed for by universities and 

 other libraries to an extent sufficient to guarantee publication. 



(2) In the second place, this same committee, or another one, must 

 provide for the gradual translation and publication of three or four 

 of the greatest Continental works of legal history on the period which 

 shows the foundations of our own history. The history of English 



