THE FEDERAL REPORTER.

THE FEDERAL REPORTER. Vol. 1. Cases Argued
and Determined in the Oircult and District Courts
of the United States. March, 1880. PEYTON BOYLE,
Editor. St. Paul: WEST PUBLIsHiING CoMPANy.

Several times in past years we have spoken
of the lack of any satisfactory system for re-
porting the subordinate Federal courts. Until
now this matter bas been, taking the country
at large, in entire confusion. No attention has
been paid to the subject by Government, and
private enterprise has hitherto cared for it
only in the more populous fcireuits and dis-
tricts. Tho Federal Reporter undertakes
to fill this chasm in the judiciel system. Its
engagement is to give immediate publication of
all the current decisions of the Circuit and Dis-
trict Courts, issued every weok, in the ordinary
size and form of State reports, ‘The number of
pages in each issue varies in accordance with
the quantity of matter received, the object
being to giveevery opinion promptly, which
makes some issues large and some small, The
copies of the opinions published are in most
instances supplied by the Clerks of the courts.
The head-notes are propared by the edi-
tor, The present volume is well edited and
printed. ‘The enterprise deserves the approval
and support which we bespoke for if when it
was first announced, and from acknowledg-
ments in the preface of tho ‘ encouraging re-
ception” which the first volume has received.
and trom the further facts that the second
volume is completed in numbers and the pub-
lishers aro even under way with the third, we
infer that a satisfactory support is assured,
and that the publication may be deemed per-
manent. It well deserves some appropriation
by Congress to place the volumes in those pub-
lic offices where early knowledge of the course
of decisions in the national courts is peculiarly
important.

The more notable contents of the first volume
are about 30 decisions in the various branches
of admiralty, covering the most recent ques-
tions as to carriage of goods, seamen’s wages,
collisions, salvage, pilotage, &c.; about 20
cases on bankruptcy and debtors’ assignments,
soveral of which discuss the effect of the repeal
of the Bankrupt law and revival of State
assignment laws; a case on the liability of the
Penusylvania Ruilroad Company for goods de-
stroyed in the Pittsburg riots; the noted Par-
rott case, sustaining the right of the Chinese to
have work and wages, notwithstanding the
prohibitory regulations of the Pacific States; a
decision expounding the Delaware registration
system, which may well win attention from
those who are preparing for tho election this
Fall; 10 or 12 decisions upon rights and liabill-
ties of corporations, especially upon negotiable
bonds; the noted Gommorford case on the de-
livery of lottery correspondence, with an elabo-
rate charge to the jury in another caso, ex-
plaining the same subject, and about two dozen
decisions upon patents and trade-marks.

Ehe New York Eimes

Published: October 2, 1880
Copyright © The New York Times