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1 S. L.J. 1 (1878)

handle is hein.journals/soljrepo1 and id is 1 raw text is: THE SOUTHERN LAW JOURNAL. The Southern Law Journal. TUSCALOOSA, ALA. JANUARY 1, 1878. SALUTATOR Y. The , editor fully appreciates the grave responsibilities he assumes in establishing THE SOUTHERN LAw JOURNAL, and is not unmindful of the fact that, heretofore, such an en- terprise in the South, has been con- sidered a doubtful experiment in journalistic adventure. Why this broad and fruitful field of profes- sional usefulness should have re- mained uncultivated, can not be ac. counted for satisfactorily, to the pro- gressive and highly cultured practi- tioners of the present day. No standard periodical devoted to the interests of the legal profession, is now published south of St. Louis, and yet, the Bench and Bar of the Southern States rank among the foremost in the land. The Alabama decisions are quoted as approved authority in all the sis- ter States, and our jurists are upsur- passed in legal learning and forensic ability; yet it is true, that we have, in a great measure, depended upon the law literature of the North for our professional learning. This should not continue to be the case. We have, within our limits, the highest elements of legal ability, which only require for development into more ewinent usefulness, co-operative ef- fort, and free interchange of profes- sional experience and information. The SOUTHERN LAW JOURNAL is intended to supply a necessity long recognized by every lawyer in the State in full practice. Worthless text- books and State reports crowd upon the profession with fearful rapidity, and the practitioner, who is fortunate enough to command sufficient means for the purchase of new publicationsi soon finds his library groaning with cumbrous and unavailing volumes. Law book-making has become a favorite art, of late days, and is re sorted to for pecuniary gain, just as, any other mechanical employment. The field of text-books has been thoroughly explored by the old fathers of the profession, and funda- mental law reduced to such an exact science, as to leave but little scope for the inventive genius of modern times. The buly itriking exception to this assertion being found in the law of Patents, and of Insurance, Fire, Life and Marine. The busy practitioner of the pres- ent age, has essentially nothing t- learn, of real practical value, froth the plethora of law books now teem- ing from the Northern press, and certainly no time to pursue the legal vagaries of mediocre expounders of established law. If the spirit of the old Common Law could be heard to speak from the tomb of the venera- ble fathers, it would no doubt repro- duce the last words of the great poet of Scotland:- Let no awkward squad fire o'er my grave. Speedy reference to the decisionis of the highest Federal and State Courts, in cases involving novel and doubtful questions, is what is most needed in the way of law literature, at the present day; and to supply this 1

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