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The Western Jurist. For December, 1869.

The American Law Register. For December, 1869, and January, and February, 1870.

Bench and Bar. For January, 1870.

THE leading article is on Insanity.

The American Law Times for December, 1869, and January and February, 1870, begins the year in a new and decidedly improved form, consisting of eighty 8vo pages, containing decisions of the United States and State courts, and of the departments at Washington.

The Internal Revenue Record and Customs Journal. New York.

The Bankrupt Register. New York.

The Legal Gazette. Philadelphia.

The Legal Intelligencer. Philadelphia.

The Pittsburgh Legal Journal.

The Chicago Legal News.

The Daily Law Transcript. Baltimore.

WE trust that the question whether the Maryland legislature is to give the privilege of publishing legal notices to the Transcript, will be soon settled one way or the other. It is, doubtless, an important matter to those principally concerned; but it is not interesting to the profession outside of Baltimore, and its discussion takes a great deal of room.

The Albany Law Journal.

THIS new legal weekly made its appearance with the new year, and promises well; it devotes a greater comparative space to matters of legal history, antiquities, and literature, than other law periodicals, and is of very attractive size and appearance. We would suggest, that it would be advisable to intrust the correction of the press to a lawyer; there are many errors which it is natural for a printer to fall into, but which the eye of a professional man of tolerable education would at once detect. For instance in the Digest of Recent English Decisions the cases are all referred to in this form: Doe v. Roe, Q. B. 38; L. J. R. 65; thus making it appear that the case is on page 38 of some volume, number not given, of a series of Queen's Bench Reports, and on page 65 of some volume, number not given, of the Law Journal Reports; whereas, of course, the semicolon should be stricken out after "38" and a comma placed before, so that the reference would read, Doe v. Roe, Q. B., 38 L. J. R. 65; that is, the case is on the sixty-fifth page of the thirty-eighth of the volume of the Law Journal Reports; Q. B. being not the indication of a series of reports, but only of the court where the case was decided. A single instance of that kind might happen to any one; but the persistence in the blunder throughout the entire digest shows the lack of competent revision.

The New York Daily Law Transcript.

The Canada Law Journal. Toronto.

The Lower Canada Jurist. Collection de Décisions du Bas-Canada. December, 1869.

The Law Times. London.

The Solicitors' Journal and Reporter. London.

:

The following have arrived too late for notice in this number:The Bible in the Public Schools.

Arguments in the case of John D. Minor et al. v. The Board of Education of the City of Cincinnati et al. Superior Court of Cincinnati. With the Opinions and Decisions of the Court. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Company. 1870. Ohio Criminal Law and Forms, &c. By MARVIN WARREN. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Company. 1870.

The Evils of the Unlimited Liability for Accidents of Masters and Railway Companies, &c. By JOSEPH BROWN, Esq., Q. C. London: Butterworths. 1870.

A LIST OF LAW BOOKS PUBLISHED IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA SINCE JAN. 1870.

Bingham on the Law of Descent. 8vo. sheep, $6.00. J. D. Parsons, Albany. Bulley & Bund's Manual of the Law and Practice of Bankruptcy. 12mo, cloth, 15s. Butterworths, London.

Byles's Treatise on the Law of Bills of Exchange, Promissory Notes, Bank Notes, and Cheques. Tenth edition. 8vo, cloth, 25s. Sweet, London.

California Reports. Vol. 36. (Hale.) 8vo, sheep, $10.00. Sumner Whitney, San Francisco.

Finlason's History of Law of Tenures of Land in England and Ireland. 8vo, cloth, 7s. 6d. Stevens & Haynes, London.

Florida Reports. Vol. 12. (Galbraitts.) 8vo, sheep, $7.50. Tallahassee.

Holland's Essays upon the Form of the Law. 8vo, cloth, 7s. 6d. Butterworths, London.

Illinois Criminal Laws. Digest, from the adoption of the Constitution to the end of the Twenty-fifth General Assembly. 8vo, sheep, $4.50. E. L. & W. L. Gross, Springfield.

Illinois Statutes. 1818-1869. Royal 8vo, sheep, $10.00. E. L. & W. L. Gross, Springfield.

Maryland Reports. Vol. 29. (Stockett.) 8vo. sheep, $5.50. Murphy & Co., Balti

more.

Massachusetts Reports. Vol. 99. (Browne.) 8vo, sheep, $5.50. H. O. Houghton & Co., Cambridge.

Michigan Reports. Vol. 18. (Jennison.) 8vo, sheep, $5.00. W. A. Throop & Co., Detroit.

Morse's Treatise on the Law relating to Banks and Banking, with Appendix containing the Act of June 3, 1869, and Amendments thereto. 8vo, sheep, $6.00. Little, Brown, & Co., Boston.

New York Digest. Vol. 8. (Abbotts.) Royal, 8vo, sheep, $7.50. Baker, Voorhis & Co., New York.

New York Supreme Court Reports. Vol. 54. (Barbour.) 8vo, sheep, $5.50. W. C. Little & Co., Albany.

New York Court of Appeals Reports. Vol. 40. (Hand, Vol. 1.) 8vo, sheep, $3.00. Banks & Brothers, New York.

New York Superior Court Reports. Vol. 7. (Robertson.) 8vo, sheep, $7.00. W. C. Little & Co., Albany.

New York Surrogate Reports. Vol. 1. (Tucker.) 8vo, sheep, $6.00. Banks & Brothers, New York.

Paschal's Digest of the Laws of Texas. Second edition. Royal 8vo, sheep, $15.00 W. H. & Q. H. Morrison, Washington.

Prideaux's Precedents in Conveyancing, with Dissertations on its Law and Practice. 2 Vols. 8vo, cloth, 63s. London.

Redfield's American Railway Cases. Supplement to Law of Railways. 8vo, sheep, $7.50. Little, Brown, & Co., Boston.

Shelford's Law of Joint Stock Companies. 8vo, cloth, 21s. Butterworths, London.

Sills's Treatise on the Bankruptcy Act, 1869. 12mo, cloth, 12s. Davis, London. Smith's Compendium of the Law of Real and Personal Property. 2 Vols. 8vo, cloth, 38s. Stevens & Sons, London.

Texas Reports. Vols. 28 & 29. (G. M. Paschal.) 8vo, sheep, $7.00 each. W. H. & O. H. Morrison, Washington.

The Bible in the Public Schools. Case of Minor et al v. Cincinnati Board of Educa-
tion et al. 8vo. cloth, $2.00; cloth, gilt, $2.50. Robert Clarke & Co., Cincinnati.`
The Law Almanac for 1870. 8vo, cloth, $2.00. Hurd & Houghton, New York.
Warren's Ohio Criminal Law. Robert Clarke & Co., Cincinnati.
Williams's (Joshua) Principles of the Law of Personal Property. Intended for the use
of Students in Conveyancing. Seventh edition. 8vo, cloth, 20s. London.
Williams's New Law and Practice of Bankruptcy. 8vo, cloth, 16s. Stevens & Sons,
London.

Zabriskie's Land Laws of the United States. 8vo, sheep, $10.00. H. H. Bancroft &
Co., San Francisco.

SUMMARY OF EVENTS.

UNITED STATES.

SUPREME COURT. LEGAL TENDER DECISION.

Susan P. Hepburn v. Henry A. Griswold.

Mr. Chief Justice CHASE delivered the opinion of the court.

The question presented for our determination by the record in this case is whether or not the payee or assignee of a note, made before the 25th of February, 1862, is obliged by law to accept in payment United States notes, equal in nominal amount to the sum due according to its terms, when tendered by the maker or other party bound to pay it.

And this requires, in the first place, a construction of that clause of the first section of the act of Congress passed on that day, which declares the United States notes, the issue of which was authorized by the statute, to be a legal tender in payment of debts.

The entire clause is in these words: “And such notes, herein authorized, shall be receivable in payment of all taxes, internal duties, excises, debts, and demands of every kind due to the United States, except duties on imports, and of all claims and demands against the United States of every kind whatsoever, except for interest upon bonds and notes, which shall be paid in coin; and shall also be lawful money and a legal tender in payment of all debts, public and private, within the United States, except duties on imports and interest as aforesaid."1

This clause has already received much consideration here, and this court has held that, upon a sound construction, neither taxes imposed by State legislation,2 nor demands upon contracts which stipulate in terms for the payment or delivery of coin or bullion, are included by legislative intention under the description of debts public and private.

We are now to determine whether this description embraces debts contracted before as well as after the date of the act.

It is an established rule for the construction of statutes that the terms employed by the legislature are not to receive an interpretation which conflicts with acknowledged principles of justice and equity, if another sense, consonant with those principles, can be given to them.

But this rule cannot prevail where the intent is clear. Except in the scarcely supposable case where a statute sets at naught the plainest precepts of morality and social obligation, courts must give effect to the clearly ascertained legislative intent if not repugnant to the fundamental law ordained in the Constitution.

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