The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1883-04-17
The Clifford Law Library.

The Clifford Law Library.
Our city contemporaries, the Advertiser
and the Argus, strongly urge the people of
Maine to secure the law library of the late
Justice Clifford for the use of the commune
ty. 1t can be bought for far less than its
cost, and much less than its value. Few, if
any, private law libraries in the country are
of equal worth, and the public libraries that
surpass it can be counted on the fingers of
one hand. Its shelves contain the reports
and digests of England and Scotland, of the
Federal government and of each State of the
Union up to the time of Judge Clifford's
death. In any country but this the State
would be eager to gain so valuable prize,
and would hasten to house it in an elegant
public building. Here, for obvious reasons,
we are dependent on private enterprise. 1t
is not only of worth to lawyers: it is of
worth to every man-few of us are exempt
who engages in litigation. The Adyer-
tiser puts the case with its accustomed clear
ness when it says
From the risk OF litigation, no man who
owns property can escape. Conflicting claims
continually arise in active business operations,
and must be adjusted BY prudent compromise
or by the decision Of the coprts. If man
owns part of a ship, she may run into another
vessel any dark night If be owns building,
the water pipes may break and deluge the
stock of tenant, or lump of ice falling from
the caves may main some unfortunate passen-
ger. II he owns carriage, the driver may
run over somebody in the street. In any of
these cases, q prudent man seeks first of all to
learn his exact rights or obligations, and pru-
dent lawyer will only advise him after consult
ing all the authorities in similar cases. 1t may
and must happen, then, If this library is re-
moved from this State. that lawyers will often
have TO visit Boston expressly to consult the
books which are now here, or else will have 10
buy them, in either case at the expense of the
clients in whose service the journey or the pur-
chase may be made. The alternative is, that
advice fmay be given without exhaustive
enquiry, and such advice, however
honest, must often prove to be extremely cost
~.
The appeal to business men and property
holders is therefore addressed not merely TO
their generosity, or public spirit, though such
an appeal would be legitimate, but to their in
telligent self-interest 1t is their duty TO pro
vide for contingencies to which they are con-
stantly exposed. 1t is common prudence to
spend something for insurance not only
against fire and the dangers OF the sea, but
against the disasters which follow unwise adj
lutte maintenance of rights clearly ascertained,
or the judicious compromise of doubtful
claim, may at any time be worth thousands of
dollars to the practical men who are invited
70 contribute hundreds for the preservation of
the Clifford law library.
The Argus, following up the considera-
ton of the subject, adds the following
cogent arguments:
Public sentiment, however cordial, was not
equal, in community no larger than ours to
the purchase OF library, which cost more
than thirty-hve thousand dollars, even at the
reduced price which the owners have now
agreed to accept for it for this purpose II
must be bought, If at all, by practical men for
its practical present use and its ever increasing
future value. And what is that value. as adj
dressed to men OF affairs? 1t is to be per-
fectly free library. 1t will open the doors to
everybody under proper rules for research as
to the actual condition of the law in every
state of the Union, upon every legal question,
and aid that research by all the light which
English decisions can afford. Every bank,
every railroad and other corporation, every
capitalist or trustee seeking safe investments,
every town with its ever recurring incidental
and accidental liabilities, every citizen, indeed,
TO whom accident or misfortune may render q
knowledge of the true state of the law of great
importance to him-each and all of these have
direct practical interest in the maintenance
in our state of complete law library, by aid OF
which their legal rights may be readily and &C
curately ascertained in any of the thousand
and one contingencies to which all, the most
careful not excepted, are exposed. And it il
on the same principle that they have an inter
est in sound insurance companies and efficient
fire departments They hope never to need
them, and possibly they never may need them
but no sound business man, alive to his OWE
interests, would for a moment entertain the
idea of dispensing With them.
1t is these and similar considerations thai
have now brought the question Of the purchase
OF the Clifford library to asfocus, Judge Nathan
Webb taking the lead in the matter. 1t could
not be In better hands. Less than sixty days
ago he obtained the refusal Of the library at a
price so reduced that he thought the pur-
chase fairly within reach, and he has ever
since been in active correspondence in regard
10 1t with prominent members of the
bar In every county in the State. The re-
spoH6es are encouraging. Judge Webb ex.
poets lawyers and prominent business men in
other counties than Cumberland will furnish
one-fourth the needed sum; the Cumberland
Bar one-half, and the business men OF Port
land the remaining fourth. As two successful
sagacious business men have already given as
surance that their names will go down for one
quarter Of this sum, il can't be that the othei
three thousand dollars will not be made up
We therefore have the qualification afforded
BY feeling OF the utmost confidence that the
noble enterprise-for such it surely is, will be
complete success.
To these forcible and well-considered
pleas for the purchase OF the Clifford Library
we can add nothing except our hearty con
currence. 1t seems to us that enlightened
self-interest, if no higher or worthier motive
should induce our lawyers and men Of bust
ness to buy these books and keep them il
the State. Unless the purchase be speedily
made the collection will probably be dis
persed among the booksellers, and Maine
lose law library that has few if any equals
in the other States Of the Union.
SENATOR Coke is "off his base'' when he
tells his Texas constituents that the "river
and harbor bill was defeated simply be-
cause it would benefit the South and South.
west against the North and East" 1t wa;
killed because the next preceding river and
harbor bill contained numerous grabs and
steals for the alleged benefit of every part
of the country. The North and East have
no enmity for the rest of the country in re-
gard to internal improvements. But it is
for the mutual interest of all parts of the
country TO have every dollar of the river and
appropriation rightfuly applied. The
Southwest pay taxes as well as the North
east, and presumably, is no more anxious
than the Northeast to be robbed.
A PMLADELPHIA coal-heaver, Mr.. Michae
Burns, sued the Philadelphia sculptor Ward
for services rendered by posing as the model
of George Washington. The artists defense
was, that while he engaged Mr.. Burns as
the proper representative of the Father Of
his Country, he found on trial that while
Mr.. Burns had the real Washingtonian legs.
he failed to fill the bill beyond them, and
another model was necessary for the body.
The court held that the legs alone would
not furnish life-lke likeness of the great