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Association, and in that way have a voice in directing the disbursement of the money.

Judge Graham: Mr. President, if the gentleman can excel me in chivalry towards the ladies, all right. But I would like to see, and would like to know what interest and control we have, and what portion of that building might be controlled by the Virginia State Bar Association? What I mean is this, Mr. President; I am in favor of the purchase of that property; I am in favor of our Association giving what it is capable of giving, and I know it is able to give what we are asked for. But wouldn't you like to have a room there, wouldn't you like to have a portion of that building that we could control. Judge Duke says that I ought not to oppose this. I am not opposing it, but I would like to have some say-so in it when we might wish to do something with that building that would perpetuate the memory of the Virginia Bar Association. That is what I

mean.

The Secretary: Mr. President, I think I can give the gentleman the information he desires. I don't know that I can satisfy him, but I can inform him. Some three or four years ago it was the earnest desire of this Association to acquire title to this property and to maintain it as a memorial to Chief Justice Marshall. We offered to pay to the City of Richmond a reasonable sum of money for the purchase of it and to maintain it suitably. The City Council of Richmond, for reasons satisfactory to themselves, declined to carry out that proposition; they said that they needed it because it was upon the block upon which their new High School was being built, that they needed it for the educational work of the city and were unwilling ot dispose of it. We therefore absolutely failed in that effort. Since that time there has been, as is usually the case, a considerable amount of educational work done upon the City Council and in the city at large along the line of sentiment in favor of the preservation of that building as a memorial, so much so that recently the City Council, to which refused allow the State Bar

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Association to purchase that property, has agreed voluntarily to convey it without compensation to the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, provided only that that Association would preserve and maintain it. We are asked to contribute to a fund, not to purchase the property at all, because the City of Richmond is to give it to this Society, but to put it in proper shape to be preserved; that is, to fireproof it, and to furnish it in the same manner as it was furnished in the lifetime of the Chief Justice. That is the purpose to which we are asked to contribute.

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Mr. Frick: Mr. President, I think there is only one of two things to do, to act now, or to enter upon a series of negotiations preserve our rights that may extend over several years. I am in favor of acting now, and therefore I move the previous question.

Mr. Montague's motion was then unanimously adopted.

The President: Has the Committee on Library and Legal Literature any report to make?

The Secretary: Mr. President, at my request the Committee has prepared a report, I know, and I think I can bring the matter up in the absence of the Committee. Since the organization of this Association there has been a system of exchange of annual reports between our Association and all the other State Bar Associations, and many of the large City Bar Associations of the country. The result is that I have accumulated in my office probably five hundred to a thousand volumes of Bar Association Reports, which are not generally accessible to the profession even in Richmond; and it seems to me that it would be desirable that we should put these books where they will be accessible. I suggest that they be loaned to the State Library, which has agreed to lend shelf room for them, and they will be very glad to get them, and hereafter the volumes that are received by our Association will be sent there. In that way all the mem

bers of the Association and of the Bar generally will have more ready access to them than if they were in any private office. The report of this Committee merely recommends that I be authorized to lend those books to the State Library.

The President: Do you make that as the report of the Committee?

The Secretary: I make it as an independent motion.

Adopted.

Mr. John T. Harris, Jr.: Mr. President, I want to offer this resolution:

Resolved, That a Committee of three be appointed by the President to submit to the General Assembly a bill providing that the life of a judgment be twenty years, whether or not execution has issued thereon.

Mr. Montague: Mr. President, I simply want to say that I trust that resolution will not be adopted. It seems to me that the present law on the subject is well settled.

Mr. Shannonhouse, of Norfolk: Mr. President, I would like to amend that resolution, so as to make it apply to judgments hereafter obtained. In order that there may not be any doubt I think that ought to be put in there.

Mr. W. M. Lile, of the University of Virginia: Mr. President, before I am called upon to vote upon this resolution, I should like to hear something from the mover of the resolution about it. It seems to me that the law as it stands is extremely wise. As I remember the law, the life of a judgment on which no execution has issued is ten years; but if execution has issued, it is twenty years. I think that is on this idea, that if no execution has issued for ten years, the presumption is that the judg

ment has been settled; and to let it run on and call upon the debtor after twenty years to show that it has been paid, it seems to me would be a great hardship. It seems to me that if a judgment has laid quiescent for ten years and the creditor has taken no steps to enforce it, it ought to be the presumption that it has been settled. I think ten years is too long, I would like to see it shortened. I think it would be a mistake to enlarge the statute of limitations along that line, unless there is some reason which has not occurred to me.

Mr. Harris: Mr. President, I will meet the objection of the gentleman by striking out the words "twenty years," and let the life of the judgment, whatever it may be, be the same whether or not execution has issued thereon. I do not care whether you make it fifteen, ten, or twenty years, so that the judgment becomes effective irrespective of whether execution has issued or not.

Mr. Page: Mr. President, I want to say to my distinguished friend that whether I shall have any better understanding of this matter when I am a member of the General Assembly than I have now, I don't know, but certainly I have no clear idea about it now. I agree with Mr. Lile.

Mr. Frick: Mr. President, I think on general principles we ought not to take any action on this matter until it has been referred to a committee. I therefore move that this resolution be referred to the committee on legislation and law reform.

Mr. Frick's motion was then adopted.

The Association then took a recess until the next day.

THIRD DAY.

HOT SPRINGS, VIRGINIA, Thursday, August 10, 1911.

The Association was called to order by the President at 11:00 o'clock A. M.

The President: Ladies and Gentlemen, If you have noticed anything in the course of my administration, you will be struck with the fact that I do not believe in long introductions. If there is any characteristic of the Virginia people which strikes anybody more than another, it is that we know a good thing when we see it, and that they repeat that good thing whenever they have an opportunity of doing so. Among the very excellent and splendid addresses that have been made before this Association, two of the very best have been made by sons of Kentucky. We have with us today, most fortunately, another distinguished son of Kentucky, and when I tell you that he is the greatgrandson of the great Benjamin Hardin, and a son of Judge H. W. Bruce, of the Confederate Congress, I know that all of you will give him a warm place in your hearts. But, besides that distinguished ancestry, the speaker today has been for twenty years a lawyer at the Kentucky Bar. I take much pleasure therefore, in presenting to you Mr. Helm Bruce, of the Louisville Bar.

Mr. Bruce then read the annual address.

(See Appendix.)

Mr. Samuel Griffin, of Bedford: Mr. President, I desire to submit a motion, that the sincere thanks of this Association

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