tions and answers shall be returned to the board, who shall report its findings thereon to the Supreme Court. If the petitioner's abilities are sufficient, a license shall be granted by the court and the oath of office administered. Each application shall be accompanied by a fee of $15, which shall entitle the candidate to two examinations, and no more; the second being applied for not later than one year after the first.

Admission of Attorneys from Other Jurisdictions.

An attorney who has been regularly admitted to practice in the highest court of another state or territory may, in the discretion of the court, be admitted in this state on proof of such admission and good moral character, which last shall be certified to by a judge or two or more attorneys of such other state or territory, or a member of the bar of this state. The petition shall show the place or places where applicant has practiced law in such other state, and the period of practice in each place; whether applicant has been admitted in more than one state or territory, and, if so, the name of each such state or territory, together with the dates of admission, as near as possible, also the period of practice and the place of residence in each such state or territory. Petition must also be accompanied by the names and addresses of five persons, preferably judges or members of the bar of such other state or territory. The admission fee is $10.

Miscellaneous.

Application to be examined must be made to the clerk, who will refer the application to the board. A regular meeting of the Board of Examiners is held at the capital on the second day of each regular term of the Supreme Court in each year. Special meetings may be held from time to time as the board may determine. In case the applicant prefers to be examined at some place other than the capital, his petition should state. the reasons therefor. Whenever it is made to appear to the satisfaction of the court that it will be a hardship, owing to distance, expense, or otherwise, for the applicant to attend upon a

session of the board at the capital, the examination may be conducted in the district or county where the applicant resides.

Source of Rules.

Rev. St. 1899, §§ 3306-3313; Sup. Ct. Rules (58 Pac. viii, ix).

WYOMING DECISIONS.

1870 to 1907.

A complete set of Wyoming Reports (down to 1907) consists of 14 vols. All decisions of Wyoming subsequent to vol. 2 are reported in the Pacific Reporter, 88 vols. The set also contains all decisions for the last 24 years of California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, and Washington, and all of Arizona and Oklahoma. The tables of cross-citations furnished with the Pacific make it a simple matter to find the cases, even if cited by the State Report page and volume. The set costs about one-fifth as much as the corresponding State Reports. The limited quantity of local case law makes reference to the decisions of other jurisdictions as precedents necessary, and the Pacific Reporter, containing, as it does, the decisions of the neighboring states, is the natural selection. Indeed, the set is regarded as a necessity in all the Western states. Write for price and complete information.

WEST PUBLISHING Co., St. Paul, Minn.

The Purpose of a Digest.

When the lawyer learns from his client the history of the transaction regarding which his aid is sought, he usually analyzes the statement, reducing it to its lowest terms, and knows in a general way the legal principle the facts involve. To merely recognize a general principle, however, is insufficient in his work as a practicing lawyer. For example, suppose the facts related involve the rule, "General appearance waives defect in process." To know of this general rule is not enough. He must know what acts of the parties constitute a general appearance, and must learn how courts have applied the rule to like facts. So to be fully equipped to serve his client, he must know where and how to find the precedents showing such application.

A general rule or principle of law, like general expressions regarding lay matters, implies nothing certain, nothing specific, and can only be construed generally.

The application of the principle to the facts of the case is generally the only difficulty. The principle itself is fixed and well understood, while a small circumstance attending an act may change the application. So a knowledge of the law is to a great degree a knowledge of precedents. In fact, the main use of authorities or decided cases is the recognition of some principle and its application to the particular facts involved, which the court can follow out in deciding the question before it.

It is cases showing the application of the legal principle, and not the principle itself, which the courts of to-day most demand. Therefore it is not in search for the principles of law the practicing lawyer spends so much time, but to find cases showing how the principles have been applied; and in his search for (145)

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them he must use the facts as a guide, because the application arises out of the fact, and not vice versa.

Legal publications coming under the category of text-books and books of like nature deal with the law in a general way and are confined largely to abstract statements of principles, and to these the author appends the authorities to which he refers; but it is impossible to tell, without reference to a Digest or the authorities themselves, to what extent or in what particular way the cases cited support the proposition in the text. Textbooks and encyclopædias do not give the facts in each case, and therefore cannot show the particular application of the principle involved.

If the lawyer needs to refresh his memory regarding a principle of law, however, then he should resort to these publications as a valuable aid; but, if he desires to know how the principle has been applied to particular facts, he should resort to Digests, which, if properly constructed, give in concrete form the essential facts and show the application or holding of the court in each case.

It does not suffice the lawyer in his particular case to learn: "The right to defend one's self continues as long as an unjust attack." This principle existed long before courts expressed it. What he wants to learn regarding his case in hand is: Have such acts of parties as he is prepared to show been construed by any courts to be "an unjust attack"? Are there any precedents? And to learn this with certainty he must resort to Digests, which give the facts.

Reports and Digests as Needed in a Private

Law Library.

REPORTS AND REPORTERS.

Judge Dillon says in his work on the Laws and Jurisprudence of England and America: "The law, as a result of the ever-occurring changes in the condition of society and in legislation, is constantly changing. The old is, to a great extent, so well settled and known as to have become elementary and indisputable. It is the new that is unknown, and needs interpretation and definition. And as between the old reports and the new, the experience of every lawyer and judge is, I think, to the effect that the new are the most useful because the most needed."

The current supreme court decisions of all the states are published in two editions. In each state the local reports are published as a local series under the auspices of the state. This is commonly known as the "official edition." The current decisions of each state are also published in seven Reporters, making up the National Reporter System. In the Reporters the cases are published first in weekly advance sheets, which are afterwards replaced by bound volumes for permanent use.

In building up a library of reports, three considerations should be borne in mind: To obtain the books most useful; to buy in such a manner that subsequent purchases will not duplicate the first; and to obtain the books with the smallest expenditure possible. The National Reporter System fulfills all these requirements. The National Reporter System contains the late cases, and it is far better to buy a set of the Reporter System, and thus obtain the later decisions of the whole country back to a given point, than to buy the entire reports of