want among perfect strangers. And if he never studied the law of bills of exchange, he would be still more at a loss to comprehend it, if he were told that half the commission of the world was transacted by processes as simple as this.

These general bills of exchange, or letters of credit, which are in familiar use by travelers visiting Europe, are but a single incident in the experience of every one going abroad, which strikingly illustrates the extent, identity and universality of the law. For if the rights of the holder of one of these were not the same in Boston and London, and Vienna, or if there was any question in the matter, nobody would dare to rely upon them. And though there is a faith and honor among merchants and bankers of different nations, generally stronger than the law, few would be willing to embark on a voyage half around the world, and rely for his funds with which to meet the expenses upon the honor of strangers. Every body dealing in these knows that law has its sanctions to enforce whatever is undertaken by the parties to such bills, and, more than that, they know that this law is not the variable whim of different courts, or affected by the political forms which the governments of the different States assume. It is one and the same, wherever it is sought to be applied. And we repeat, we know no more distinguishing mark of the progress of civilization, than this universal prevalence of a law which is based upon the idea of the brotherhood of States, as well as of personal honor and good faith.

But this is only one of the many illustrations which the journey of every traveler supplies. Nor do we know of any more ready way of explaining what is meant by this, than a brief reference to a personal experience. On a recent occasion we found ourselves on board of a French steamer, bound from New York to Brest. We were out on the ocean. We had paid our passage money to the purser, but had taken nothing to show it. The only language we heard on the part of the officers was strange and unintelligible, and the only paper we had to show that we had a civil or political existence, was in the bottom of our trunk, which had been stowed away below. And the thought came over us, how it was, that out upon this trackless waste, one could pass so safely from continent to continent, without any more danger of being molested by freebooters or lawless men, than between Philadelphia and New York? The answer was in the consciousness that the law was still over and around us, and that a wrong done to our ship or her passengers, was a wrong done to the nation which they represented. And we thought of the changes which have come over the relation of States to each other, since piracy was an honorable pursuit among the Gauls, and the Northmen made pillage and robbery a legitimate business on the sea. In other words, we were every day impressed more and more, as we now and then crossed the track of other vessels, or caught a glimpse of one of them in the horizon, with the all-pervading principle of international law, which makes the ocean a safe highway of nations, for the transit of untold wealth, and along which thousands of unarmed men and unprotected women and children were daily passing.

In due time the coast of France greeted our eyes, and we found ourselves entering the broad and capacious harbor of that queer old city of Brest, around which, even in winter, the fields are clothed with perpetual verdure from the rains that are incessantly falling in that part of Brittany. Here we had further oppor

tunity of being reminded that, by changing our longitude, we had not gone beyond the region of law, and of just such law, too, as we had left in New York.

Our purpose was to reach Paris, still four hundred miles away. To do so, we had got to make a contract with somebody to carry us and our baggage. We had not brought Angel or Story with us, but we knew that such a contract was nothing more nor less than the very familiar one in our own country of bailment. We had no lawyer to apply to, and if we had we could not speak a word of his language, and so, as a last resort, by looking inquiringly and saying "chemin de fer," which somebody had told us meant a railroad, we found ourselves at a station, and did as we saw others doing-went to a small window, and holding out some money, carefully pronounced the word, Paree, being careful to sink the s and turn the i into an e; and in half a minute an official of some sort seized our money and handed us a little bit of paper, with words printed upon it, and our bargain was made. By that brief and simple exercise of dumb show, we had made a solemn contract with a vast corporation, whereby, for so many francs paid, they engaged to take our precious person and our indispensable baggage of trunk, valise and umbrella, from Brest to Paris, safely, promptly and comfortably, or pay us the damage. We were no longer in doubt that we were in a land of christian civilization -it was before the days of the Paris Commune- and were the more satisfied of it, when, at the end of seventeen hours, we found ourselves and baggage safely landed in the very heart of that brilliant and busy city. Here again, thought we, is another example of the blessed influence of that law which makes fellowcitizens of all men, and watches with sleepless vigilance over men who do not know how to take care of themselves. We were not surprised to find the law as to the responsibility of innkeepers in force in Paris or Geneva the same as we had read in our books at home, though we are not yet quite sure that they have adopted the principle of the Six Carpenters' Case - because this law of Inns is so reasonable that it ought to be adopted everywhere. But we were sometimes surprised to see how smoothly the law of bills of exchange worked in our own case, supplying as it did an interpretation to signs, dispensing with the use of language, and providing us, as the essentials of travel, with as much coin of the country as we found requisite to pay our hotel and railroad bills. In one of the interior cities of Germany, for instance, we found our cash running low. We looked into our letter of credit, and found it was one of the places in which we might look for the banker named therein, whose patronymic seemed to consist chiefly of consonants, which we could not pronounce. After sundry difficulties, we found our way into a dark and narrow street, and at a door which led up two or three stories, by means of dark, blind alleys, which brought us into a little area, dimly lighted, into which several doors opened, upon one which we read a word which we concluded meant our banker's place of business. On opening it we found various clerks busy at little desks, and addressed ourselves to one who seemed to be a little more at leisure than the others, by showing our letter of credit, which he took and looked at, and then looked a question how much we wanted. As he could not talk English, nor we German or Bohemian, we marked with a pencil the amount we needed. He filled up a little printed form which we signed, addressed to Baring and Brothers, they being the only

English words in it, and the amount we had asked for was laid down before us; the sum was entered upon the back of our letter, and we took up both and went on our way down stairs into the street. But the mystery to us was how they could know that we were the John Doe mentioned in the letter, or what assurance they could have that our draft on Barings' would be paid when presented. Blessed, thought we, be the memory of the man who invented bills of exchange, and the law which makes them, like the notes of music, invariably current.

We might multiply instances and examples of that ubiquity of law which the traveler experiences wherever he goes, and which he is so apt to find, in substance, like his own. It illustrates what one may see in comparing the laws of Moses, of Rome and of modern Europe, in matters of business-a wonderful identity in principle, and often in form. These things the traveler may learn, even if he goes tongue-tied as we did, from not knowing any language but his own. But if he seeks to understand how their law is enforced, what are its forms of procedure, and how justice is administered, he needs something to unlock its mysteries besides his eyes and the play of pantomime.

We were greatly interested in listening for half an hour in one of the courts at Naples, to a passionate address of a fine-looking woman to the three grave judges who occupied the bench, and who listened with great attention to what she was saying. But we came away, at last, without being able to make out whether she was acting the lawyer in behalf of a client, or pleading her own case. In the present condition of woman's rights, it would have been a great satisfaction if we could have settled this grave question. One piece of advice we give to our brethren gratis, and that is, before you go abroad, get a grammar and dictionary, and study some of the first principles of some other language than your own.

A little incident of our experience might illustrate this. We were staying a few days in that dreamy old city of Venice. We had seen the Doge's palace and St. Mark's, had looked at the churches, and "stood in Venice" not "on the Bridge of Sighs," for nobody did that, unless it was Byron-but had been in plain sight of it, and felt a desire to look into their courts and see how they were managed. We contrived to tell a gondolier what we wanted, and he took us up to a building near the Rialto, over the door of which was an inscription which had something to do with "Justice." We mounted one flight of stairs to what we supposed the court-room, where we encountered an official, who seemed to be curious to know what we were in pursuit of. We tried to explain that we were looking for a court, by repeating the nearest word we could command for it, in poor Latin, worse French, and something that sounded like Italian. He seemed to get it into his head that we had some business with the court and took us up another story into a room where we encountered a still more formidable looking official, on whom we repeated our polyglot experiment. He sent us with our attendant up one story higher, to a room where we found several persons, not one of whom had any pretense to judicial dignity, and appeared to be mere clerks. They seemed to understand that we either wanted to make a complaint against somebody, or to auswer to one which somebody had made against us, and we were glad to bow ourselves out, for fear of having our curiosity rewarded in a way we little expected. And that is all we could, if called upon, state

as to the course of justice in modern Venice. We had seen much more of it as it used to be administered by means of the Council of Ten, the Lion's mouth and the "Piombi" dungeons of the Doge's Palace.

Without, however, wearying the patience of our readers with further details, we will only add that, in every court we visited on the continent, we found the judges quiet, grave, intelligent men, to whom the insignia they wore but added dignity and consequence; while the gentlemen of the bar were uniformly courteous in their deportment, and the robes they wore were in keeping with the student-like air and bearing which most of them evinced. Further than their exterior within the court rooms we cannot speak of the bench and bar; but they were evidently of a superior class to the men engaged in other departments of business.

One thing, however, we can say with confidence, that one lesson which a lawyer learns abroad is, to be more than ever contented with what he finds at home. He finds as much dignity in our higher courts, without either caps, wigs or scarlet robes, as he sees under all those on the continent. And the bar, as a body, has nothing to be ashamed of in comparison with their foreign brethren, if we take such as are in the better class of business here and there, while the safeguard one feels in the presence of a jury is something which one would not exchange for the form or official display which a stranger sees on visiting a court of justice in Europe.

The longer we live the more we respect the practical shrewdness and common sense which a jury bring to the determination of questions of fact, and the less willing we should be to exchange it for the learning or wisdom and impracticability of the judges who settle such questions in the courts on the Continent. We know a little of the Roman law, and have, occasionally, looked into the codes in use in Europe, but give us for the free and expansive activity of American trade and industry, and the habits of thought and spirit of enterprise which we witness on every side, the broad and generous notions of the common law, staple and conservative as it is, in its very liberality.-Western Jurist.

STRIKES AND CONTRACT.

Every one deplores the constantly recurring warfare between capital and labor. Every effort to put an end to strikes has signally failed. Acts of Parliament, courts of conciliation, plans of arbitration have not been of the slightest service. It occurs to us that the root of the evil is the misapprehension of the nature of free labor, and of the principles of the law of contract.

Physical labor is the only commodity which is not paid for according to the quantity delivered to the purchaser. Physicians, lawyers, public writers, and all mental laborers are paid for work done, not for their time. Our wages system is a relic of the slave labor system. The bondsman was fed, clothed, housed and provided for in sickness and in old age. His working hours were his master's, for which the master paid in provisions, clothing, lodging, etc. Our free laborers have most unfortunately continued the time system, instead of selling their labor by the measure of the produce thereof. We are persuaded that if the capitalists and the laborers will conduct their business on the principles of the law of contract, there will be fewer strikes. In that case there would be no dispute about

the hours of labor. The laborers would agree to deliver so much work, and if they decided that they would not labor more than eight or nine hours daily, they would have to contract for a quantity of work that they could turn out in that time. A demand for an increase of wages would not be complicated by a nine hours' or any other movement. Then both the employers and the employed should make contracts that would protect both sides against the effects of any sudden quarrel. It is absurd to hear capitalists complain that they

are afraid to undertake work lest the men should leave them in the midst of the work. They contract to deliver the ship to the shipowner, and why should they not contract with the man to deliver the amount of labor requisite to build the ship? As nothing else has succeeded, perhaps it would be worth while to try what can be done by a proper use of the law of contract. -London Law Journal.

COURTS AND JURIES.

COURT PROCEEDINGS IN ROME.

Trial by jury has found its way to Rome at a time when at least one organ in the English press considers that it ought to be abolished in this country, and with it seems to have been inaugurated certain improvements. One of the most tiresome processes connected with our trial for felonies is the swearing of jurors. We do not know what the Italians do with their jurors, but we observe that they swear their witnesses in a batch. This must save a great deal of time, and would have a very advantageous operation if applied to the Tichborne case. The claimant is said to have about 120 witnesses. To swear them all at once would not take many moments. To swear them individually must occupy at least, in the aggregate, an hour and a half, but double that time would probably be nearer the mark. The Italians dispense with a witness box, and bring the witness on to the dais before the whole court, where every movement can be observed. We do not know whether this is any great gain, but the Italians seem to like it-when they are not witnesses. Further, it appears that the judges at Rome do not prohibit applause. We in England allow jokes and any amount of laughter, but rob an advocate of his well earned applause. The outbursts of the Italian audience, on the other hand, occasionally interrupt his oratory, and the replies of a witness are not free from their audible criticism. This is, of course, going too far, and when we learn further that the judge's summing up is scarcely heard by reason of the talking going on, we feel what a wholesome effect would be produced were Mr. Justice Blackburn to preside in the Roman court for a few days. The new procedure is, on the whole, considered successful, and a lady swindler and political intriguante has been found guilty, notwithstanding her young counsel appealed and entreated for two hours and a half "till his mouth was white with foam, and he sank down exhausted on his chair." Talking of chairs, the Italian jurymen are provided with comfortable arm chairs covered with leather. We certainly might take the hint and give our jurymen a little better acconimodation than the wretched wooden boxes in which they are accustomed to sit cheek by jowl six in a row.-London Law Times.

Anneka Jans is probably the only human being that ever lived whose heirs are not numbered.

BOOK NOTICES.

A Treatise on the Common and Civil Law, as embraced in the Jurisprudence of the United States. By Wm. Archer Cocke, author of the Constitutional History of the United States. New York: Baker, Voorhis & Co., 1871.

This is a well-written treatise, and shows marks of research and ability. While we cannot acquiesce in the conclusions of the author, we must confess that he

ably supports those conclusions by argument and authority.

The design of the work is to establish, first, that the constitution and legislation of the United States do not recognize the controlling influence of the common law in national jurisprudence; and, second, that they recognize the civil law, next to the constitution, as best adapted to the interests of the nation. As to the first position taken there is a difference of opinion, though perhaps the weight of authority is in its favor, yet, where great minds differ, the correctness or incorrectness of a principle can hardly be determined by counting noses. As to the second position we suppose there is very little dispute. Whether the framers of the constitution intended to adopt the common law as a basis of national jurisprudence or not, there is no evidence that they intended to adopt the civil. In fact, the common was the only one known and recognized in the country, and all its distinctive principles, to such an extent as was believed necessary, were incorporated in our fundamental law. So far as the treatise is intended as an exposition of the peculiar excellences of the jurisprudence of Rome, it is worthy of the consideration of every person who desires to study law as a science. While for our own part we believe the ancient system wholly unfitted for modern use, and most of its underlying principles repugnant to modern notions, we are sure that no harm will be done to the American lawyers if they devote a little attention to the study of the civil law.

Reports of cases at law and in chancery, argued and determined in the Supreme Court of Illinois, by Norman L. Freeman, Reporter. Vol. LII, containing a portion of the remaining cases decided at the September Term, 1869. Printed for the Reporter, Springfield, 1871.

In the western States it has become the custom to report a greater proportion of the decisions rendered than is reported either with us or in England. This course is perhaps necessary. While the general principles of the law are as well settled at the west as elsewhere, their sectional application is not, so that every decision made in the appellate courts is important as indicating how far in that particular locality the old doctrines are to be followed, and how far they are to be modified to meet changed circumstances. We presume this will account for the somewhat numerous volumes of reports lately issued in Illinois. The book we have just received is numbered Vol. 52, which, when we consider the relatively short time since reporting began in that State, seems a rather high count. Yet, in looking through we find very few cases we would wish unreported. Perhaps half a dozen out of a hundred might be omitted without detriment.

The head notes are accurate and full. If there is any fault in them, it is that they are too full. Our notion is that a head note should contain merely a statement of the point of law decided in the opinion to which it is prefixed, giving a synopsis of facts only when necessary to render clear the statement. An

abstract or digest should contain a more elaborate exposition, inasmuch as the opinion is not present to explain any doubt. Reporters differ, however, concerning the matter, and a head note giving too much is better, perhaps, than one giving too little.

The more important cases of general interest in this volume are those relating to negligence and excessive damages, several of which we have noticed elsewhere.

The Code of Procedure, as amended to 1871, with notes on Practice, Pleadings and Evidence; Rules of the courts fully annotated; a complete table of cases and a full index. By William Wait, counselor at law. Albany, William Gould & Sons.

The publishers have, to repeated inquiries as to why this volume was so long delayed, responded that Mr. Wait desired to make it as full and complete as possible. We now have it, and after a somewhat thorough examination of the advance sheets, are satisfied that the excuse was real and justifiable, as the work is really as perfect and full as such an one can well be.

The page is much larger than ordinary law books, and the type is excellent. Indeed, the book is a good model for publishers. It contains, first, a table of contents; a full table of the cases cited-58 closely printed pages 890 of matter, and an excellent index of 81 pages, making in all 1,032 pages. The sections of the code are printed in good sized type, across the page, with the annotations, in double columns of smaller type, under them. This arrangement contributes largely to the relief of the eye and facilitates examination.

In addition to the code we have, in the body of the work, all the new rules of the court of appeals, the supreme court, the New York superior court and court of common pleas, with full annotations under each. So complete are the rules that we notice even those of a special character by the different judicial departments of the supreme court; and a note under rule 54, that in the third department the court by rule has designated 'Friday," instead of Thursday, as the second motion day in the first week. The annotations to the sections of the code itself are very full, with subdivisions and catch words, which enable the reader, even without an index, almost at a glance to find what there is upon the subject under consideration.

On the whole, we consider this one of the most useful and necessary books in this and other States having a code similar to our own, which has been published in a long time.

MEDICO-LEGAL SOCIETY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.-The annual meeting of this society was held at the college of physicians and surgeons, corner of Fourth avenue and Twenty-third street, on Thursday, October 12, 1871, at which time the following officers were elected for the ensuing year: President, Stephen Rogers, M. D.; First Vice-President, Jacob F. Miller, Esq.; Second Vice-President, Dr. R. A. Vance; Recording Secretary, Dr. James Ross; Chemist, Dr. August Wohlfarth; Corresponding Secretary, Dr. Jean F. Chauveaus; Treasurer, Dr. T. S. Bahan; Librarian, William Shrady, Esq.; Pathologist and Curator, Dr. Stephen Clark; Assistant Recording Secretary, Dr. William M. Kemp; Trustees, Jacob Shrady, Esq., Clark Bell, Esq., Drs. J. J. O'Dea, T. C. Finnell, J. C. Peters, H. P. Farnham.

A suit begins with plaintiff and defendant.
But both are plaintiffs long before the end on't.

GENERAL TERMS.

1st Monday in November, first department, New York.

2d Tuesday in November, third department, Schenectady.

3d Tuesday in November, fourth department, Syra

cuse.

2d Monday in December, second department, Brooklyn.

LEGAL NEWS.

The following United States appointments have been made: William McMichael, assistant attorney-general, and Charles Chelsey, solicitor of internal revenue.

Of forty-six judgments pronounced at the June term of the United States circuit court at Raleigh, N. C., nineteen were for ku-kluxing.

The New Jersey State school commission will bring before the legislature a bill providing that no children under sixteen years be permitted to work in factories, unless they have attended school for three months a year. In no case will they be allowed to work more than forty-eight hours per week.

A Washington special says: Although the health of Chief Justice Chase has materially improved since his trip to the north-west, his friends still think he will not be able to preside at the opening of the supreme court next month, or to do any laborious work during the winter.

There is not a law office nor a library left in Chicago, except the few small duplicate libraries at the residences of the leading lawyers. There is not a paper showing that there is a suit pending in any of the six courts of record in Cook county, including the federal court. There is not an indictment in existence in the county against any one, not a judgment, not a petition in bankruptcy in the federal court.

The Indianapolis Journal says it has been assured by persons who profess to know the truth of what they state, that Attorney-General Hanna, of Indiana, will proceed, without delay, to bring suits for the recovery of the money abstracted from the State treasury by means of bogus vouchers for State printing. And that it is also reported that he will institute proceedings to compel the State officers to account for interest received on public funds farmed out on private account.

Judge Barnard of New York, in a recent charge to the grand jury, alluded to the irregularities existing in the city government. He said that one of the evils which should be stopped was the taking of illegal fees by the city and county officials. The election laws were flagrantly violated. It was his intention to keep the grand jury in session until after the election, so as to secure the people a fair election. In this connection he enlarged in general upon corruption, and announced it as a fact that nearly all the fast horses and fast women of the city are supported from the city treasury.

A remarkable libel suit, in which rival newspapers were plaintiff and defendant, has been decided in Bristol, England. The Western Morning News charged that the Daily Mercury made up its columns of borrowed advertisements, inserted without orders, and then tried to collect payment for them. Thereupon the Mercury sued the News for libel, and the jury actually awarded £400 damages to Mr. Latimer, the proprietor of the Mercury; the judge charging that the libel on the paper must be a libel upon somebody, and that somebody was very naturally the proprietor.