Dr. Holzinger von Yemaburg, the distinguished death in a state of mental derangement have overjudge, whose suicide in Vienna was reported last taken a number of the Irish judiciary.— Law Times. week, was the last member of an ancient and noble Austrian family (says the Daily Chronicle). He A complete codification of English law is among had long filled a considerable position in Vienna life, the projects that belong to the realm of dreams. being first brought into special prominence as the Over 10,500 acts of parliament were passed during commissioner appointed by the government to inquire into the origin and particulars of the terrible fire some twenty-five years ago at the Ring Theatre. If a somewhat severe judge, he had also the reputation of being a just one, and in private life was a cultivated and amiable gentleman of most courteous manners. The late judge read English with almost the same ease as he read German, and had nearly all his life been an assiduous student of English literature. He was married, but leaves no family.

The number of law books published in 1901 was almost the same as in 1900, says the Law Times. Last year 146 legal volumes were published, of which 109 were new works, and 37 were new editions; in the preceding year 147 were published, of which 101 were new works and 46 were new editions. It will be observed that while the number of new editions of legal works in 1901 was nine smaller than in 1900, the number of new works was eight larger. March and November were the busiest months with the law publishers, while May and June were the slackest; twenty-five works were published in March, and only five in May. The record of legal publications in 1901 is well above the average of the past nine years. The total number of law books published in 1893 was only 50; in 1894 it rose to 149; in 1895 it sank to 90; in 1896 it was as high as 182; in 1897 it fell to 142; in 1898 it reached 163; in 1899 it was 160.

the last century, and, although many of these statutes have ceased to be operative, yet the body of English law is so enormous that its complete codification must long remain a forbidding task. But the application of the process of codification to particular branches of the law is a practicable and desirable course, and we welcome the announcement made by the lord chancellor at the centenary banquet of the Liverpool Underwriters' Association, that he intends to introduce a bill for the codification of the law relating to marine insurance. The tentative efforts which have already been made in the direction of codification for instance, the bills of exchange act and the sale of goods act — have been crowned with a large measure of success, and there is every reason to believe that the measure for which the lord chancellor will ask the sanction of parliament will prove equally useful to the mercantile classes.— Law Journal (London).

Bumorous Side of the Law.

A young man whose features and flashing eyes betokened great earnestness was summoned before Judge McCarthy of the City Court the other day for jury duty. He immediately asked to be excused. When the judge asked him what excuse he had for not serving, he replied:

66

But are you a lawyer?" asked Judge McCarthy. "No, but I have been a close student of the law for many years."

"I am afraid that I cannot excuse you if you are not a lawyer," said the court, smiling.

The suicide of Dr. Holzinger, vice-president of "I believe it is a rule of the court that the jury is the High Court at Vienna, and one of the ablest the sole judge of the facts and the court of the law judges in Austria, which has created so profound that the juror should only weigh the facts as prea sensation throughout the Austrian Empire, will re-sented by the evidence, not taking into consideration call the circumstance that some of the most eminent lawyers in these countries have perished by their fore all lawyers are exempt from jury duty.” any of the rules of law governing the case; whereown hands while suffering from temporary insanity. Thus Charles Yorke, the second son of Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, was appointed lord chancellor in January, 1770, and committed suicide three days af terwards. Richard Power, a baron of the exchequer in Ireland in 1794, leaped into the river Liffey and was drowned while laboring under temporary insanity, which was brought on by an accusation of embezzlement of public funds preferred against him by Lord Clare, the Irish lord chancellor. Sir Samuel Romilly, one of the greatest luminaries of the English bar, through whose labors in the house of commons some of the horrors which signalized the severity and the absurdity of the English Penal Code were abolished, terminated his beneficent career during a priod of aberration produced by personal grief and prolonged mental strain; while in our own generation suicide in madness brought on from over- Col. C. C. Fogle, attorney-at-law, of Lancaster, work has been the fate of a member of the English Mo., related the following legal incident: "One of judiciary, and attempted suicide and subsequent the most original lawyers I ever met in my life was

"But," continued the young man, with great earnestness, the color mounting to his temples, "I am sure if your honor knew as much law as I do, your conscience would not allow you to serve on a jury."

After the bench and bar had recovered from this naive outburst the judge told the young man that if it was a matter which affected his conscience so deeply he would excuse him, and a very much abashed youth left the courtroom.- New York Times.

'Sam' Dysart, who some twenty years ago was a habitues. Brother Spears was painfully conscious

"Brother Tice Spears, a righteous man of Puri-ished and sat down. He looked tired. Sam immeditanic type, was the main prosecuting witness. He had conducted the services, and he testified that his peace was sadly disturbed by the unseemly behavior of the rioters.' After he told his story in chief he sat down with clasped hands waiting for the defendants' attorney to begin on him. He didn't have long to wait. The examination went like this:

"If you gentlemen think you could go to one of Brother Spear's meetings and behave better than you have here, why you may be justified in convicting these boys and girls.'

"That was all he said, but the jury brought in a "Brother Spears, you led the meetin' last night?' verdict of not guilty, with the request that Brother

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Current Topics.

unanimity rule, he says:

"Everyone knows that in an important and hard case the struggle of counsel is to secure upon the jury one or more who are friendly to their client, or in sympathy with the cause or interest with which he is identified, or who may be easily influenced by appeals to prejudice or sympathy. The intelligent business man, the mechanic and the farmer, too quickly respond to the voice of the judge commanding justice, and hence, if possible, they must be excluded, and the ignorant, easily moved by appeals of counsel, secured. Let the rule of unanimity be abolished and the result determined by the conclusions of two-thirds or threefourths of the jury, and this struggle after the single helpful juror will largely disappear. And why should it be deemed essential? Neither in legislative halls, among judges, in arbitration proceedings, nor in scarcely any other body called to make a determination, is it the rule. In my judgment, the great objection to the jury system, as it is administered to-day, and the one which more than any other threatens its overthrow, is this rule of unanimity. Were it abolished less time would be wasted in impaneling a jury, and a better class of jurors would ordinarily be selected. More than that, the truth would be more certainly determined. How often, in criminal cases, do ten of twelve jurors yield to the obstinacy of the remaining, and agree on a verdict for a lower degree of crime than

they really believe the defendant to be guilty of! And in actions for the recovery of money how often is the amount of the verdict affected by the obstinacy of a single juror?

now

too often

Indications are not wanting that the strong sentiment in the legal profession throughout the country in favor of reforms in the jury system will bear fruit before long. That the people will not consent to the abrogation of this system which, like everything else human, has its imperfections, seems equally evident; hence it is that some of the brightest minds in the profession and upon the bench are considering the best manner of improving this time-honored method of determining questions of fact in both civil and criminal cases. One of the reforms to which a very large number of leading judges and lawyers seem to be turning, is that which proposes to authorize verdicts by less than a unanimous vote. Readers of the ALBANY, LAW JOURNAL will recollect that in the January, 1901, number of this periodical, former Judge Robert Earl, of the New York Court of Appeals, suggested a plan as follows: suspicion as though he were probably dishonest, That where not less than ten jurors agree, and must be specially shielded from temptation. the presiding judge shall be permitted in his Why should he be shut up, while the judge is not? discretion, if he concur with the ten or eleven, A bad man on the bench or in the jury box will jurors, to take their verdict so that there will surely find ways to be tempted, and few things are be in all cases the concurrence of at least more calculated to degrade his office in the sight eleven minds in the verdict reached. Judge of the juror, and to bring out all the evil that is in Earl expressed the belief that this would be him, than the consciousness that he is an object of suspicion. I have been nearly thirty-seven years a safe reform and that it would serve the on the bench, and take pleasure in recalling that, ends of justice. In the issue of the Interso far as it was possible, I always relieved the juror national Monthly for January, will be found from confinement other than such as I myself suban article by Mr. Justice Brewer, of the mitted to; that I endeavored to make him in the United States Supreme Court, in which he discharge of his duties free from suspicion and also advises the abrogation of the unanimity annoyance. And I have not the slightest reason to

VOL. 64.- No. 3.

"Free the work of the juror from some of the disagreeable annoyances which attend it. He should not be compelled to work more hours than the judge. To shut him up and keep him confined day and night is a crime against society. He is treated too often as an object of

doubt that the course thus pursued resulted not merely to the comfort of the juror, but in a better administration of justice."

man's Manual of Phonography, which is the standard publication of the art, will prove a vade mecum, to the ambitious and perse

These suggestions seem to us to be emi- vering student. Yes, by all means, take up nently worthy of careful consideration by shorthand. Aside from the delight to be members of the profession, both personally found in the study, it cannot fail to repay and in their bar associations. While it is still many times the effort necessary to master it. true that the jury system remain, "the best protection for innocence, and the surest mode of punishing guilt that has yet been dis"Gardner et al. versus 99 Gold Coins et al.," covered," there ought not to be anything par- is the title of a very unusual and interesting ticularly sacred about the number twelve, or case recently decided by the Federal Court. any reason why, in all cases, unanimity should be insisted upon in determining the verdicts of juries.

A fishing schooner on her way from Gloucester to the fishing grounds, shortly after the wreck of the Bourgoyne, which was sunk in collision on July 4, 1898, found floating on The ALBANY LAW JOURNAL has been the water the body of a man upon which was asked by a law student for our opinion as a wallet containing coins and bank notes of to the advisability of his taking up short- the value of $1,050. The body was buried hand in connection with his study of the at sea, and after some opposition on the part law. We reply that in our opinion he could of some members of the crew, the money was not make any mistake in doing so. There brought back and paid into a Court of Adare several reasons why we give this advice. miralty. The crew were treated as salvors, It is a fact beyond dispute that a knowledge and in view of their meritorious action in of the shorthand art is of exceptional value turning the money into court, the crew, the to a lawyer, in the trial of cases especially. master, and the owners were awarded oneIt enables him to take notes of testimony half of the amount recovered. This award which would escape him were he compelled was made in March, 1899. The balance of to depend upon the cumbersome longhand, the fund has remained in the registry of the and is very useful in taking notes of lectures, court for more than two years, and it is and in many other ways. In another way it claimed by three different parties. In the may enable him to get a start in his chosen first place, the salvors claim the fund as the profession. We are personally acquainted finders of lost or abandoned goods, whose with more than one lawyer who at first took owner is unknown; in the second place, the up shorthand and made it a business with fund is claimed by the United States as the sucexcellent financial results. Of course, the cessor to the prerogative rights of the King danger is that shorthand will be made a pro- of England; in the third place, the fund fession, but outside of that which, to a young is claimed by the public administrator of man determined to let nothing interfere with suffolk county, who had taken out letters of his purpose to enter the legal profession, this administration pursuant to the Massachuought not to prove a serious temptation. Any setts statutes, upon the life of the man upon bright young man ought to be able to master the theory of the "winged art" in a few hours. Then an hour a day for say, a year, should give him sufficient proficiency to write several times more rapidly than by longhand. Even if he never reaches expert speed of, say 150 to 200 words a minute, ability to write half as rapidly as that will be found not only convenient but exceedingly valuable at times. A teacher is not absolutely necessary. Pit

whose body the coins were found. In these letters, the description of the man is that given by the salvors, and a name of doubtful spelling, written upon a receipt upon his person, is assigned to him. The name upon this receipt is the only evidence secured by the efforts to identify the man. The salvors and the United States both admit that their rights are subordinate to the claims of the original owner of the property, and the court holds

that the public administrator represents the THE MYSTERIOUS

estate and the rights of the original owner, and that the fund in court must be paid over to him. The case will be found reported in III Federal Reporter, 552.

An interesting case to consumers of gas was decided recently at Mount Vernon, in this State. The gas company attempted to collect for gas which was consumed by a former tenant of the premises; the occupant of the house refused payment, whereupon he

was threatened with a closure of the connections. He still declined to pay what he properly regarded as an unjust demand, and the company fulfilled its threat and took out the meter. The case went into court, the tenant in the meantime resorting to the use of kerosene lamps. Damages were sought for the inconveniences of such a lighting system, and the suit, after passing from court to court, finally resulted in a verdict of $5.00 a day for the period of two years, eighteen weeks and four days, amounting in the aggregate to $4,300. The experience was rather costly for the gas company, but the verdict, seems to be eminently just and worth all it cost as determining the rights of consumers and manufacturers of gas, respectively.

AND HUMOROUS IN

LAW AND MEDICINE.

BY JOHN FREEMAN BAKER.

It will readily occur to members of the legal and medical profession, that our subject is suggestive of deep pathos and broad-faced humor.

In both professions there is much to amuse, much to elicit sympathy, and a wide field for the exercise of careful judgment and wise counsel. Neither medicine nor law can claim to be an exact science. The lawyer as well as the doctor is occasionally required to act promptly and in an untried field. Then it is that mental poise, calm judgment and from disaster. Doubtless, in either profession there good common sense, may save the patient or client may be found men who are quite deficient in the higher elements of character and qualities of mind - those who are sordid and ready to take a fee or give advice without adequate knowledge of the case presented. The doctor deals with the life element of his patient, the lawyer with his client's

pecuniary interests. The doctor who through unskillfulness loses his patient - dies on his hands, as the phrase goes - is generally more open to censure than the lawyer who loses his case; the reason being, no doubt, that the life is more sacred, more to be desired, than dollars and cents. It may reasonably be stated that, law and medicine, even since the god of medicine, Aesculapius, flourished, have had to battle against charlatanism - those who have assumed to wear the ermine of their profession while they were no more like a worthy member, than was the ass mentioned in Esop, which wore the lion's skin, a real lion. As the ass was soon known by his long ears, albeit he had for a time thrown the herds of the field into consternation, so the quack is soon known and is betimes consigned to the place he belongs-oblivion. Members of either calling should strive to be faith

ful to their trust - honor it and endeavor to raise it to a higher standard.

Congress, as we felt certain it would, has passed favorably upon the proposition to increase the compensation of that hard-worked and underpaid branch of the judiciary, the federal judges. The extent of the increase is about twenty-five per cent. In other words, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court will receive $13,000; the associate justices, $12,500, the circuit judges, $7,500, and the district judges, who ride the circuit, $6,250. The Chief Justice of the Court of Claims receives annually $6,125; and his associates each the sum of $5,625. The Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals of the District of ColumWit, says Poison, is the best sense in the world, a sort of literary Liebig, an extractum carnes. bia, $8,000; his associates $7,500 each; Chief Some one asked a physician, how he managed to Justice of the Supreme Court, D. C., $6,750, live to be so old and rich? The answer was, "By and his associates $6,250. These salaries are writing prescriptions, but none too high when the character and value of the services rendered is considered.

Notwithstanding the deep pathos so often involved in the profession, there is a modicum of humor in law and physic. Some wit once pertinently asked, judging from the latitudinarianism of some practitioners and the absurd nostrums of empirics, whether doctors and lawyers were not in fact the final cause of distress.

never taking them." Humor is the atmosphere, wit the flash. Humor lies in the situation, wit in its culminating points.