jury just before the close of the day. About eleven o'clock in the evening the judge determined that before retiring for the night he would go to the court-house, which was near his hotel, and ascertain if the Court would be likely to be required to come in and receive a verdict. Entering the court-room, he inquired of the deputy-sheriff in charge what the jurors were doing. " Well," replied the officer, " for the last two hours they have been discussing whether General M. or Squire H. [the leading counsel in the case] was the biggest lawyer!"
NOTES.
The meeting of the American Bar Association at Saratoga, August 20-22, was a noteworthy gathering of notable members of the profession from all parts of the Union. The exercises were interesting; and the annual address by James C. Carter, of New York, on "The Ideal and the Actual in Law," was a most finished and scholarly production. The usual number of papers on legal subjects were read; the most important, perhaps, being that of Henry C. Tompkins, of Alabama, on " The Necessity for Uniformity in the Law governing Commercial Paper."
The election of Prof. Simeon E. Baldwin of New Haven, as President for the ensuing year, was a well deserved compliment bestowed upon a most worthy and accomplished scholar and lawyer.
It is often said that the American Bar Association does not accomplish anything. It may be to a certain extent true that the visible results of its deliberations have not been marked; but these annual reunions of lawyers from the several States cannot fail to bind the profession together by stronger ties, and the earnest discussion of needed legal reforms, while it may not bear immediate fruit, must ultimately bring about the desired end. The American Bar Association may move slowly, but its work will tell in time.
The next annual meeting of the Association will be held in Boston, and the " Hub " will do its utmost to make the gathering a memorable one.
The following are the summarized results of a series of inquiries instituted by the Howard Association into the operation, during recent years, of the penalty of death, and also of its abolition, in some of the principal countries of Europe and America. They indicate the extreme uncertainty which inevitably characterizes the infliction of capital punishment, and which therefore greatly weakens or nullifies its presumptively deterrent tendency.
"In England and Wales, during the ten years 1879 to 1888 inclusive, 672 persons were committed for trial for 'wilful murder.' Of these 299 were convicted and sentenced to death; but nearly one half of these had their sentences com muted, only 154 being executed.
"The latest official returns of French crime are contained in the Compte General de la Justice Criminelle," issued in 1889, and relating to 1887. In that year 683 persons were arraigned for capital crimes. Of these, 61 per cent, or 413, were acquitted; while 270, or 39 per cent, were convicted. Of the latter, 240 had verdicts of "extenuating circumstances" recorded. The remaining 28 were condemned to death; but of these only six were executed.
"In Sweden, Norway, and Denmark there results one execution from about every twenty sentences of death.
"The death penalty has been abolished in Russia, Switzerland, Holland, and Portugal; and in Belgium there have been no executions since 1863, although capital punishment has never been abolished there de jure. There appears, however, to be more security with no executions than when they were abundant.
"In the United States of America, generally, murders are terribly numerous, especially in the South and West. This is largely owing to the habit of carrying pistols and bowie-knives by many citizens in those regions.
"The American prisons are all, with a solitary exception (at Philadelphia), conducted on the corrupting gang-system. Their inmates are either kept idle, or are worked on the ' pennywise and pound-foolish ' plan of associated labor. The dietaries and other features of United States jails also tend to increase criminality. In Indiana, recently, a long-sentenced criminal was permitted to keep a stall in the State-prison, and sell goods to visitors. When his earnings amounted to $2,000, he eloped with a young lady friend of the Governor's. Demo-
