reasonably correct approximation to the proper re duction from the 19.9 per cent, and thus give the probable percentage of cases of migration to obtain divorce; but at present I would not venture an opinion on the point. It certainly is a very small part of all the divorces of the country, though varying in different States. But the necessity of such investi-.vion is the point it illustrates. The discovery of these facts alone justifies the cost of the invaluable u-port of the Department of Labor. It can hardly fail to compel the study of the problem of uniformity from almost entirely new points of view as to its real nuureand place .in the general question."
In an address before the law department of the University of Pennsylvania by the late Justice Niiller, of the Supreme Court of the United States, the following observations as to the rela tive value of the decisions of different courts as authorities are found : — "I have already stated that there is a great differ ence in the relative value as precedents of the decis ions of different courts. In this country, where the delivery and reporting of opinions of courts and judges has multiplied almost indefinitely, and where opinions are cited and published from referees, com missioners, registrars in bankruptcy, and from city courts, and those of all manner of inferior grade up to the highest appellate courts of the States and of the United States, it is obviously impossible in this short address to distinguish between them as to their value, or to make any specific statement of the weight to be attached to each of these classes of decisions. It has often been my fortune to listen to able counsel citing the decision of some inferior judge or judicial officer, as if it were entitled to control the action of the court which he addressed; and the obser vation has been forced from me, ' Tell me what von think about this, for I esteem your opinion of much more value than that of the authority cited.' But it may be stated that the opinions of all courts of appeal, although they may be subject to revision in some higher court, as in Missouri and Illinois, and the opinions of the Circuit Courts of the United States — which are often beyond writ of error or appeal — and perhaps those of others not readily brought to mind, are, if pertinent to the point in issue, worthy of consideration. One of the difficulties which the judicial mind most frequently encounters in determin ing the weight to be given to conflicting authorities, Ktobe found in cases decided in the highest courts of the States. It is obvious that in such courts of States where, by reason of great cities, the com merce is extensive and the moneyed transactions of peat value, the commercial law is of supreme import
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ance and the decisions are of commanding weight So also there are States in which the purity of the sep arate jurisdiction in equity has been preserved far be yond that of others, and this adds to the authority of their decisions in such cases. There also may be, and there probably are, courts in which the land laws have attained a uniformity of administratiou, render ing their decisions in regard to land titles of superior value. Then there are courts of the States which have long preserved their character for ability, care, and labor, and in regard to whom it is sufficient to say at once that this is a case decided by the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, of New York, of Pennsyl vania, or of South Carolina in her best days, to de mand for it at once the consideration of the court." The lash has never been abolished as a means of discipline in penal institutions in Germany. Generally they use a thong twenty inches long, fastened to a handle a yard long. The lash is thickest at the end. The thickness varies according to the provinces, but the small est lashes are two inches thick. Only in Saxony are the dimensions fixed bylaw, the handle there being thirty inches long and the lash thirty-six inches. The maximum number of blows is left to the judgment of the prison directors; but it must not exceed twenty-five in Mecklenburg and Oldenburg, thirty in Saxony, and sixty in Prussia. At one time admission to the English Bar was exceedingly difficult and dangerous, though but one qualification was necessary. " Practically all that was required as a qualification for the English Bar was that the applicant had eaten sixty dinners at certain intervals " (Sharwood's Memoir of Blackstone, ix.). "I was requested," says Mr. Stanley, in his in teresting book, " to adjudicate a case relating to marriage custom, between Kavalli on the one hand, owner of a slave girl, and Katonza,a Mhuma Chief. The latter had sought Kavalli's girl in marriage, and had paid two cows for her out of three that had been fixed as the price. Kavalli therefore detained the bride of Katonza, and this detention was the cause of his grievance. The price was not denied, and Katonza offered a plea that he feared the girl might not be surrendered by Kavalli if he paid the third cow. He was re quested to put the cow into court, and in this manner the bride was forthcoming.
