NOTES.
"How Successful Lawyers Were Educated " is the title of a recent treatise by George A. Macdonald of the New York Bar. But its title is somewhat faulty in view of an old legal saying that " the lawyer is never educated, but until the day of his death is constantly educating himself and dies with an education never complete." Perhaps "valuable aids to legal progress" might have proved a more appropriate title. All " suc cessful lawyers " will agree that object-lessons for legal practice and progress are of higher value than even books. The Benchers in the Inns of London advise their students to frequent the Courts and Assizes and there to study the strong points in cases therein arising, as well as the play of barristers and Q. C.'s in managing trials or presenting arguments. Treatises and reports will store the memory of the law student or young practitioner with learning; but observation of human nature, of the various pursuits of life, and of the conduct and methods of judges and suc cessful lawyers must best supply the carte and tierce of forensic fencing. When the young law yer asks, How can I be most successful in my pro fession? the answer will best come by his embrac ing some specialty in it and perfecting himself in that. And in all varieties of life pursuits, profes sions and business, the trend of the times is towards specialties. As a character in Shakespeare's play of " All's well that ends well," says "— Twere all one That I should love a bright particular star And think to wed it."
SIR ALBERT PELL, a verbose and prolix, but very successful English advocate, who made havoc of syntax and pronunciation every time he opened his mouth in court, is admitted to have owed his forensic victories largely to his iteration. When a gentleman criticised a jury address of his in an important cause, Pell " confessed and avoided" the justness of the criticism. " I certainly was confoundedly long," he replied; " but did you observe the foreman, a heavy-looking fellow in a yellow waistcoat? No more than one idea could ever stay in his thick head at a time, and I re solved that mine should be that one; so I ham mered till I saw by his eyes that he had got it. Do you think I cared a for what you young critics might say? " Lord Brougham was so im
pressed by this advocate's style of speaking that he said " it was not eloquence, — it was/W/oquence, and deserved to have, in books of rhetoric, a chapter to itself." THE largest police office in the world is New Scotland Yard, in which 3,000 officers can be accommodated. IN spite of the odium which is supposed to be attached to the office of the hangman in Europe, there is a great rush for the position of high exe cutioner of Prussia, now that Herr Reindell, the present incumbent, is about to retire. The post pays $37 " a head " and traveling expenses. A GERMAN court has decided that electricity cannot be stolen. A man was arrested on the charge of having stolen several thousand amperes of current by tapping a light company's mains and using it to run a motor. The Court, on appeal, ruled that "only a movable material object" could be stolen, which electricity was not, and therefore the man was acquitted. — Electric Re view. AN agitated lawsmith of Minnesota has introduc ed a bill to the State legislature which is styled " A bill for the suppression of female fools." It pro vides that " women, or men, or neuters who send flowers, and candy, and angel-cake, and plushbound copies of Keats to wife-murderers and thugs, shall be punished by imprisonment or fine, unless the wife-murderer or thug be a near rela tive." The latest dispatches do not say that the measure has been acted upon decisively as yet. CURRENT EVENTS.
DR. SCHROER, the eminent German professor, advocates that means be taken to make English the one language of the world. He says the need of a universal language has long been felt, and any attempt to introduce an artificial language is unnecessary. The English language is universal by its spread over the entire globe and by the ease with which it may be learned. It has, he declares, reached a position far in advance of all other tongues. English is spoken by most of the people of North and South America, it is spoken by the most powerful nation of Europe, it is spoken in India and in Australia. Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, the number of English-speaking people has
