began with much enthusiasm, but who were so chilled and depressed by the fearful doubt which prevailed in the court room as to the continued existence of his Honor, that, before the conclusion of their argu ments, they came to a dead stop, gathered up their papers, and silently withdrew. The case was compromised out of court, or came to some other inglorious end. Just as overseers of Harvard University are born, not made, so, in some States, the judges are selected from a small and perfectly defin ed class. An hereditary bench or a bench which had the power of filling vacancies in itself would soon become a body lost in the mazes of abstract thought, and comfortably indifferent to the practical effect of its decis ions. A court which is all of one piece, whether by appointment or by election, is subject to a similar danger. When the re cent change was made in the structure of the Federal courts, it was strongly depre cated by one eminent member of the Su
preme Court, because it withdrew the jus tices of that court from the Circuit Court, and therefore from all opportunity to pre side at the actual trial of cases. He was of opinion that the entire removal of the jus tices from judicial contact with the public would tend to make them too theoretical — to put them out of touch with the peo ple. A remark once made by a judge who now presides over a Circuit Court in New York well describes the spirit which ought to prevail upon the bench, and which is always threatened by an experience too nar row or by a training too academic. A very acute and elaborate brief had been sub mitted to him upon a matter of practice. After due consideration of the brief he sum moned the counsel who had filed it, and said to him : " Your argument is unan swerable. Your premises are indisputable, and the conclusion follows from them in evitably, — but it isn't horse sense, and I' m going to decide against you."
