"They sometimes call you a Devonshire dump ling, don't they?" asked the genial advocate. "I believe they do," replied the witness. "But you are not a Devonshire dumpling?" The witness waited till the laughter occasioned by this inquiry subsided, then he slowly drawled out : — "Hey, but if I hod been a doompling, you lawyers 'ud a' gobbled I up afore now!" NOTES. About the year 18 i.o the following verses were found pinned to the wig of the then Recorder of Cork, as it hung on a peg in the robing-room of the court house. The author of these verses is unknown. "Sometimes beneath this legal sign. Is placed a head of curious mould. With noble thought and genius fine, Oft swayed by passion uncontrolled . A brain with law and justice filled. Estranged from every selfish view, And in that tempered mercy skilled. Which gives the guilty wretch his due. For with a true Shandean start. He flings all gravity aside. And bids the feeling of the heart O'er law's harsh qu1bbling to preside. Still ne'er beneath a judge's wig, Did fate intend that such a brain Should through law's rubbish daily dig Its mouldy precepts to explain. For better purposes designed, With lofty soul and prouder aim, The bent of such a noble mind Should be the highest point of fame. But here 't is useless to repine. Of such the instance is not rare. Of flowers that should with splendor shine To waste their sweets on desert air." The old court-house of the County of Cork was destroyed by fire in 1890 and many priceless documents were destroyed. This historic old court-house is rich in traditions and in legal lore, and offers a wide field of research to the legal antiquary. It has been the scene of many famous trials, including some of the famous Fenian trials in 1867, and is now no longer a monument of English rule in Ireland. Another
building has been erected on its site, but the legal traditions of the old building seem to be irretrievably lost. A cur1ous lawsuit was recently won by the " Vo1warts," Berlin. That paper asserted that the Saxon supreme court was influenced against the Socialists. The Saxon judges brought suit, and the Berlin supreme court decided against them! For forty-two years George Knight, who mur dered his wife in Poland, Androscoggin County, Me., in 1856, has been serving his life sentence in the State prison at Thomaston. It is a remarkable record, without an equal in the State, and prob ably few equals anywhere. Of all the men who took a prominent part in the events which led up to his conviction, he alone is alive to-day. The judge that sentenced him is dead. His counsel is dead. The county attorney and the attorney general who conducted the case against him are dead. Dead, also, are the court officials and nearly all the jurymen, and yet these men lived a life of freedom and his has been passed within prison walls. He is now eighty-two years old, and is still in good health and clear of mind and eye. He was first sentenced to death, and we venture the opinion that he has regretted many times that this sentence was ever commuted. The Japanese courts of justice, since the be ginning of July, 1899, have been completely re organized. There is now a supreme court, seven courts of appeal, forty-nine provincial high courts, 298 county courts, 1201 local magistrates. The legal code, modelled chiefly after the German, has been translated into English by a German professor of law, Dr. Lonholm. The objection to the English and American system was that it was not definite enough, favors too much the rich and powerful, and opens the door to corruption. Such, at least, was the verdict of the eminent Japanese lawyers who for nearly twenty years sifted the laws of the world to find a code suited to their country. Curiously enough, the German code, a work of excessively slow growth, will not take full effect until 1900, or a year later than the Japanese code which has been shaped after it. The statistical investigations of Dr. Frederick Prinzing seem to show that married men are more
