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Tlic Green Bag.
advertisement was. inserted on April 13, 1900. The decree was entered on April 14, 1900. It is such cases as this which tend to bring the law as it is administered in the Western States of the United States into deserved contempt in England. The law is salutary, and is not criticised. It is the loose way in which it is administered that excites com ment. In this country it is almost a proverb that it is more difficult to get a decree in an undefended divorce case than in a defended one, for the simple reason that the judge scrutinizes the papers and sifts the evidence with the greatest care, acting in this respect for the absent defendant. In the Russell case if the judge had looked at the papers with even ordinary care, he must have discovered this defect in them, and the wrong which his negligence or indifference lias thus per mitted, would never have been perpetrated. It may also be added that if a lawyer in England should be detected in applying for a divorce, or a judicial decree of any kind, knowing that a fraud of this kind had been committed, he would at once be struck from the rolls. Lord Russell in order to comply with the requirements of the Nevada practice as to notice to the absent defendant, gave an address in England as that of his wife. She had never lived at the place named. He is now himself qualifying to become a member of the English bar and was eating one of the requisite dinners in Gray's Inn the night after his first appearance at Bow street. It will be interesting to know how the benchers of his inn consider his conduct when, if ever, lie applies to be called. The reception of Maître Labori by the lawyers and the people of England was even more enthusiastic than his warmest friends and admirers could have anticipated. Al most his first public appearance was at the American embassy when Mr. Choate gave a reception to the American delegates from
the Xew York Chamber of Commerce to tiie London Chamber of Commerce. As Mr. Choate truly expressed it Maître Labori's presence shed lustre on the gathering. Sub sequently the distinguished French advocate was the principal guest at the banquet of the Hardwicke Society when over five hundred guests, including the Lord Chancellor and a score of judges and law officers, assembled to do him honor. He was also entertained at the Grand Night of Lincoln's Inn, andlfrn'lie Lord Mayor's annual dinner to the English judges. His presence is winning and attractive, and notwithstanding the com pliments and adulation that were liberally heaped upon him, the modesty of his de meanor was most marked. At the Hard wicke Society banquet he spoke in English first and afterward in French. His English, both in public and in conversation, is fluent and easy, being marked by an abundant vocabulary and accuracy in pronunciation. He desires to visit America in company with Madame Labori, and is looking forward to that pleasure at an early date. If his plans would admit of it he would go this summer, but that, he thinks, is hardly possible. Those Americans whom he met while in London very much hope that arrangements may be made for his presence at the meeting of the American Bar Association in 1902, and that he may be entertained in some of the leading cities of the United States in the early autumn of that year. He has been pressed to accept flattering terms for a lecture tour throughout the States, but these he has reso lutely declined. He is averse to making an exhibition of himself or of being used by politicians to advance their interests. Here in London he declined all engagements save those where he could appear simply as an advocate among his brethren of the bar, and it is in this frame of mind he will go to the United States. STUFF GOWN.
