ronizing air and has looked as if she wanted to say, "What! Reporter to the Court! Did it take you long to learn stenography, and do you not enjoy going round the State and listening to all the murder cases?" The views of some members of the bar even are capable of considerable enlarge ment. I distinctly recall conversations with two attorneys during my time of service, each of whom observed that he thought my labors anything but onerous. The truth is that the position is not a sinecure; and the reporter naturally regrets that there is so much mis information among members of the legal pro fession. A writer said over thirty years ago in the English Low Rez'iew, 'The duties and labors of a law reporter are appreciated for the most part, even by those who reap the greatest advantage from his exertions, at a very low rate. Nobody within the legal pro fession doubts that he is a useful person; but that is the highest honor that is generally awarded to him; he is looked upon as a sort of mechanic, or perhaps that is even too high a title, for it is supposed to imply something like the possession of genius and science." In modern times the term reporter has come to be misleading; and to this circum stance may be attributed some of the ignor ance at least of those outside the profession. In this day there is little need of the reporter's personal attendance in court, as all the papers are printed and from them and the opinion of the judges the case is to be made up; but for merly it was required that the reporter have an acute ear and a ready pen, as it was his duty to preserve much of argument and ob servation. The late Judge Metcalf, commonly called a model reporter, gathered long ago, in 8 American Jurist, 260, statements of famous judges as to the value of certain reporting', a few of which may be quoted. Black-stone's (William) Reports. "We must not always rely on the words of reports, though under great names; Mr. Justice Blackstone's reports are not verv accurate."
Per Lord Mansfield, Doug. 93 (3d Ed.) note. Gilbert's (Equity) Reports. "22d June, 1737, Easter Term 10 and n, Geo. II., in the Com. Picas. Mr. Serj. Wynne, in an argu ment this day in court, quoted, as an author ity, a case in these Reports. The court ex ploded the book, and told the serjeant they hoped he would quote cases from some better authority. Clarke's Bibliothcca Lcgum. The most caustic things were, said about the Modern Reports. Vol. 2d. "Mr. Carthew. cited a case in 2 Mod. 97, to which Holt, Chief Justice, in ira said that no books ought to be cited but those which were licensed by the judges." i Ld. Raym. 537. Vol. 4th. "See the inconveniences of these scrambling reports; they will make us appear to posterity like a parcel of blockheads. Per Powell, J., 2 Ld. Raym. 1072. Vol. 8th. "A miserably bad book." I Bur. 386, in margin. A book of no authority." Per counsel, 2 Bur. 1062. A case being cited from 8 Mod. 267, "the court treated that book with the contempt it deserves." 3 Bur. 1326, m margin. In 7 D. & E. 239, Lord Kenyon said nine cases out of ten in that book (8 Mod.) are totally mistaken. Reference has been made to Metcalf as a model reporter. Such he was declared to be in my novitiate by one of the justices of the court, who urged me to study his style and method and profit by his example. A tribute to his ability and learning may be found in the 7 Law Reporter, i, published in 1844. Let us now approach the threshold of the august tribunal itself. This is not a mis nomer; it is an august tribunal. Its origin may be found in the colonial period; its de velopment has marked the great advance in commercial activity and relation, and its judg ments have been and are respected and fol lowed wherever the common law is practised and equity procedure is known. It is the ob servation of some that it no longer maintains its prestige in that its decisions fail to show
