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are, and that our boasts in that regard, at least so far as the administration of jus tice is concerned, have but little founda tion. It is doubtful, however, whether their methods would ever be adopted here even if the attempt were made. The tendency with us has long been to open the door as wide as possible for "getting error into the record" and the allowance of appeals based thereon. The same tendency is manifested in the change of the mode of selection of our judges from appointive to elective, and in making their terms of office for a term, sometimes quite short, instead of for life. We are much more alive to the increase and assertion of our supposed rights than to the performance of our obligations. Whether this is due to our form of govern
ment is a question worth discussing, but this is not the place for it. Mr. Crane is quite right in saying that "the English system of procedure and the practice that has grown up under it would be impossible here or anywhere if it were not for the character and quality of the judges who enforce it." He might have added (although it is implied) that there is a respect for the authority vested in them for which there is no parallel in this country. On the contrary, the respect here for judicial office and the holder of it is steadily declining, not only because our judges are as a rule inferior to their English brethren, but because with us "one man is just as good as another." PHILIP STEIN. CHICAGO, ILL., April, 1905.
COLORADO A very brief experience some years ago as judge at nisi prius, gave me an insight into the character of this portentous mass of business. I determined to prick every case on the calendar and learn how many contained real blood. I found that in many of them the circulation had entirely ceased, the veins and arteries had dried up, and there was nothing left to do but toss the mumified mass into the receptacle for the dead. Now, there 'are cases that can wait — in fact to let them wait is often the best way to administer justice, but then again there are cases which in their very nature call for immediate disposition, without which the denial of justice is obvious. In this state there are many questions of an original character which we would like to have settled, but they are questions in which the principle and not the parties is the important feature. Again there are cases associated with the ordinary and usual con duct of commercial business in w' ich no one is concerned but the litigants. They present no obscure or complicated questions,
and they should be disposed of as rapidly as is the current business of which they are an incident. This celerity of disposition of cases described by Mr. Crane is doubtless attrib utable in a large degree to the attitude each to the other of the Bench and Bar of England. Counsel do not expect to take the time of the court discussing nonessentials, nor, as I have seen in our courts, attempting to bullyrag and browbeat the court, and what is more to the point, the courts of England will not permit it. Coun sel are expected to honestly and conscien tiously aid the court in settling the facts and in discussing the vital legal questions involved. I do not wish to be understood as refer ring to the High Court of Justice as a literal exampler for an American court. The former has far less than the latter toengage its serious and protracted consider ation. It has no written constitution ta construe, nor is it required to pass upon the validity of acts of Parliament. That great
