458
The Green Bag
ron’s business oflioe in ‘CésarBirotteau.’
from them, but once on the bench no
‘Fraisier was small, thin and unwhole some looking; his red face, covered with
judge on earth was more impartial. “The allusion here is to the practice
an eruption, told of tainted blood. A wig pushed back on his head displayed
which at least up to the Revolution per mitted, or at least condoned, the per sonal solicitation of judges and even
a brick colored cranium of ominous
conformation. One might have thought
the making of presents to them by liti
there was pestilence in the air.’
gants, like the custom in England which caused Bacon's downfall. Indeed, the ofiice of judge in France was formerly salable like an estate. In Balzac’s
"Regnault in ‘La Grande Bretéche’ is thus depicted: ‘A man tall, slim, dressed in black, hat in hand, who came in like a ram ready to butt his opponent, showing a receding forehead, a small,
pointed head and a colorless face of the
novels there are frequent allusions to the influence used outside of the court
hue of a glass of dirty water. He wore an old coat much worn at the seams, but he had a diamond in his shirt front,
room upon the judge. Judge Camusot, for example, was completely under his wife’s influence, and the ladies gener ally seem to have been very successful
and gold rings in his ears.’
in this irregular practice. In lThe End
“Desroches is described in ‘ Un Ménage de Gargon' as having a harsh voice, a coarse skin, pitiless eyes, and a face
of Evil Vays' the Countess de Sérizy called on the judge to interview him as to Lucien de Rubempré, and actually seized the notes of his examination and
like a ferret's licking the blood of a murdered chicken from its lips. “Balzac has a great deal to say about judges, and most of his judges are honest
men, like Popinot in ‘The Commis sion in Lunacy,’ and old Blondet in
‘The Cabinet of Antiques.’ The latter's integrity was as deeply rooted in him as his passion for flowers; he knew
nothing but law and botany. He would have interviews with litigants, listen to them, chat with them and show them his flowers; he would accept rare seeds
threw them into the fire. The ladies, said Balzac, have a code of their own, and laugh at statutes framed by men. ‘If that is a crime,’ said the Countess, ‘well, monsieur must get his odious scrawl written out again.‘
“To mention those of Balzac’s novels that possess legal interest is almost to repeat the catalogue of all. . . . Bal zac is too vast. It is impossible to dis cuss the law and lawyers of the Human Comedy in an hour."
Attorney-General Wickersham on the Big Trust Cases PEAKING
before
the
Michigan
study of the Oil and Tobacco decisions,
July 6,
Wickersham discussed "Recent Inter pretations of the Sherman Act," and
that the Supreme Court had strength ened rather than weakened the statute. He gave his unqualified indorsement to the Court's application of the so~called
made it clear, in the course of a lucid
“rule of reason."
State Bar Association
at its annual meeting, Attorney-General
