Legal Emergencies. whom he had been so long separated, and to whose memory he had been devoted. His grave is on the highest point of the old cem etery at Nevvburyport, overlooking a place that had been his home for nearly four
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score years, and that had been dear to him. Surely it can be said of him for his services to his country, as was said of honored men in the days of Rome, " De republica bene meruit."
LEGAL EMERGENCIES. ALTHOUGH the processes of law are proverbially slow, there are many occa sions when lawyers must act with promptness where a lack of promptness or knowledge of the law may result disastrously to the in- _| terests of their clients. This is notably the caseun the drawing of wills. It often happens that a lawyer is roused out of bed late at night to go to the bedside of a dying person and perfect a will disposing of large amounts of property. To do this with expedition, complying with all the requisite forms, while death is literally waiting at the door, is a task that requires a man of cool head and self-pos session. Surrogates' courts bear testimony to the frequency with which the wishes of testators have failed to be carried out, be cause of the failure to comply with some almost trifling detail. In one case the lawyer was so slow in making out the paper that the testator died before the requisite formalities were complied with. In another case a quick witted lawyer, who saw that there was not time to complete a will in a case where the property consisted of money in bank, adopted the expedient of making out checks for the heirs, which were duly signed and acknowl edged, and the heirs got their money the next day, without being obliged to wait a year for executors. In commercial crises lawyers have to do a good deal of quick work in putting business affairs in shape to meet an emergency. The bankrupt generally desires to save parts of the wreck for this or that creditor, or for relatives, or for himself; and the papers must be drawn in due form to elude the vigilance
of the unfortunate creditors who get left. Bankruptcy business has become a special branch of law; and there are some lawyers who have become very expert at it, so that upon short notice and with brief time in which to work they can arrange the affairs of a bankrupt firm so as to dispose of the assets according to the wishes of their clients. There is room and need for quick wit in the actual trial of cases in court. It is one thing to prepare a case with careful consid eration of the facts and due application of the law to those facts. It is quite another thing to be able to handle a case in open court under the spur of competition with sharp opposing counsel or a testy court. In every large law firm the work is divided like that in a factory, and to each is assigned a particular part of the case. The one who tries it must be a man of rapid judgment and re sources. He must be able to meet surprises, to discern men, to divine hidden motives, to snap at the prejudices of jurors or judges, and to seize the advantages of the moment. There is no end of need for quick wit in questions of identity. In an extradition case, which depended entirely upon identity, the defendant had been fully identified. The defendant's counsel slyly got his client to change his coat in court with another man of similar appearance, and in a few minutes the witness was led easily to identify the wrong man. A quick-witted and daring Western lawyer once saved a guilty client from sure convic tion on a charge of poisoning. It was proved
