about to suffer a nonsuit on account of the failure of a witness (one Bela Chapman, from the island of Mackinaw) to respond to the subpoena. Sud denly Mr. Chapman entered the court-room. '•Here the witness is," said Mr. Russell, " Deus ex Afaehina" (Mackinaw). The Judge promptly rejoined, u Nec deus intersit nisi dtgnus vindice nodusV Lawyers must be superior to other men, for they are generally seen at their best when going through the greatest trials of their lives. A gentleman, long a resident of this capital, says a Washington correspondent of the Louisville "Courier-Journal," used to relate that his father, a practitioner at the bar of the Supreme Court, once sent him, when a small boy, to the house of the Chief-Justice for some legal papers. He ap peared before Marshall with something like that feeling of reverence with which the I bo prostrates himself before his fetich, — with something of that awe with which the barbarian Gaul approached the Roman Senate, sitting among the ruins of the Forum. He presented the note, and the Chief-Justice was not slow to detect the bashfulness of the lad. He read the note, selected the papers, tied them up in a bundle, and then said, " Billy, I believe I can beat you playing marbles, come into the yard and we will have a game." The boy as sented, and soon he was engaged in that childish play with the foremost intellect of the Western hemisphere. All his embarrassment was gone; and the game proved to be exciting and closely contested, both being skilful players. When Chief-Justice of the United States. Mar shall used to spend much of his time at his home in Richmond. The court had comparatively a small docket then, and the vacations were more frequent and longer in duration. He would bun dle up submitted cases, go to Richmond for the vacation, and write his decisions there. He had a spacious mansion in the outskirts of the city, and in his grounds was a noted spring of pure water, surrounded by splendid elms and giant oaks; and in pleasant weather the great jurist would retire to the spring to read and ponder the legal records upon which he was to adjudicate. Near by was a school-house, the pupils attending which got water at his spring.
No boy or girl ever went there for water that the old man did not have a kindly greeting for, and words of advice or encouragement. He often engaged in their games at playtime, and it was a common sight to see the boys chasing him, after he had hurled at them that greatest of all affronts to the schoolboy of fifty or eighty years ago, — "school butter,'; — something the old fellow was almost certain to do every day, when it was about time for the boys to return to their studies. And yet boyish as the man was. full of animal spirits as he was. it is said of him by William Wirt that had a flower of fancy sprung up in the train of his thought, he would have crushed it as he would an adder. On the bench, he was human reason in carnate; in private station, he was the kindliest and most playful of men. As Chief-Justice, he was a Hamiltonian federalist; as John Marshall, he was more than a Jeffersonian democrat.
The Bombay High Court recently sent back a record to the district whence it came, with an order that a fair transcript be made of the illegible handwriting of the magistrate. We wonder that some such steps are not more frequently taken. A lesson is sorely needed by many officers, who appear to think that their lofty position relieves them from the obligation of writing a legible hand. This is so utterly selfish! Perhaps five minutes' time is saved by scribbling in haste the deposition of a witness, but hours are wasted by clerks and copyists, and by the appellate court, in the en deavor to decipher the scrawl. It may cause a failure of justice. We remember a deposition which contained the following remarkable passage : "My cow has now upper garments which my calt has spilt. My uncle smoked each day for all his life." The deposition was sent back to the magis trate who had written it, and he explained that the passage was. "The plaintiff was not at all present when the cart was upset. The plaintiff walked that day and did not drive." Suppose that appli cation were made for sanction to prosecute for perjury, and the only record of the evidence were a hieroglyph such as that was! — Indian Jurist.
In regard to the appointment of counsel by the court for undefended prisoners in murder cases, the " Indian Jurist " says : " Some session judges regard this as a good thing, that must go round
