'•What does he say?" demanded the judge. "Nothing, my lord." " How dare you say that, when we all heard it? Come, sir, what was it?" "My lord, it had nothing to do with the case." "If you don't answer, I shall commit you, sir. Now, what did he say?" "Well, my lord, you'll excuse me, but he said, ' Who is that old woman, with the red bed-curtain round her, sitting up there? ' " " And what did you say? " asked Baron Dowse. " I said to him, ' Whist! That Is the old boy that is going to hang yez! '"
JAMES T. BROWN, of Indiana, was once engaged in a case in the Circuit Court of that State, and was laying down the law with masterly ability, when the judge remarked that he need not argue the law of the case, as the Court understood that perfectly. Mr. Brown replied, with much meek ness, that he " merely desired to talk about the law as it is in the books, which would be entirely different law from any his honor was acquainted with." TUDGE JEREMIAH BLACK for a long time wore a black wig. On one occasion, having donned a new one, he met Senator Bayard, of Delaware, who thus accosted him : " Why, Black, how young you look! You are not so gray as I am, and you must be twenty years older." "Humph!" re plied the judge; •' good reason : your hair comes by descent, and I got mine by purchase."
A GOOD story is told of a Pennsylvania judge who, before his promotion to the Supreme Bench of that State, once had a number of Irishmen be fore him in one of the interior counties, indicted for a riot on the canal. All their names were included in the one indictment, and the jury found them all guilty, though one of them, Pat Murphy, clearly proved an alibi. They were all brought into court to be sentenced, and Pat was directed to stand up with the others. Pat pro tested vehemently, and reminded the judge that it was clearly proven on the trial that he was at the time sick in bed, and at a considerable dis tance from the scene of riot. "Stand up, Pat," said the judge. " Stand up; you 're just as guilty as any of them. You know you would have been there if you could!"
NOTES. WHEN Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, under cir cumstances that are still fresh in the public mind, resigned his judicial position, he took a semipublic farewell from bench and bar. It was a dismal enough scene; and when it was over, and as the judges were filing out, Mr. Justice Bowen is said to have muttered to one of his learned colleagues, — "And may there be no moaning at the bar When I put out to sea." — Globe.
IN his " Outline of Civil Government," Mr Higby, speaking of our judiciary, says : " The qualifications of Supreme judges are not stringent. Only six States require "learning in the law," and only about the same number require any identifica tion with the legal profession; but through the influence of the bar it has become a custom to confine the choice to professional lawyers." A NOVEL suit is said to have been commenced in the Nebraska courts, in which one party claims the right to have a post-mortem, examination of a body made, while the other opposes it and defies the first to proceed with the affair. It seems that a few years ago a Mr. Warrington, a well-to-do cattleman of that county, married a second wife, to whom he presented the jewels, consisting of valuable diamonds, belonging to the first Mrs. War rington, and which she had received as part of her marriage portion from her father, a wealthy mer chant in jewelry in San Francisco. Warrington dying shortly after his second ven ture into matrimony, Mrs. Warrington kept the diamonds in defiance of the family of her pre decessor, who claimed them as the deceased woman's heirs. Suit was brought against her, but she declared that her husband had sold them shortly after they were married, and that she had no property to make good the loss, even if she were liable for the act of Mr. Warrington. This story was not believed by the first Mrs. Warrington's family, who maintained that the woman still had them in her possession; and soon after her death, which took place some weeks ago, the nurse who attended her in her last illness testi fied that the day she had died she had her bring her a box filled with unset gems, which she deliberately swallowed one by one, passing away a few moments
