Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1877-09-13


latter. And It may perhaps be and
often is necessary to see whether
the rule of the former cases is right,
or if there are conflicting rules
which of them is right. Again, when
no cases have been decided in this
State which are nearly enough like
tho particular case to control it
and cases are found in othor statos,
tho United States, Great Britain
or Canada resembling it, it often be-
comes necessary in addition to do
ing all that | have above pointed
out, to examine tho statutes of such
state, of the United States, of Canada
or Great Britain as the case may be,
to see whether such statutes are
like ours or whether they differ, and
if the latter, whether such difference
is material to the question or not.
Any one who has ever examined the
statutes of this State in the attempt
to find out what the law is or was
at a given time, can imagine some
thing OF the labor the task of exam
ming the statutes of the United
States of other states, of Great
Britain, or OF Canada involves.
The lawyers who argue cases in
that court usually If they do their
duty-search for and in their argu>
ments point out to the court, the
cases bearing upon the question un-
der discussion, and it not unfre-
quentiy happens that hundreds of
such cases are found and cited, all
bearing more or less closely upon
some question arising in the case I'M
der discussion, and none perhaps,
after all, exactly in point.
In other cases the authorities may
exist and should be consulted, but
the lawyers who argue them, either
through Incidence or want of abil-
ity, have not found them, and in
such cases q double labor is imposed
upon the judges, who must or ought
to do what the lawyers have not
done, because otherwise they cannot
be sure that thir decision is not in
conflict with the decisions Of othGr,
courts on the same question, and,
therefore, possibly wrong. But in
the most favorable eases, whom law
yers of first class ability have pre-
pared the arguments on both sides,
and found and pointed out to the
court the statutes and decisions
bearing upon the case, still the court
must carefully go over and patient
ly read all snch cases and statutes
for itself, to see if they bear out the
construction put upon them by
counsel.
Then when all this b as been done
when the case has been argued. tho
authorities looked over, and deeis-
ion agreed upon, there remains the
labor Of preparing and writing out
the Judgment or decision of tho
court, in most cases by far the great
est labor of the whole.
This labor is divided among the
judges as nearly equally as possible,
each undertaking TO write out the
decision OF the court in given num-
Der Of cases.
To do this properly he must again
60 carefully over tho case and the
printed arguments of the respective
lawyers, the cases there cited, and
the cases found by the court, and
condense into n careful judgment
the facts of the case, the law bear
ing upon it,and the judgemnt OF the
court upon tho whole.
And in doing this he must weigh
bis words, for be is writing not only
for the parties in that case, but for all
the courts in the length and breadth
of the land, and for posterity.
The decision may, and if an inn
portant one, will be cited as . prece-
dent all over the country as long as
our system shall last, and this labor
sometime occupies a judge for sever
al days in single case. 1t often
happens that case to which the
court listens perhaps but three or
four hours during the argument, con
sumesdsys Of time in the consultation
room, in the search for and examiaa.
ton of cases, and preparation OF
Judgment. In every step OF the pro-
ceedings subsequent to tho actual
listening to the argument, the judges
can and do divide the labor and
work singly. Thoy can and do
separately hunt for and read cases
and statutes and the judgment is al
most always written by q single
judge.
| trust that | have made it plain
that an increase in the numbor OF
Judges will increase the capacity OF
the court to dispatch business, enable
it to give moro time to each particu-
ar case, and thereby greatly increase
the probability that the decision
when reached will be right. If so,
permit me to say that the cost of the
salary of two additional judges is
not to be for one moment weighed
against the benefits to be derived by
the people of the State from such q
court as L have tried to describe.
In years past, in tho infancy OF
the state, tho court of three judges
was more nearly equal to the de-
mands upon it than now. As the
State increases in wealth and popu-
Iation, the business of the courts in
creases. Instead of five cir
cults Into which the state was
originally divided, we now have
thirteen. Instead of population Of
| 305 1881, which we had in 1850, or a
population probably not exceeding
10000, when the present Supreme
Court was organized, we now have
a population probably exceeding l.
100000, with a moro than proper
Tomato increase in business
Does it follow that because throe
Judges were ablo to dispose OF the
business of tho court then that they
can do so now when we have nearly
million more people
Is it not on the contrary reason
able TO suppose that the same mum
Der of judges cannot properly dis
pose of the increased legal business
necessarily arising from the increase