Daily Los Angeles herald., 1879-11-06
4 PecnIinr chase Of American ia-
ssatnsions.

4 PeonIiar chase OF Amcricen a"-
Affiliations.
There are to-day thirty-eight
states In the American Union and
number of Territories besides.
All are provided with judicial sys-
TENS Of their own, the Courts OF
the Territories being offshoots of
the Federal Judiciary. The num-
ber Of Judges necessitated by the
complex and certainly cumbrous
iudicature must be marvel to an
Englishman. Their name is sim
ply legion.
Take, for example. the State of
California. Every county has at
least one Superior Judge. Very
many of them have two or more,
and the county of San Francisco is
provided with fifteen, we believe.
Even little Alpine county which,
ct the last Presidential election,
only polled one hundred and sew
enty.five votes, has her Superior
Judge, Notwithstanding the fact
that that county has been losing
population largely of late, as in
stanced by her greatly diminished
vote in the Gubernatorial election.
Without entering minutely into
the matter, it is probably safe to
/ assume that the thirty-eight States
In the American Union have as
many Judges now in commission,
and dlscharging the judicial duties,
se nave been commissioned in
England in the two hundred years
which have intervened since Sir
Thomas More sat upon the WOOL
sack. The head is made dizzy by a
< contemplation of such a multiplied
" of legal forums, in which all
kinds of law-law often as peculiar
IS the 'crowners' quest law of the
/, g-ave-diggers in Hamlet-is dis
pensed.
One would think that, with such
plethora of Judges, the admins
kation of justice would be expedi-
pus in the United States. Yet
is Is notoriousIy not the case. In
Estate of New York, which is
on the modern code principle,
.ittakes about two years for a case of
Importance to be reached on
docket. In case of an appeal,
ree years. more time is con-
AIMED, Notwithstanding the fact
hat the Legislature of that State,
some years ago, established a Court
bf Appeals Commission to dis
patch the arrears of litigation
The evil may not be SO great liz
more primitive States, less
burtheneG with intricate CONNER
cial litigation, but tbs great-oner'
ously great. Many Americans, to
their cost, were fully prepared to
appreciate the delicious satire OF
Dickens's picture of the laws de-
lays in Jarndyco v. Jarndyce. Mrs.
Gaines, of New Orleans. with
her many delayed suits. wal
perfect American counterpart ol
an English picture which has been
looked upon as the creation of an
ingenious novelist's fancy.
On the supposition that every
State of the Union is as literally
supplied with Judges as California,
with all the Federal Judges, and
the Judges Of the State Appellate
Courts thrown in, there must be
closely in the neighborhood of four
thousand Judicial officers of digni.
hed jurisdiction in the United
States. But something more re-
mains benin l. To the two Judges
OF Los Angeles county, for instance,
there are eighty lawyers. That is,
of course, too large an average for
the whole country. All the profess
sions are overdone in California,
and law amongst the rest. 1t ia
not too much, however, to assume
that, to the four thousand Judges,
there are easily twenty lawyers
apiece, or, for the whole United
States. eighty Thousand.
1t is impossible to overestimate
the influence this army of keen and
Intelligent men exert upon the de-
velopment OF national traits. They
live, many of them, by encourag.
ing litigation. They crowd into
the several State Legislatures and
into the National Congress, having
almost a monopoly Of the law-mak-
ing power. AS they live by litiga-
tlon, they are interested in so fran.
ing the laws as to make frequent
occasion for their services. While
1t is not fair to assume that they
consciously propose to themselves
such programme, it is u safe
thing to say that they at least in
voluntarily carry 1t out. Only q
Legislature largely composed ol
lawyers who had been "seen u
would ever have framed the legis-
iation which made it possible for
Fisk and Gould to "stealu the
Erie railway from its owners and
water its stock till, from twenty
seven millions of dollars ii became
one hundred and twelve millions.
It requires q trained wit and Dar.