Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1891-12-11
g A DAY In COURT

Rev. j. J. Lafferty. b. D., editor of the
Richmond Christian Advocate, was plain
tiff, and a successful one. in a suit in the
Augusta Circuit Court last week. AS
usual, Bishop Lafferty gives his own i'm
pressions accompanied by his own quaint
philosophical reflections, in the Advocate
Of last week and we print them below. Like
everything he ever wrote, OIL probably ever
will write, they are all worth reading:
To the quiet Virginian there is no worrY
like a lease in COURT 1t is ''as vinegar
to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, Satire
has spent its wit on the hardness of the
law. The delay Of justice has become a
by-word and Kissing. Shakespeare gives it
as sufficient excuse for suicide. Chief
Justice Coleridge lately thanked God that
England, always slow in setting aside Gus
toms. had banished a certain ahhorrent
delinquency in her courts, and declared
the forbidden system was nowhere retained
in the habitable globe except in New .Jer
sey. He might have added, 'sAnd in Vir-
glnia." The creeping motion of the legal
mill in the old Commonwealth has become
a mockery even in the mouth of the dilatOry
Bench OF Britain. At arecent Virginia bar
meeting speaker declared every lawyer
present knew Of cases drawing their slow
length along for thirty years-a whole gen
Grafton. And case that had slept for thir-
teen years, except when aroused to be shear-
ed when pressed for settlement, brought out
a protest from an Albemarle lawyer against
''unseemly haste. .
Men dread the portals Of the Blind God
dess as if Hope abandon, all ye who enter
here ~ was above the doors. Citizens sub
nit to be robbed in private rather than
risk time, temper and S'costs" in attempt
to come by their rights before "Y our Hon.
Or" Such is public opinion of our system.
An eminent barrister before the Bar Assc-
citation of Virginia last summer told his
familiars of the green bag" that if the
people of the State could vote on the gues-
ton, they would sweep away our cumbrous
and confusing machinery by ''oyerwhel
ming" majority.
My experience dispelled these conjured
''ehimeras dire" My day in court was a
merry 'outing"
| was plaintiff craving the assistance
of Bar, Bench, Code and the Jury Box to
coax areluctant and lawful sum from a
citizen OF Staant0n. While waiting my
''turn, IL coterie of clever attorneys gave
me the freedom of their convenient and
coy Club House, assuring me that neither
betting nor "Bumgardner1s Bestn found
favor in the elegant apartments. There is
somewhat in common between an Advocate
at the Bar and Pleader of the Pulpit. AT
any rate. they come easily into touch and
bring about genial Intercourse
A jurist, profound, accurate, independ-
ent. Judge William Mclaughlin, of Lex
iugton. WHO adorns and honors the Bench,
sat in the seat of Justice. AS old George
of England said Of Denman. he is not only
Il lawyer, but the law. Mclaughlin is a
Judge worthy to rank with Virginia s great
jurists. He is not the pupDet of the Bar.
Nor a bully on the Bench.
The scandal of courts is a "oontinuances'
of cases from term to term till the patience
and nurse CT the parties are consumed. A
feature OF his court was the dlscOuntenance
of delay. When attorneys requested an ;ld-
journment of suit for months, and as
signed Il reason, the Judge would exact an
ness, gentlemen. y ':True, o King," With
in q month lawyer, now minister, told
me that men were worried by postpone
mentS into sulrendering their rights, sfor
scarcely any Judge will deny a request for a
continuance if any decent plea is put in. "
This is a great hardship. The statesman
who vii simplify, quicken and correct the
belated, tangled, sluggish, costly system OF
Jurisprudence that a1licts this State Will
merit monument more lasting than
brass" The members OF a needful and
learned vocation often bear the odium Of
o'r perpiexlng, rr0erastinating and vicious
eliginery Of the law. Ought not every
Judge to protect the people by insisting on
the atli lavits of counsel? No man Of integ-
rity in word will object; no man of double
tGngre ought to escape such Il scrutiny OF
his conscience.
There are so]ed characters in every pro-
fessiun. Environments mold men, much
OF less. David, superior with the sword, a
man Gf war from his youth, was too warped
by heat Of battles for the gentle business of
luilding beautifully and gracefully for God.
His ruiislled, iEan!o, hfna,! successor and
son, Solomon, is needed for SO fine a work
The influences pulling upon lawyers, like
gravity upon tine planets, force them out of
shape. depress or elongate, unless there is
native and exceptional resistance. Every
trade bulges its disciple here and dents him
there. The Staunton attorneys concealed,
if any, their nodosities. They seem Ches-
terfeids in courtesy.
Long time ago lit may be the usage row
where the standard is low the lawyer made
himself. Il nuisance by vile invective against
gentlemen whose shoe latchets he was I'M
worthy to unloose-loud bellowingS of bill
lingsgate-llired SHINES. Or using his
pOSlllaI anI the FfoteStlon OF tile court TO
inault gentlemen, even ladies, in the wit
ness chair by irrelevant questions, base In
purpose, often retroactive in effect. This
ignoble herd is passing away to give place
10 an elegant, courteous and cultured class
of practitioners. The great Law Schools
where civility, decency and high behavior
are indcetrinated. have aided to Danish the
ulankguards from an honorable calling. A
few s.self-made men, Il disgrace to the az
chitect, still bring the blush to court and
bar by n,istaking coarseness for capacity.
The gentlemen conducting the case In
which I was interested, let no word fall not
eonformable to the finest regulation oil
courtly intercourse. The Bar of Staunton