St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1908-10-07

friendly and familiar intercourse with
those of his profession. If the judge
stands aloof from all who are interested
in judicial work, or avoids discussion
when in company with his profession
the spirit with which he approaches and
performs his work is misunderstood, and,
to the man who is turned down, at least
he is the hard and, perhaps, heartless
Judge.
This want of familiarity between the
bench and bar is nowhere more notice
able than in our Supreme Court; our
superior judges are quite solitary and
silent on the bench, but they do not APP
proach the sphinx-lke dignity of the
! Supreme Court | have heard argu-
ments lasting for hours before that
sedate tribunal listened to without the
slightest expression of assent or dissent
or even ofintelligence.
"When it is considered that the SUI
preme Court is not a place to make
speeches, but is the place where lawyers
are gathered to discuss legal questions
with view to reaching the very truth
of the law, this cannot but be regarded
as lamentable.
'ln a counsel of LAWYERS where each
takes a hand, how much quicker and
better legal propositions are settled than
in the trials in our Supreme Court. No
doubt the court considers these ques.
tions in conference among themselves
but there they are without the aid of
lawyers on either side who have can
vassed the authorities, and ate and
slept with the propositions for weeks.
Then the only benefit to be derived from
the lawyers must be dug from the briefs.
1t is in the trial itself that there should
be greater exchange OF suggestion and
thought
Such work will more resemble that of
Alexander Hamilton as described in the
recent work of Frederick Scott Oliver:
Not SO much of a painful effort of learn
ing as the intuition of an eternal har-
mony, a reality, quick and human,
buxom and Jolly, and not a formula
pinched and embalmed like a royal
mummy Of Egypt.
In closing Mr.. Dunnett said.
eft the bar stood together as they
should this work would receive better
attention and be better done, and the
whole bar would stand back Of its &C
complishment more steadiaStly. Pres
sure of work is no excuse tor neglecting
our meetings or our social intercourse,
because relaxation and change are es-
sential to good ccomphshmeut, and
without it one is a commonplace and
drudge Both the bar and the court
should be more tolksy. The Judges will
not thereby decrease their dignity but
will add to it, There IS no man so
highly respected as one whose sole pur-
pose is to administer the law fairly. No
greatness ever has filled or ever will fill
the place of the modest, unpretentiouS
man who devotes his whole attention
to the business OF deciding cases cor
rectly, and no man is great enough 10
get on we'll at that business without
assistance. and the best assistance is
impossible wher distance is maintained.
No man, however great, has the honor
OF first correctly stating more than an
inhnitessimal fraction of the great body
of the law. To quote the familiar ex-
preston of the late Thomas b. Reed,
Everybody knows more than any.
body
1t is to the end, therefore, OF adj
vancement in the great work OF the bar
that | bespeak wider and closer ac-
quaintance between the members of the
bar, and also between the bar and the
court. believe it will be the mother of
greater confidence and the forerunner
of an easier and moie digntied tamil
iarty, from which will come more Of the
pleasure and grace Of SOCIAL intercourse,
and a safer and souuder administration
of the law