Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 01.pdf/386

Rh In one respect only it must be confessed that this great improvement falls short of the theoretical perfection which may even now be foreseen. To make it complete, there should be added columns in which the judges who have to decide cases should find the materials of an opinion as readily and infallibly as counsel can find briefs. To make a separate set of tables for their use would needlessly complicate matters, even if no difficulty were found in uniting the work of the nisi prins and the appellate judge, who have occasion sometimes for the same authorities and sometimes for different ones. But the fundamental difficulty is to combine in parallel columns arguments and cases that depend on a different principle of selection. The attorney's task is simple. All that he needs is to know which side of the question he is on. But the judge has a more complicated problem to solve in deciding the case, and still more so in writing his opinion. I am afraid that the number of columns necessary to be added for his use would seriously complicate the tables.

It is melancholy to reflect how selfish motives of this kind, growing out of the interests of men in different positions, may prevent the perfection of great improvements!

CAUSES CÉLÈBRES. ARLY in the forenoon of the 1st of August, 1781, the well-known wagon of the courier Flambert entered the courtyard of the Panier Fleuri, at Caen. At the sound of the crack of Flambert's whip, the innkeeper, Le Bouteiller, left his work and hastened to assist his countryman in unloading the packages which for ten years he had brought regularly from Bayeux.

On this particular morning Flambert, for a wonder, was not alone. A young girl sprang lightly from the wagon as the innkeeper approached, without stopping to avail herself of the hand which Le Bouteiller gallantly offered. She could not have been more than eighteen years old, and was both modest and very pretty. On her left arm she carried a small bag upon which was embroidered, in red and blue letters, the name "Victoire Salmon."

Thanking Le Bouteiller in a sweet, musical voice for his proffered assistance, the young girl drew from her pocket a half-crown, which she handed to Flambert, and then, perceiving the innkeeper's wife standing in the doorway, she approached her and said:

"Madame, I have come from Bayeux to seek a situation here; I shall be very grateful if you can recommend a place to me."

The kindly, motherly woman felt strongly drawn toward this fresh, innocent girl, and after questioning her in regard to the service she had already been in, advised her to seek employment with one Mademoiselle Cotin, a schoolmistress in the town. She gave her minute directions how to find the house, and Victoire departed upon her errand. Well would it have been for her had she carried out her intention! It is strange what a little thing will sometimes change the current of our lives.

As she was proceeding on her way she passed the door of a carpenter's house. The carpenter was at work, singing gayly; his wife was rocking a cradle, smiling as she bent over her last born. The couple had