Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 10.pdf/68

 Francis M. Scott. quaint himself with the merits, demerits, and equities of the controversy — accepted in be half of his public client, and with its cooper ation and assent, compromised payments in satisfaction. The amount, of course, was very large — exceeding half a million of dol lars — and its naming (although only a per centage of the whole amount) excited atten tion of a malevolent character from certain editors (who fancy themselves National, State and Municipal governments) as well as from ignorant laymen and tax payers. So that forthwith — taking no account of Coun sel Scott's faithfulness, tact and industry in the past — an avalanche of abuse and an un just suspicion of motives was in some quarters launched against him. But finis coronat opus will undoubtedly in time become a popular verdict in his favor. He had however a notable warning precedent for his action. In 1872 claims and suits of a municipal nature ex isted covering several millions of dollars; but a predecessor comptroller and counsel to the corporation being offered compromises, were seemingly timid of encountering offensive newspaper and public criticism, and kept on litigating, with the result that hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent in resisting, and unsuccessfully, these claims, so that eventually the payments with interest and costs far exceeded the compromise amount. Doubtless Counsel Scott's settlement will pre vent recurrences. It is at all times one of the hardest tasks-a counsel undertakes, when he compromises a client's litigation by ac cepting a percentage of the claim. Clients in damage suits are so apt, like Shylock, to quarrel with adjustments. In assuming judicial functions Judge Scott, like his several predecessors in the office of counsel to the corporation who preceded him to the bench, accepts his duties with an already practical judicial train ing in the consideration and decision of a

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thousand legal problems hitherto submitted for his opinion. Almost daily an advising attorney necessarily assumes judicial ex perience, so that after a few years of pro fessional practice he has become well fitted to assume public judicial functions. The ad captandum remark often made to a new ap pointee asa judge, viz., " He is inexperienced for the position " is therefore fallacious. Is not a lawyer in full practice adjudicatingdaily?. Litigants and lawyers will find in Judge Scott what is so agreeable in a judge, a good listener; and one who, as such, does not vivisect to auditors either his own nerves or those of others. Looking at Judge Scott's picture one can observe patience in his eyes, and calmness in his whole countenance. According to Lavater, his Roman nose indicates intellectual power, and his chin firmness. And accord ing to faddist philosophers Lambroso and Nordau, his ear does not exhibit inclinations towards degeneracy — an apprehensive topic over-prevalent in circles of art, literature, religion, and education. For, very recently Justice Edward Patterson of the appellate division of the New York City Supreme Court, in a speech at the banquet of his college society, declared that legal practice in that city had degenerated from a profes sion into a trade; and that at its bar, with only a few exceptions, the art of crossexamination was almost a lost art. For this he immediately became the press target of acrimonious shots from his old compeers. Certainly Francis M. Scott could be offered in disproof of the assertion. The GREEN Bag, in presenting the neo phyte New York judge to the profession throughout the union, hopes that to his labors may be applied by all having busi ness with his court, the American impulsive, laudatory, colloquial exclamation " Great Scott! "