Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 11.pdf/582

 Maitre Fernand Labori.

543

T Labori is one of the most powerful crossexaminers living. No witness can evade his questions : very few try to do so, for they usually unburden themselves, as though pleased to tell all they know to this friendly and sympathetic lawyer. Therein lies his great power. What some can only elicit by browbeating and bullying he can get by his magnetic manner. The witness will often tell the judge more than he has been asked, because he feels so sympathetic towards the counsel. A French cross-examiner cannot ask a witness a question direct, he is not allowed to speak to the witness, but must ask the court to put his questions and to re ceive the answer. If the judge assumes a harsh or bulldozing manner, the witness lays the blame on him, and is sorry for the kind-hearted advocate who appears to de precate any harshness. If the mode of procedure were the same, Labori might be likened to the Lord Chief Justice of England, Lord Russell, for both men have won their laurels as cross-exam iners. Both men are alike in their eloquent pleadings, though Labori being French, per haps is the more emotional. When facts are in his favor he presses forward along the line of logical argument with geometrical precision, proving every point and making it impossible for any one to doubt his con clusions; but when these facts are irrelevant or inconclusive he argues calmly and delib erately, feeling his way until those who listen to him are wondering what he can make of so poor a case, when, just at the right mo ment, he makes such a magnificent appeal to the emotions, speaking wi^h such sincerity, every word coming from his heart, that he carries away his hearers and himself. Tears have been seen to course down his cheeks, his bosom heaves with emotion and there have been times when he fairly broke down with heart-felt sympathy and wept like a child. Fernand Labori is an artist. No great

painter ever studied the light and shade ne cessary to produce a perfect work more thor oughly than does this masterly lawyer. He arranges his case artistically, his witnesses are called so that the proper light and shade may be produced; in his speech he is dra matic, eloquent, but thoroughly artistic; like an accomplished chess-player, he sees many moves ahead and never makes a mis take. The smallest detail becomes of im mense importance if it aids his case, but the most convincing evidence loses its effect when once he attacks it. If he were not a good man he would be a danger to the state, for he can lead men anywhere he pleases. His eloquence is hypnotic. No man has a greater knowledge of French law, and this adds to his strength, for in all his cases, desperate as many have been, he has never once been found tripping by judge or prosecutors. Labori is a busy man. He has a larger practice than any one of the majority of pop ular advocates, but finds time to edit a month ly politico-literary review published in Paris, under the title of the " Grande Revue," which he calls his amusement. For serious work in his leisure, he is engaged in editing an encyclopedia of French law which will be a complete dictionary containing everything necessary to the advocate, as well as to the student. Although the articles in this work, which is entitled " Le Repertoire Encyclopedique de Droit Francais," are from the pens of the most famous French writers on jurispru dence, Labori reserves the right of editing and revising them all. Twelve volumes have been issued, and the thirteenth would have left the press before now, had it not been for the attempted assassination of the great counsel during the Dreyfus trial. Long before Labori was connected with the defense of Captain Dreyfus, he had studied the case, and come to the conclusion that the prisoner at the He du Diable was inno