Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 17.pdf/687

 The Green Bag PUBLISHED MONTHLY AT £4.00 PER ANNUM. SINGLE NUMBERS 50 CENTS. Communications in regard to the contents of the Magazine should be addressed to the Editor, S. R. WRIGHTINGTON, 31 State Street, Boston, Mass. The Editor will be glad to receive contributions of articles of moderate length upon subjects of in terest to the profession; also anything in the way of legal antiquities or curiosities, facetias, anecdotes, etc.

THE demands on the time of the members of our highest court make doubly precious any contribution of theirs to periodical literature, and we are grateful when the problems of their profession are given a place beside the questions of public policy and religion. Those who had the privilege of hearing the remarks of Mr. Justice Brown at the banquet of the American Bar Association, will be glad of an opportunity to give them maturer reflection, nor need we commend them to the atten tion of our other readers. We are glad to have the force of his long experi ence and high posi tion in approval of the English trial practice, which we have previously called to your at tention. His con ception of the real function of the criminal jury of the vicinage is no less important, and re minds us that the HON. HENRY B. BROWN practical instinct of the Saxon will work out effective results with even inadequate instruments. The essential is after all a correct and powerful public senti ment which will force a relaxation • of even judicial technicalities. It is to be hoped that some effort to improve our method of jury trials may result from a study of this address by the profession. THE most important events of the last month in the legal world were doubtless the revela tions of the Xew York insurance investigat jo

and the ending of the most bitterly contested extradition proceedings that our government has ever pressed. It is the criminal law which engages our attention, and in both instances the persistent work of our lawyers seems des tined to bring to justice men who are alleged to have used for their private profit funds in which the public had an interest. The public conscience which reprobates acts such as are charged against the Georgia contractors, is awakening from a torpor which palliated as "business" the secret profits of high finance. Mr. Hughes is daily accumulating evidence which suggests the possibility of criminal pros ecution of insurance officials. It is to be hoped that when his work is done there will be in New York a public prosecutor in whose courage and ability the people will have confidence. That Mr. Jerome is such a man is attested by the interest dis played throughout the country in his re election. That he is also a lawyer of abili ty we are prone to. forget, and our thanks are due to Mr. Train for recalling this to ARTHUR TRAIN our attention. Mr. Train, himself the son of "one of the ablest attorneys-general of Massachusetts, has had in the last four years a wide experience in criminal prosecutions as one of the assistant district-attorneys of Xew York, under Mr. Philbin and Mr. Jerome. He has of late had especial charge of so-called "commercial frauds," and has tried many murder cases. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School. He has still found time to continue the literary activ ities of his college days and has been a frequent contributor to current periodicals.