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THE GREEN BAG

court of first instance, which were not ab solutely vital to the case, we should gradu ally find the whole system of American jurisprudence broaden, and the administra tion of the courts become more just. There is one matter of minor importance to which attention will be drawn in con clusion. When the various codes of prac tice were adopted, there was a tendency to abolish the minor administrative offices, such as Commissioners or Masters in Chan cery and the like, and to throw a great mass of routine work upon the judges themselves. One reason why the Federal courts, with a comparatively small judicial force, are able to discharge business so effectively is, that in these courts a great amount of routine business devolves upon Commis sioners and Masters in Chancery. It is greatly to be desired that in the state courts a similar practice should be

revived. The repetition of routine admin istrative duties must always be odious to an able man, and only tend to make a small man smaller. A curious instance of the effect of this disposition to throw every detail upon the judge, came under our notice recently. A lawyer of real eminence, who ought to have known better, actually took the point that a decree was invalid because it was signed by the Federal Dis trict Judge outside the limits of his own dis trict. Counsel had become so accustomed to the state methods that he had actually forgotten that a decree takes effect from the time of its entry by the clerk, and that the signature of the judge, which might equally well be expressed in any other way, is only a fiat expressing his satisfaction with the form of the decree, and authorizing its entry. NEW YORK, N.Y., December, 1905.