Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 23.pdf/494

 458

The Green Bag

ron’s business oﬂioe in ‘CésarBirotteau.’

from them, but once on the bench no

‘Fraisier was small, thin and unwhole some looking; his red face, covered with

judge on earth was more impartial. “The allusion here is to the practice

an eruption, told of tainted blood. A wig pushed back on his head displayed

which at least up to the Revolution per mitted, or at least condoned, the per sonal solicitation of judges and even

a brick colored cranium of ominous

conformation. One might have thought

the making of presents to them by liti

there was pestilence in the air.’

gants, like the custom in England which caused Bacon's downfall. Indeed, the oﬁice of judge in France was formerly salable like an estate. In Balzac’s

"Regnault in ‘La Grande Bretéche’ is thus depicted: ‘A man tall, slim, dressed in black, hat in hand, who came in like a ram ready to butt his opponent, showing a receding forehead, a small,

pointed head and a colorless face of the

novels there are frequent allusions to the influence used outside of the court

hue of a glass of dirty water. He wore an old coat much worn at the seams, but he had a diamond in his shirt front,

room upon the judge. Judge Camusot, for example, was completely under his wife’s influence, and the ladies gener ally seem to have been very successful

and gold rings in his ears.’

in this irregular practice. In lThe End

“Desroches is described in ‘ Un Ménage de Gargon' as having a harsh voice, a coarse skin, pitiless eyes, and a face

of Evil Vays' the Countess de Sérizy called on the judge to interview him as to Lucien de Rubempré, and actually seized the notes of his examination and

like a ferret's licking the blood of a murdered chicken from its lips. “Balzac has a great deal to say about judges, and most of his judges are honest

men, like Popinot in ‘The Commis sion in Lunacy,’ and old Blondet in

‘The Cabinet of Antiques.’ The latter's integrity was as deeply rooted in him as his passion for ﬂowers; he knew

nothing but law and botany. He would have interviews with litigants, listen to them, chat with them and show them his ﬂowers; he would accept rare seeds

threw them into the ﬁre. The ladies, said Balzac, have a code of their own, and laugh at statutes framed by men. ‘If that is a crime,’ said the Countess, ‘well, monsieur must get his odious scrawl written out again.‘

“To mention those of Balzac’s novels that possess legal interest is almost to repeat the catalogue of all. . . . Bal zac is too vast. It is impossible to dis cuss the law and lawyers of the Human Comedy in an hour."

Attorney-General Wickersham on the Big Trust Cases PEAKING

before

the

Michigan

study of the Oil and Tobacco decisions,

July 6,

Wickersham discussed "Recent Inter pretations of the Sherman Act," and

that the Supreme Court had strength ened rather than weakened the statute. He gave his unqualiﬁed indorsement to the Court's application of the so~called

made it clear, in the course of a lucid

“rule of reason."

State Bar Association

at its annual meeting, Attorney-General