that each opponent is ready to accept his decision without demur. It is clear that you could not be certain of obtaining a judge satisfactory to the coursing world by our present methods of judicial selection. Indeed, if Party services and business success in a profession were conditions precedent to the appointment of a judge at Altcar, coursing would soon see its last days.

Much might be learned by legal reformers from the way in which the judge in the saddle exercises his powers. For instance, there is a rule of coursing that "if a second hare be started during a course and one of the dogs follow her the course shall end there." I appeal to my brethren of the Bench and the Bar if this rule should not be added to the futile tonnage of Rules and Orders in the White Book. What an excellent thing it would be and how much money and time would be saved if in the course of a case when the counsel or litigant lost sight of the point and wandered after another-starting a new hare, as it were the judge should declare him to be "unsighted" or non-suited, and in the words of the rule "the course should end there" and a new brace of litigants be called into the slips.

On the coursing field there is no such thing as " further consideration"; there is no court of appeal, and the rule says that the "decision of the Judge once given shall not be reversed for any cause." If a nominator objects to any decision, the judge may be called on to explain it to the stewards of the meeting, who express an opinion as to whether it is satisfactory. This seems to me a procedure well worthy of consideration. If we had a committee of stewards to report on the justice of decisions

without overruling the decisions, the necessity of pensioning undiscerning judges who failed to appreciate points would be as obvious in law as it is in coursing.

66

Much time, too, could be saved in the legal methods of giving judgment. At the end of the course the judge of a course, who has no pleadings before him and knows no owners' name, calls out the colour of the winning dog -"brindle" or "fawn "-or takes his hat off to signify that the course is undecided; and then the red or white or blue flag goes up to indicate his decision to the world. How much simpler it would be if the judge on the Bench 99 snub nose were to call out or moon face to announce that the plaintiff or the defendant had won, or gracefully raise his wig to signify a non-suit, whilst the Associate held up little coloured flags to show the bookakers at the back of the court the result of the suit. And the moral of the whole matter is that as long as the world is a world of sport and contest it should make its rules of sport and contest simple and straightforward, and choose a trusted arbitrator to decide the matter once for all and abide by his decision. And towards the perfection of brevity and certainty of decision the law might learn many lessons from the ancient and honourable traditions of coursing.

I bow to my friends who speak of coursing as a cruel sport—as, indeed, all sport implicating the life of animals must be but I cannot find it in my mind to repent of the joy I take in it; and I hold that Sir Thomas Elyot delivered a wise judgment when he wrote that "hunting the hare with grehoundes is a ryght good solace for men that be studiouse."

Chapter XVII: Concerning William
Henry Seward

EWARD, like Lincoln, is known to his country

men and to the world as an able and upright statesman, but by the legal profession he should be remembered as a great advocate of abiding conscience and courage.

In the dramas of the law advocates are not always called upon to play leading parts. The hero or heroine of the litigation may be a plaintiff or defendant or even a prisoner, and the greatest advocate has often to be content with a first or second part in the play enacted in the Courts, being merely retained to "support," as they say in the theatre, some leading star who has got into the limelight of litigation. It is bad art and bad advocacy for one who is cast to "support" to be for ever jockeying for the limelight that belongs to the star or edging himself into the centre of the stage and stepping out of the picture to the detriment of the drama.

But there are occasions when the honour and dignity of the profession call upon the advocate to set aside his modest scruples and cast himself for a leading part. Such a moment came to William Henry Seward when he defended the negro Freeman in the little court-house of Auburn, the capital of Cayeiga County, in New York State, some seventy-five years ago.

Seward was born in Florida in 1801. He was the fourth of six children, two of whom were girls. His native place was but a little village in those days in the southern part of Orange County, not far from the New Jersey boundary. His father was a country doctor and did his best to give him a good education, but was unable to provide him with much money. He seems to have been an over-studious youth, desirous, no doubt, to make good account of his father's sacrifices. He is described as a thin, pale, undersized lad with red hair and sandy complexion, coming to Union College, Schenectady, in ill-fitting homespun clothing, well equipped in Latin, but this he declaimed in a rustic drawl which provoked the laughter of the class.

To improve his dress he had to run into debt, and this led to quarrels with his father, who would not-and probably could not with justice to the rest of his family— improve his allowance. At the age of eighteen aggrieved by his father's neglect, he determined to throw up his college career and made off to Georgia; here he obtained a post as head teacher in a new academy at a salary of eight hundred dollars a year. Proud of his appointment, he sent his father word of it, but the old doctor wrote to his employers that his son had absconded from college and upbraided him in violent language. The new principal of the academy was inclined to set his father's authority at naught and his employers were quite ready to retain him. But the persuasions of his mother and sisters overcame his rebel pride. He opened the new academy and carried it on until a successor could arrive

and take his place, when he returned to Union College, continued his studies, and took his degree.

He was now apprenticed to an attorney and began his serious study of the law under John Anthon, the practice expert in New York City. Here, too, he finished his student days, was admitted to practice in 1822, and went into partnership with Ogden Hoffman, a celebrated criminal lawyer. This partnership only lasted for a few months, and he began to look round in the Western part of the state for new worlds to conquer.

What led him to Auburn is mere conjecture. One may like to think that he had already met and loved the charming Frances Miller, and it was her beauty that was the magnet. Or maybe it was the opportunity of business and that the offer of Elijah Miller, the fair one's father, was a lucky accident that led to romance. The recorded fact is that he now became Elijah's partner, with a guaranteed share of five hundred dollars a year.

Auburn was what was known as a county seat. Though but recently settled and still boasting few buildings other than log houses, it was a growing centre of business. Seward from the first was a successful defender of prisoners. It was a great time for an alert brain ready to seize on errors in indictments. One of Seward's early successes was in defending a thief for stealing a "piece of calico" and a "quilted " piece and proving that the calico was white jean and the quilting was really sewing. On such points did life and liberty turn in those early days.

He was soon able to pay his old college debts and he became a model citizen. He owned a church pew, joined