90 HARVARD LAW REVIEW, of the higher court a great deal of burdensome and needless labor. That there is reason in the complaint will be admitted when the length of the report of this same case, sent up in a bill of exceptions on the ground that the verdict was contrary to evidence, is stated. It covers eleven hundred and five large pages of print, of which nine hundred and fifteen pages relate to the evidence, and ninety to the examina- tion of jurors, all in the form of questions and answers. With this volume before him, it cannot be wondered that the judge complains. The labor of fishing up the evidence in fragments from such muddy waters, " as a Georgia judge terms it, is no slight task, and consumes much time badly needed for public business. The judge urges that when the motion is for a new trial on the ground that the verdict is contrary to evidence, the bill of exceptions should certify the facts proved and give the entire evidence. He is undoubtedly right, and the only wonder is that the judges confine themselves to complain- ing, when it would seem as if they had the remedy in their own hands. A VIVID picture of society in Mississippi before the war is presented in a recent book by Mr. Reuben Davis, ^ the sole survivor of the bar of Mississippi of fifty years ago. It was the Age of Chivalry, and the prosaic rules of the common law were not allowed to interfere with the rules of honor. The result is that many things in this book give our ideas of the majesty of the law a rude shock. Murder seems to have been regarded as rather laudable than otherwise. Mr. Davis resigned his position of District Attorney to avoid prosecuting his friends for killing their fellow-citizens. He defended over two hundred charged with murder, no one of whom was hung. Perhaps this spirit of leniency was fostered by the grand carousal in which the judge and jury participated, which followed an acquittal ; but of course the great reason was that every one was expected to kill those with whom he quarrelled, and none would vote to hang another for doing what he himself would have done under the same circumstances. One marvels, however, that the district attorneys did not tire of indicting. Even in the presence of the court the haughty Southerner could with difficulty curb his fiery spirit. Mr. Davis, one of the most courteous, refined, and popular men in the State, tried to cut the throat of a judge for whom he had the highest respect, but whom he thought had fined him unjustly. In a case in which the passion of the spectators became aroused the position of the judge was precarious if his rulings dis- pleased them. We read that a certain ruling as to the admissibility of evidence was received with a storm of indignation by the spectators. " Yells, curses, and even tears attested the fervor of their emotions. The court saw its danger and hastily recalled the witness. " We must be careful, however, not to assume that justice was administered after the frontier style. Cases like the above were of course the rare excep- tion. All the technicalities of the common-law pleading were in full force ; the law, except in the case of homicide, was effectively admin- istered, and we are assured that fraud and corruption of all kinds were detested. 1 Recollections of Mississippi and Mississippians.
