758 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



■would uot have atoned for bis demoralizing career.* And still, what 

 lawyer has been moved by such a defeat of justice as to make any 

 attempt to protect the community against a repetition? Why should 

 any court be empowered to turn loose a notorious robber simply because 

 a single step in the proceedings against him was erroneous though not 

 affecting the question of guilt ? A departure from strict rules in 

 election matters is not allowed to affect the result, provided the voter's 

 intent is carried out ; and most men of sense will say that technical 

 errors at a trial ought not to vitiate the proceedings, provided no injus- 

 tice is done. But as long as the lawyer thinks his duty is alone to the 

 client who pays him, and nothing to the public, this debasement of 

 honor and judicial functions will go on. 



"When a criminal has neither money nor political influence, justice 

 is sometimes swift enough. A New York daily some time ago reported 

 that a common thief, who had snatched a scarf-pin worth a dollai*, was 

 " railroaded " through court in a few days and sentenced to five years 

 in the penitentiary, while a saloon-keeper went free who "had been 

 arrested eighteen times in two years on charges of beating, assaulting, 

 and robbing women." But the latter, it was expressly stated, had 

 "political influence," and boasted that he had "a pull" on the courts 

 which would always shield him. Perhaps this was exaggerated ; but 

 no observant man can doubt that justice must often fail when the 

 bench is occupied by active associates of leading politicians. The 

 method is not openly to defend and set at liberty, but to rail at and 

 stigmatize witnesses as " informers," to discredit their testimony, make 

 postponements, discharge for alleged informalities, or put over the 

 trial from court to court until public interest is lost, and then to per- 

 manently "pigeon-bole" the charges or enter a ^^ nol. 2^rosy This 

 is comparatively easy in communities where certain outlawed immo- 

 ralities are supported by local public sentiment, such as gambling, 

 lotteries, horse-racing, betting on elections, unlicensed liquor-selling, 

 drunkenness, prostitution, prize-fighting, Sabbath desecration, etc. 

 These can not be made legal, because the State is greater than the city, 

 but local sentiment is usually powerful enough to control the courts, 

 and through them to make the laws a nullity. But with a powerful 

 bar bent on the administration of justice, and not conniving at nor lead- 

 ing in opposition to good laws, this could hardly happen. Hence it is 

 not very wide of the mark to say that lawyers as a class do not take a 

 deep interest in abstract justice, or that they arc prominent in agita- 

 tions for moral reforms. Their training and traditions are against it, 

 perhaps because litigation offers its best rewards in communities where 

 morality and justice are not much recognized — at least until vigilance 



* When released from the penitentiary, Tweed was held in bail, to the amount of 

 $3,000,000, in pending civil suits, and, unable to furnish this, was committed to Ludlow 

 Street Jail. A few months later he escaped, but, after hiding about a year, was brought 

 back to the jail, and died there in April, 1878. — Editor. 



