it owes its chief glory. Its handsome streets run down to the bank of the Rhine. Two of are free from the bustle of a great trading city, the best Prussian military bands played in but yet are full of large and well furnished shops. turn, in different corners of the gardens; adThough one of the largest and most ancient of mirable concerts were given by parties of the Rhine cities, there is no trace of wretched-students. There was many a group of whiteness or squalor in it. Everywhere is an air haired old fellows toasting each other, or of quiet, easy, artistic industry, well according singing hand in hand with all the excitement with the neighbourhood of a seat of learning. of boyhood. The drinking was prodigious; On this occasion there was bustle enough, but many parties of students who either could not pervading it all, a unity and an absence of con- find a seat, or preferred seeing their friends, fusion, particularly agreeable. Every inhabitant dispensed with glasses altogether, and paraded of Bonn entered into the spirit of the cele- about, each with a bottle, stopping at the end bration, and did his or her best towards it. of a verse to take a full draught. As the botEvery street was gay with a multitude of flags, tles were emptied--and this was not a tedious their infinite variety of colour contrasting with process-they were tossed into the flower-beds, the pure white of the house fronts. Innumerable from which the waiters collected them in garlands, around balcony, window, and door, dif- baskets. The arrival of the Crown Prince acfused an air of freshness abroad. tually evoked something like a cheer, singularly different from the monotonous wail with which a German crowd usually express their enthusiasm. By eleven o'clock the majority seemed to have drunk quite enough; but still here, as in the popular assemblage outside, there was no rioting. Everybody was in good-humour, and took everything in good part. And now, before the assemblage dispersed, it was delightful to steal to the edge of the terrace, and, looking away from the garden, with its Chinese lanterns and fireworks, its music and merry occupants, to see the broad Rhine, flowing peacefully below. The moon had just risen over the Seven Mountains, and shed her calm cold light on the exquisite outline and broad expanse of water, a vision of silent beauty, in charming contrast with the lively scene.

The students of the university were, of course, at the heart of all the out-door celebrations. The ordinary student life supplied ready machinery for organising the displays. Most of the students belong to clubs which are either Corps or Verbindungen. All the members of these associations wear caps of various bright colours, red, or mauve, or blue, or green, according to the colour of the corps; while the high officers of the body are arrayed in the full dress of the old student period, when it was the privilege of the students to use swords against the staves of the townsmen. The corps have somewhat of a military organisation, and on these festive occasions bear the palm from their more philosophical rivals, who are above or below-such vanities as uniforms and bright colours. The procession of the corps came off in the evening, when all the strangers were supposed to have arrived, and the decorations for the next four days to be complete. The rich colours of the flags, the bright uniforms of the students, the joyous music, the universal good-humour, and over all the mellow light of an August sunset, gave a pleasant foretaste of the spectacles to come.

A large portion of Sunday was devoted to special services in honour of the occasion, in the churches of the different religious denominations; and in the afternoon to solemn speechmaking within the university. But towards evening the students and the townspeople betook themselves to other enjoyments. The great green in front of the university buildings, had been surrounded by poles bearing garlands for the day time and Chinese lanterns for the night. At each of the four corners of this space, was a cask of beer, large enough to make one reflect that Diogenes might not have had so very cramped a dwelling after all. But the contents of the cask, not the cask, interested the crowd; and from morn until midnight the drinking, and the feasting, and the music were continual. Uproar or riot there was none, and this was the assemblage of the populace only. The students and their friends had their meeting in the gardens of an hotel close by. These gardens are large, and

To enjoy these drinking parties thoroughly, one must be a student, or at least a German; but no such condition was necessary to the full appreciation of the torchlight processions on the following evening, or the illumination of the Rhine, with which the festival concluded. The procession was shared in by all the students of the university. They started, at about nine o'clock, from the university, and, going round the town, came into the market-place through one of the old narrow picturesque streets. As the procession streamed along, the lurid flare of the torches lighted up the innumerable banners which fluttered, in every variety of hue, from roof to window.

The chief officers of the various corps rode on horseback, in their gaudy quaint dresses; and frequent bands drowned the murmured cheers of the crowd.

But the holiday makers had wisely determined to turn their great natural glory, the Rhine, to the best account. For the last night, preparations were made on the most extensive scale. The university and municipality bestowed liberal sums on all the villages on the banks, from Bonn up to lovely Rolandseck. At the latter place the illuminations began, and thither, after sunset, in numerous steamers, went all the sight-seeing world of Bonn and Cologne. The fireworks at Rolandseck were abundant, and about as disappointing as fireworks usually are. But, as the boats turned back towards Bonn, a much finer spectacle lay before them. Magnesian

light was used, with the best effect, to illumi- to do for Deutschland, was set forth in many nate the churches and castles and other promi- orations during these days both within and nent objects on either bank. On the Roland- without the university. All this may be seck side, the hills were lighted, from the water's learned from various sources. Infinitely more edge to the summit. Opposite towered the valuable to the beholder was the view this celeDrachenfels, with its wooded sides in complete bration gave him of the true spirit of German darkness. On the summit alone, the ruins festivity, of its genuine jollity and heartiness, blazed with the red light of Cingalese fire. of its sustained capacity of enjoyment, which The quaint outline of the ruin, the unnatural never wearied, and yet never degenerated into glare of the red light, the sombre majesty of the riot or debauchery. dark woods beneath, recalled the old legend of the dragon and his dishes of maid's flesh. From Königswinter to Beul, a distance of nearly eight miles, the illumination was complete. On the water's edge, burned immense bonfires at regular intervals. Every little rising ground, every church and mansion, was illuminated by the magnesian light. The broad lake-like expanse of the waters, mirrored the fires on either bank. The vessels steamed gently on, without lights, but all carrying bands of music. In the darkness of the night the quick flash and deep boom of the firing from every village, considerably heightened the general effect of the illumina

tion.

FAR WESTERN JUDGES AND JURIES.

IN the United States (and indeed also in Canada) there is no distinction between barrister and attorney, and, in the newer settlements, to become either requires little study. It used to be said that in some parts of Oregon all a man had to do to be admitted an attorney was to go round for some time with a law book under his arm, and talk "constitootion" in front of " grocery" doors. A gentleman of Oregon gave me a copy of a legal document, preserved in the archives of Marion County, Oregon, and written by an attorney (I knew the man) regularly licensed to practise. It is a demurrer to a complaint in an action, in which Marion County is the plaintiff and one G. B. Wagnon defendant, brought for the recovery of a fine for violating a statute in the disposition of estray animals. Part of it runs precisely thus:

"And now comes G B Wagnon the Defnat in the a Bove Sute or Cause And files a Demworer and says that the plaintiff Should not have Nor maintain his Action a Gainst Said Defanant for the following says there is not that plain and concise Statement of the facts constituting the cause of action as there is no De Scription of Cauller markes, nor Brands nor by hoom apraysed

and further Says that he was not Seerved with a certifyed coppy of said Complant therefore the Defenant prays this honorable Cort to Dis mss the a Bove Sute this 8th day of December 1859"

But, after all, the principal charm of this festival for a stranger was the occasional glimpses it gave him of a warmhearted and æsthetic people in the height of enjoyment and good humour. Now, there was a party of the officers of the corps in their fantastic array, strutting through the streets exulting in the admiration of the shop girls. Then there was some meeting between old and distinguished alumni of the university: their grave intellectual faces lighted up with the memory of the old time when they were students together. Now, the market place was deserted, and all had betaken themselves to the various inns for the one o'clock dinner. The passers-by in the bright hot sunshine, heard nothing but the buzz of conversation and the clink of glasses, as the holiday-makers drank to each other, with the shutters nearly closed to keep out the sun. The stillness was suddenly broken by the rattle of wheels and the sound of music. A party of students returning to dinner from a country excursion, to make their entry with proper effect, had picked up a barrel-organ. The performer stood on the coach box beside the driver, and ground away. With tremendous speed they rattled over the pavement and made "Gentlemen of the Jury, do you think my the circuit of the monument in the centre of client Thomas Flinn, off Muddy Creek and the the market-place. In a moment the windows Big Willamette, would be guilty o' stealin' a were opened, and greetings exchanged. The bank o' cotting yarn? Gentlemen of the Jury, students within, crowded the windows, with I reckon not, I s'pose not. By no manner of glasses filled to the brim, which, with marvel-means, gentlemen, not at all! He are not lous dexterity, they handed down to the new guilty! TOM FLINN? Good heavings! Gentlecomers without spilling a drop. Then there was clinking of glasses, shouting and laughter, and the organ man ground away as if it were the last moment of his existence. The glasses were emptied, the organ and coach discharged, the new arrivals disappeared into the hotel, and all was quiet again.

What the kings of Prussia have done for Bonn, and what Bonn has done and intends yet

Another attorney delivered a famous defence of a man who was caught in the act of stealing a hank of cotton yarn. It ran something like this:

men, you all know Tom Flinn, and, on honour, now, gentlemen, do you think he'd do it? No, gentlemen! I s'pose not-I reckon not. THOMAS FLINN? Why" (warming up with virtuous indignation) "why, great snakes and alligators! Tom's a whole team on Muddy Creek and a hoss to let! And" (insinuatingly) "do you think he'd sneak off with a miserable hank o' cotting yarn? Well, gentlemen, I reckon not.

I s'pose not! When the wolves was a howling, a judge who, in the earlier days of California, gentlemen, on the mountings of Oregon, and when everybody was "bound to make money,' the milishy was a fighting of the Injins on sat on the bench in the morning, mined during Rogue River, do you think, gentlemen, my the day, and played the fiddle in a whisky client, Thomas Flinn, Esq., could be guilty o' shop at night. The county judge of Madison hookin'-yes, hookin', gentlemen-that pitiful, county, in Washington territory, does (or did) low, mean, hank o' cotting yarn? Onpossible! "run" the "gang saw" in the Port Madison Gentlemen, I reckon I know my client, Mr. Tho- mills. mas Flinn. He's got the fastest nag, and the purtiest sister, gentlemen, in all Muddy Creek and the Big Willamette! That, gentlemen, are a fact. Yes, gentlemen, that are a fact. You kin just bet on that, gentlemen. Yes, gentlemen, you kin jist bet your bones on that! Now, 'pon honour, gentlemen, do you think he are guilty? Gentlemen, I reckon I s'pose not. Why, gentlemen" (indignantly, beginning to believe it himself), my client, Mr. Thomas Flinn, am no more guilty of stealin' that aer hank o' cotting yarn than a toad has got a tail. Yes, a tail, gentlemen! Than a toad has got a tail!" Verdict for defendant, case dismissed, and court adjourned to whisky up at late prisoner's expense.

In these judges we often find the notion of law not very defined, though (which is more important) that of equity is strong. A most notorious "rowdy," from New England, who had escaped the law several times, was at last captured in the act of smashing the interior of a Chinese house of ill fame, in the little vil lage of Eureka, in North California. Evidence against him was rather weak, and it was feared he would again escape. But when the prisoner was brought into court, his honour burst upon him with a tirade of abuse: "E-e-h! Ye long, leathern, lantern-jawed, Yankee cuss, we've ketched you, e-e-h, at last? I'll commit him at once!"

"But, judge," whispered the clerk, "you'll have to hear the evidence."

"Evidence be blowed!" was the rejoinder. "Wasn't I thar, and see'd it all myself?"

Little as such law may be worth, it is surprising with what alacrity a young community of miners or backwoodsmen will attempt to form some organisation for the preservation of Judge P. was holding a term of the district order according to law, and how naturally they court in the village of Corvallis, in the then proceed to elect a magistrate or "Judge" out territory of Oregon. His court was held in a of their number. This desire proceeds in part common log house, with a large open fireplace, from a wish to preserve order, and in part from and a few rough heavy benches, that had never the all engrossing passion for voting, holding known plane. An indictment was found against "conventions," and "caucusses," and electing one Charley Sandborn for selling whisky at retail, somebody to hold some office or other, with although he had no licence. He stood at one the usual amount of speechifying and drinking. side of the fireplace with his hands deep in An old gentleman, with whom I passed his pockets; the judge sat upon the end of a many pleasant evenings on the Walls of Panama school bench on the other side of the fire. in days gone by, described to me his recol- When required to plead guilty or not guilty, lection of a court-room in a western state. Charley threw himself on the mercy of the It was a rough log building with a bar of court. The judge then sentenced him to pay unbewn timber stretched across it. This was the lowest fine and costs. At the close of the the bar of justice. Behind it was a table with sentence, by way of personal palliation, his lorda jar of molasses, a bottle of vinegar, and a jug ship remarked, "that while it was the duty of of water to make "switchel" for the court." the court to enforce the laws as it found them on the statute book, the person of the court was not inimical to men who sold whisky."

Time ten A.M. Enter Sheriff. Judge (who is paring his corns after the manner of the venerable Judge McAlmond, of San Francisco, who was in the habit of paring his corns while the business of the court was going on, and generally sat with his heels tilted up in front of him): "Wal, Mr. Sheriff, do you think we'll get a jury to-day ?"

Neow, judge, jurymen are raither scarce today; but I've got eleven men coralled under a black walnut tree outside, and my niggers are hunting deown a twelvth. I reckon we'll have a jury in about half an hour."

And so the sheriff proceeds to liquor, and the judge continues paring his corns until the court

There is in Idaho territory a judge who is well known as "Alec Smith." A woman brought suit in his court for divorce, and had the discernment to select a particular friend of her own, who stood well with the judge, as her attorney. One morning the judge called up the case, and addressing himself to the attorney for the complainant, said: "Mr. H., I don't think people ought to be compelled to live together where they don't want to, and I will decree a divorce in this case." Mr. H. bowed blandly. Thereupon the judge, turning to another attorney, whom he took to be the counsel for the defendant, said: “Mr. M., I suppose you have no objection to the decree ?" Mr. M. nodded assent. But the attorney for the defendant was another Mr. M., not then in court. Presently he came in, and finding that his client had been divorced without a hearing, began to remonstrate. Alec listened a moment,

then interrupted, saying: "Mr. M., it is too late. The court has pronounced the decree of divorce, and the parties are no longer man and wife. But if you want to argue the case, right bad, the court can marry them over again and give you a crack at it."

cular seized the fancy of the "citizens," they would applaud in a lazy manner, and once or twice an enthusiastic miner in gum boots, with his cheek distended by an enormous 'chaw" of tobacco, shouted "Bully!" "Good again!" and "That's so, judge!" But he was, I am glad to say, instantly quashed, though only partially put down; for he would still breathe out, in a lower tone, "Bu-lly!"

me (in a stage whisper) the peculiar merits of the case, in which it would seem he was interested; for he was the only person present who cared anything about the proceedings. Except the lawyer's voice and the whispering of his excited client, there was no noise in the court but the fall of a disused quid or the squirting of tobacco juice.

and remarks upon them, personally, politically, and judicially, I entered, by a ricketty old door, a plastered room with a whitewashed board ceiling, but very dirty, and a floor covered with sawdust. On a few forms scattered through the room, lolled some "citizens" half I was at Clear Lake, when an Irishman, asleep. They turned round at the sound of named Jerry McCarthy, was tried in the county my jingling Mexican spurs, but finding that I court on a charge of whipping his wife. A was only a rough fellow with a buckskin shirt point of law was raised by the attorney for the on, lolled back again and dozed off to sleep defence as to the admissibility of certain evidence until aroused by some particular burst of offered by the district attorney, "Judge" J. H. eloquence from the lips of a linen-coated lawyer Thompson (for it is "judge once, “judge "who was speaking furiously on the "jumping" always), and the court called upon the attorney of a mining claim. When anything partito produce his authorities to sustain his position. The attorney being rather slow in finding the law in point, the court, just as he had found it, and was rising to read it, ruled that the evidence was not admissible. "The deuce you do!" hallooed the district attorney. "Say, judge, I read you the law, and bet you a thousand dollars I'm right." "I'll send you to jail for twenty-four hours for contempt of court!" cried the judge. "Send to jail and be hanged!" cried" Good on yer head!" and so on, and explain to the district attorney. "I know my rights, and intend to maintain them." The judge then called out "Sheriff Crigler, Crigler Sheriff, take Judge Thompson to jail, and adjourn court four-andtwenty hours!" Crigler advanced to obey the order, but halted upon seeing the district attorney put himself into a "posish;" at the same time shouting loud enough to be heard all over the town that neither Crigler nor any The lawyers sat at a horseshoe table at one other man should carry him to jail. To make end of the room; most of them sound asleep things sure, the sheriff called for a commit- with their chairs tilted back and their heels on ment; but while this was being prepared mutual the table before them. In front of them apologies passed between the court and the on a raised platform, sat a gentleman withdistrict attorney, and the order was revoked. out a waistcoat, but with a long and rather The court was then adjourned for a quarter of dusty brown linen coat, over a somewhat dirty an hour, to allow, according to custom made white shirt without a collar. He, too, had his and provided in such cases, of "drinks" legs up in front of him, and was likewise chewbeing exchanged; after which the trial pro-ing tobacco with a slow motion of his leathery ceeded to its result in the acquittal of the defendant. If all stories be true, occasionally the court adjourns in less favoured districts, to allow antagonistic attorneys to fight out with their fists what couldn't be settled by their tongues. I witnessed once-not in a rough American territory-but in the British town of Victoria, Vancouver Island-a "stand-up" fight between the "Honourable the AttorneyGeneral" and a client of the opposite party in a suit; and not long afterwards two of the most prominent of the members of the colonial parliament engaged in a like encounter. I mention this, lest it might be unjustly supposed that these eccentricities are found exclusively in border parts of the United States.

jaws; for the heat of the day and the somniferous character of the proceedings seemed to have disposed him to sleep, like everybody else. Now and then he would incline his head, but only to squirt the rejected juice between his legs. Sometimes, when the lawyer indulged in unbecoming language in reference to the court, he would start up, and in the excitement of the moment miss his aim and squirt over among the sleepy counsel. Finally he had to charge the jury, which he did in a very sensible and thoroughly legal manner. He was a good lawyer and had been attentive to the case. However, in my eyes it detracted a little from his honour's dignity, to see him take the half used quid from his mouth and hold it between his thumb and forefinger, while he charged.

One summer afternoon I happened to pass through a frontier village in by no means the In the course of the evening I had a chance newest State of the Pacific settlements. While of making very close acquaintance with "his my horse was baiting, hearing that the supreme Honour." The little village hotel was crowded court was in session, I strolled in. After passing with an unwonted concourse of lawyers and up a ricketty stair, thickly sprinkled with saliva, jurymen, and, when I made up my mind to stay cigar ends, and sawdust, where the rough un-over the night, the "proprietor" (there are no planed board walls were scrawled over with landlords in America) informed me that he likenesses of "Judge" This and "Judge" That, "reckoned Judge had the only single bed,

and if I liked to put in with him, I might get having put in his complaint in due form, the to stay somehow." Not wishing to inconve-judge demanded what was the defendant's nience his Honour, I preferred to pass the answer. Whereupon the defendant's counsel, night in my own blanket, on the “ stoup" or porch of the building.

I have seen a judge who is said, in pursuance of his duty as a magistrate, to have fined a man twenty-five dollars for shooting at another, but who also (swayed by his feelings as a man) mulcted the other in the same figure, for not shooting back again.

Plain English is good enough for us. The Practice has abolished the dead languages, and if you give us any more of your Greek or Latin I'll commit you, sir, for contempt of this court."

66

who had been brought up under the old system and still had a lingering love for scraps of law Latin, responded, "May it please the court, our answer is that the same subject matter and cause of action in this suit was the subject matter and cause of action in a previous suit already determined, in consequence of which the question now raised before your honour, is At the Cariboo gold mines in British Colum- res adjudicata." "Is what?" cried the judge, bia lives a well-known Irish gold commissioner, adjusting his spectacles. "Res adjudicata, if whose common-sense decisions have gained great the court pleases." Sir," roared the judge, reputation throughout that section of country."we allow no dead languages here. On one occasion two mining companies came before him with some dispute. One swore one way, and the other swore the exactly opposite way. The "judge" was nonplussed. "Look here, boys," at last was his sage decision, In the early days of California, one of these "there's no use you going to law about it. rough-and-ready dispensers of the law held a There's some hard swearing somewhere; where court on a Sunday, and sentenced a greaser" I won't pretend to say. You say this, and they (a native Californian or Mexican), according say that, aye, and produce witnesses, too. to the law then in force, to thirty-nine lashes, What am I to do? Of course, if you insist for theft; but on the prisoner's counsel threatI'll come to a decision; but I honestly confess ening to apply for a writ of habeas corpus, on it will be only a toss up. I tell you what's the ground that it was "unconstitootional" to the best thing to do. You know my shanty hold a court on a Sunday, the judge declared, down the creek?" All shouted in the affirm-with a round oath, that rather than the (blessed) ative. "Well, in that shanty there's a bottle greaser should get off by any such pettifogging of prime whisky, in which I will be happy to trick, he would carry the sentence into effect drink luck to both of you. Now, the first man" right away." And then and there he applied there, gets the suit. Go!" Out of the court they rushed, down the creek, over logs, and over mining flumes, tumbling and rolling and running, with half the population after them, until they reached the cabin in question. When the judge arrived shortly afterwards, he found a stalwart miner firmly grasping the handle of the door. The whisky was produced, luck was drunk, and everybody went away, perfectly satisfied with the decision.

Most commendable on the whole, is the patience evinced by these judges under the orations of long-winded and not very learned attorneys. The most extraordinary instance of patience was that of a judge in Illinois, who, after two wordy lawyers had argued and reargued about the meaning of a certain Act of Congress, closed the whole at the end of the second day by calmly remarking, "Gentlemen, the Act is repealed!"

the thirty-nine lashes (the law limiting them to under forty), remarking, when he had finished, that the lawyer had better reserve his "habeas corpus until the greaser's back got barked again!"

The Missouri sheriff might truly enough remark that "jurymen aer raither scarce." More than once a friend who knew the ways of the country has informed me, as a kindness, that "there wor a (blessed) jury trial agwine on down to Humbug City, and, as I reckon, the sheriff's darned run for jurymen, you'd better kinder work round clar of that loc-ality." If I asked, "How can I be a juryman? I am a foreigner, a stranger, a traveller, who has neither land nor lot, neither votes nor pays taxes ?" "Ah, that would be mighty little 'count," would be the reply; "you hev paid taxes, for you paid your head money; and as for not being a resi dent, I reckon the sheriff 'll soon make ye out a residence; and as for your being a furrener, it don't matter shucks; that's the very thing you'll be spotted for. The sheriff has summoned every citizen to coroners' and jury trials, and every other darned sort of trial, so mighty often, that they swar, if summoned much oftener, they won't vote for him next election. And as If the learning of the judge puzzles the wit-'lection comes on in March, I sorter reckon he'll ness, sometimes the dog Latin of the lawyers like to corall a coon or two who ain't got no puzzles a judge. A short time ago, in San vote." Francisco, a hotly contested case came on in a certain justice's court in the city, which is presided over by a magistrate with a strong antipathy to the dead languages, and all who indulge in the affectation of using them. Plaintiff

Mr. Justice Begbie, of British Columbia, the terror of evil doers, and of too sympathising jurors, had occasion to caution a witness. "Don't prevaricate, sir, don't prevaricate; remember that you are on oath !" The excuse was, "How can I help it, judge, when I have such an almighty bad toothache!"

At last I really was caught, and it was useless to remonstrate." The sheriff declared "jurymen were scarce, and I must just take a turn at it." To my astonishment, under the idea, I suppose, that I was "a right smart chance