In Germany
he is a little better than a Herr Pastor or a doctor, but inferior to
a young lieutenant in the army. In France the salaries of the judges
are pitiable. The highest, the president of the Cour de Cassation,
gets $5000 a year and the lower judges only a few hundreds, with no
possibility of earning anything by practicing law, but there the
judges are persuaded to take out the balance of what they should have
in salaries in the honor of their position.
We are so shockingly frank and matter of fact, that we believe that
the conventionality of pomp and circumstance have been too much
regarded in courts and court procedure, that dignity is not
accomplished by wearing a wig, knee breeches, or gowns of ermine and
silk. It is consistent with a plain-spoken people to feel a contempt
for state and symbols. Any attempt to return to the conventionalities
of Europe is met by the contempt of a democracy.
In rebelling at form we have been so occupied that we have not been
awake to a change in substance that has been demanded by modern
conditions. The courts are gradually reaching a simpler basis.
Formerly they may have been surrounded by more pomp and magnificence,
but the work is now being better laid out and the course of the
proceeding is on more modern lines.
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