“I wonder men don’t appoint someone when they fell out to arbitrate between them.”
“They often do, and too frequently, after all the expense of getting ready for trial has been incurred, the case is at last sent to the still more costly tribunal called a reference. Many matters cannot be tried by a jury, but many can be that are not; one side clamouring for a reference in order to postpone the inevitable result; the other often obliged to submit and be defeated by mere lapse of time.”
“It seems an endless sort of business.”
“Not quite; the measure of it is too frequently the length of the purse on the one side or the other. A Railway Company, who has been cast in damages for £1,000, can soon wear out a poor plaintiff. One of the greatest evils of modern litigation is the frequency with which new trials are granted.”
“Lawyers,” said my wife, “are not apparently good men of business.”
“They are not organizers.”
“It wants such a man as General Wolseley.”
“Precisely.” And here I felt the usual drowsiness which the subject invariably produces. So I dreamed again.
CHAPTER XXVI.
Morning reflections—Mrs. Oldtimes proves herself to be a great philosopher—the departure of the recruits to be sworn in.