nually, which brings to the BRIEF'S account nearly $600.00. The BRIEF prints the convention minutes and matter formerly issued by the Council and paid for by the Treasurer, a saving which results in a fund of $150.00 now being applied at the conventions toward the expenses of attending delegates. Taking $600.00 as the amount which comes to the BRIEF from dues, less this $150.00 saved, and $720.00 as the total cost of the annual letters, and the BRIEF saves the Fraternity $270.00 a year (600 150 450; 720 - 450 = 270) when compared with the ineffective annual-letter system it displaced.

The $600.00 pays about half of the BRIEF's expenses. The other half must come from the alumni subscribers and from advertising. Only three, perhaps four, of America's law journals, can be said to pay. The rest are supported either by law-book houses and used as advertising mediums, or by legal notices, i. e., “pulls." The strong and historic Albany Law Journal was changed in January from a weekly to a monthly. In 1887, Mr. Wm. Baird, then Secretary, published Vol. I. of the BRIEF as a private venture, but stopped it with the fifth number on account of the expense.

The BRIEF is winning the alumni, but it takes time. Only four of last year's alumni subscribers have discontinued their subscriptions; their support is constantly growing. We cannot blame them for not being more liberal for they were allowed to forget the Fraternity. For the present, matters must remain as they are if the BRIEF is to continue. Should the enforced one year's subscription be abolished, the magazine will cease, and the Fraternity would be obliged to revive the expensive and ineffective annual-letter system, or each chapter would go on by itself—a sort of local fraternity—knowing nothing of the other chapters nor of the alumni. To develop strength, chapters must know of the other chapters, and alumni clubs must know of the other clubs, and if they don't—well, we have the vivid illustration of that general fraternity which some six years ago ranked first, which stopped its magazine, and which since has fallen into third position, having been passed by two of its rivals, and is now being pressed hard by the two below.

During the past year the BRIEF has done much for the Fra

ternity, 4,000 circulars and 2,500 sample copies have been sent out to the alumni; it has put new life into many dormant chapters; it has awakened the alumni in five cities; and it has influenced the organizing in Washington, D. C., of what will be in time our strongest alumni club. If space permitted, we would quote from some of the forty-seven letters received, which congratulate the Fraternity on its magazine.

We trust that the above shows that the BRIEF is not an extra expense but a saving; that a magazine is necessary to a live fraternity; and that the BRIEF is doing much for our Order. Its management stands pledged to advocate reducing the subscription price to undergraduates the moment it can be done with safety, but obliging initiates to subscribe for one year will not be abandoned, for a general knowledge of its affairs is essential to the well-being of the Fraternity.

The BRIEF has many and loyal friends and there is no fear that it will not continue indefinitely in its efforts to weld Phi Delta Phi into a fraternal and legal power. As we have been unable to meet the resolutioners personally, we have written to show them the error of their position.

THE ALUMNI CLUBS.

It is pleasing to note the new life among the alumni. Since the last issue, the Washington, D. C., alumni have organized. They are holding monthly meetings, have more than sixty members, and conduct their meetings much as the New York club does. In December the Chicago club held a large and enthusiastic meeting (a letter concerning it is among the chapter letters) and a movement is on foot to have the club begin monthly meetings. The Kansas city alumni meet in April and the annual meeting of the San Francisco club will be later in the spring. The New York club is pushing its plan for a club home.

The outlook is certainly encouraging but we should not be satisfied until there is an awakening of the alumni in Boston, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Detroit, and Philadelphia. The Philadelphia field is especially promising for Gibson chapter has taken on new life and her alumni are very loyal.

The Periscope.

FIELD ALUMNI.-A battalion of thirty-two Phi Delta Phi men, nearly all from Field, marched in the Lawyer's division of the New York Sound Money parade last November. Paul R. Towne, '90, was captain and Chas. M. Camp, '90, lieutenant. Frock coats and silk hats were the orders, but as the rain fell in sheets about half of the fellows turned out with waterproofs and umbrellas. Prof. Leslie J. Tompkins, the president of the College Men's Democratic Club of New York, reviewed the battalion from the balcony in the University building.

H. C. Meighan, '95, and B. Meighan, '94, are mighty busy, dividing their time among Mamaroneck, White Plains, New Rochelle, and New York, in all of which places they have offices.

At the late annual meeting of the Junior alumni of New York University law school, of which B. Meighan, '94, is president; Phipps, '97, secretary; Haney, '98, treasurer, and on the executive committee of which are Strober, '92, King, '93, and Barr, '94; Professor Tompkins, '92, Emery, '96, and Rogers, '98, furnished a good part of the oratory.

Fred N. Van Zandt, 'oo, is representing the Ideal Fuel-Feeder Company, of Brooklyn, and is making money.

H. S. Howard, '99, was admitted to the Vermont Bar last fall, and began practice in Burlington, Vt. This winter he came to New York with his father and organized the great Lincoln's Birthday Celebration, Carnegie Hall, February 11th, so successfully that the entire house was sold out.

KENT ALUMNI.-Richard Yates II., Kent '82, took the oath of office as governor of Illinois at noon, Monday, January 14th, on the fortieth anniversary of the inauguration of his father, Richard Yates I., Illinois's celebrated "War Governor," who venerated the flag of his country, hated rebels and copperheads, and had the honesty and firmness to do his duty as he saw it. The enthusiasm at Springfield probably exceeded that of any recent inauguration; parades, flowers, music, cheers, and congratulations were the order of the day. Governor Yates, after taking the oath of office, being presented by Mr.

Tanner, the retiring governor, delivered his inaugural address and then turned to his mother, saying, "I want to give you the first handshake." He next greeted his wife.

A recent Chicago Legal News contained an excellent likeness of Governor Yates, together with a sketch of his life:

Governor Yates is 39 years old. He was born in Jacksonville, Illinois, where he now resides. In college he was noted as the winner of oratorical contests. He entered Whipple academy at Jacksonville in 1873 and left in 1876. He then went to the University of Illinois from which he graduated in the classical course in 1880. After leaving college Mr. Yates went into newspaper work and was city editor of the Jacksonville Daily Journal, at a salary of $40 a month. This did not chain him to the business and he went to the University of Michigan to study law. Being short of means he was compelled to leave Ann Arbor and return to his newspaper work in Jacksonville. In two years he laid up enough money to enable him to return to college and finish his law studies and he graduated in 1884. He was admitted to the Illinois Bar June 10, 1884. In 1885 he was elected city attorney of Jacksonville and held that office for six years. He served for a number of years as county judge of Morgan county, and while such judge at various times came to Chicago and assisted Judge Carter in disposing of cases in the County Court there. His reputation on the bench was such that he was strongly supported by the Bar and Bench of Illinois.

DOWER NOT Barred by DIVORCE.—In his address at the meeting of Field chapter Dec. 19th, Judge Ernest Hall, Field, stated that a New York lawyer was called on to examine title to a parcel of land in the lower part of New York city, owned by two brothers, one a bachelor, living in New York, the other, who had been married, lived in Washington, D. C. On inquiry as to the wife of the latter, it was divulged that he had sued her in Washington for an absolute divorce, on the ground of abandonment (a legal ground there), the divorce granted, and the wife had re-married in another state. Abandonment not being ground for a divorce in New York, the dower right of the wife in the property was not extinguished under numerous N. Y. decisions, so it was necessary to obtain the signature of the wife (although then the legal wife of another man) to the deed. This was finally done, and she was described in the deed by her new married name as formerly the wife of the half owner of the property. Under a uniform system of divorce laws, such a case could not arise, as the ground for divorce would be the same in all states.

WHAT A JUDGE Should Be.-Henry Wollman, Kent '78, writes on this matter for some eleven pages in the Medico-Legal Journal and presents us with a list of the qualities which a judge should have. These are: a "strong fund of common sense"; he should understand human nature; he should have patience; he should not be a garrulous man, he must be courageous and level-headed; he should be "well educated in the elementary and fundamental principles of law"; he should be "careful, conservative, conscientious, solid and substantial." Lord Erskine is cited as an instance of able lawyers who were failures on the bench; and, conversely, lawyers of little prominence at the bar, as Judge Miller, Judge Brewer of the Supreme Court, Thomas M. Cooley, and Chancellor Kent have, on the bench, achieved the greatest success. It is, therefore, concluded that judges are really born, not made. All of which is prefaced by the statement that we must not look upon judicial decisions as emanating from an unerring source, but bear in mind "how human judges are." The article is probably written for nominating conventions.

O. v. S.

REMINISCENCES OF LORD RUSSELL of Killowen.-Prof. Edward V. Dicey, Choate, of Oxford, gives his reminiscences-copied without credit by several law journals-in a recent Fortnightly Review.

We learn that the late Chief Justice, before his elevation to the bench was fond of card playing and horse races. Both of these innocent diversions were discontinued, however, when he became a judge, prompted by a jealous regard for his judicial dignity. He always expressed himself as very confident of his ultimate success, even at a time when he was a mere struggling lawyer. The author, having known Lord Russell personally, is an authority.

O. v. S.

INSANITY AS A DEFENSE.-John Tracey Jones, Harlan '96, in the Albany Law Journal traces the progress in the decisions of England and this country from the earliest times when "the veriest lunatic was debarred from pleading his affliction as a defense" to the modern rule which permits this defense to be successfully interposed whenever the mind is so diseased that although it may still perceive the difference between right and wrong it lacks the power to choose between them. The existence of such disease and its psychical effects is a matter of evidence to be decided by the jury, and no invariable or infallible tests for its detection can be laid down by any judge. Like all other matters not of common knowledge, the presence and effect of the disease should be established and proved as a fact. The article is more theoretical than practical.

O. v. S.