criminal offense in any of the courts of the State, from which judgment an appeal lies to the Supreme Court or to the Court of Appeals; and such convict desires to take an appeal under the statute of this State to the appellate court to which an appeal may be by him taken from that judgment, he or his counsel must file with the clerk of the trial court a truly dated written statement, signed by him or his counsel for him, to the effect that he appeals from the judgment against him in the case of the State of Alabama against him, giving the style of the case on the trial court docket and its docket number thereon. Within twenty days after such statement is filed as afore provided, the clerk shall make out a certificate of appeal, in the form now employed in criminal cases, and also recite therein the character of the offense of which the defendant was convicted and whether or not the sentence has been suspended by the court; and immediately forward the same, by mail, to the clerk of the Supreme Court or of the Court of Appeals, to which the appeals is, under the law returnable. Upon the receipt of such certificate the clerk of the Supreme Court or of the Court of Appeals, as the case may be, shall docket the appeal in its proper place on the trial docket.

The certificate of appeal provided for and required by this rule and that just preceding (43) shall not be duplicated when the transcript is prepared, but the clerk of the appellate court shall attach the certificate he has received to the transcript when the transcript is seasonably filed in his office.

RULE 45. Reversals; new trial; error without injury. Hereafter no judgment will be reversed or set aside, nor new trial granted by this court or by any other court of this State, in any civil or criminal case on the ground of misdirection of the jury: the giving or refusal of special charges or the improper admission or rejection of evidence, nor for errors as to any matter of pleading or procedure, unless in the opinion of the court to which the appeal is taken, or application is made, after an examination of the entire cause, it should appear that the error complained of has probably injuriously affected substantial rights of the par

ties.

NEW CIRCUIT COURT RULES.

Rule 32, found in the Code of 1907, is amended by the addition of the following thereto :

"The above shall not be so construed as to prevent an appellant from setting out enough in his bill of exceptions as may be necessary to show that the errors of which he complains were probably prejudicial."

With this exception, all the Circuit Court Rules, as appearing in said Code, are unchanged: Variances:

RULE 34. In all cases where there is a variance between the allegations and proof, and which could be cured by an amendment of the pleading, the trial court will not be put in error for admitting such proof unless there was a special objection making the point as to the variance. And the general objection that the same is illegal, irrelevant and immaterial, will not suffice. Nor will the trial court be put in error for refusing the general charge predicated upon such a variance, unless it appears from the record that the variance was brought to the attention of the said trial court by a proper objection to the evidence.

RULE 35. Whenever the general charge is requested, predicated upon failure of proof as to time, venue or any other point not involving a substantive right of recovery or defense, or because of some immaterial omission in the evidence of the plaintiff or defendant, the trial court will not be put in error for refusing said charge, unless it appears upon appeal that the point upon which it was asked was brought to the attention of the trial court before the argument of the case was concluded. The trial court must permit proof of such omission at any time before the conclusion of the argument, upon such terms as the court may prescribe, not to exceed the cost of the term and a continuance of the case, one or both.

WRITTEN CHARGES TO BE PLACED IN RECORD.

RULE 36. It shall be the duty of clerks of trial courts when an appeal is taken to the Supreme Court or Court of Appeals,

to incorporate in some part of the transcript the special charges given for either party, unless counsel waive this requirement by written agreement, and which said agreement will be copied in the transcript in lieu of said charges. It will be a sufficient compliance with this rule if all of said charges appear in the bill of exceptions and are disclosed by the transcript in copying said bill of exceptions. This rule shall apply to civil and criminal cases.

THE LAW'S DELAY VS. THE LAWYER'S DELAY.

BY JNO. E. MITCHELL.

When I selected this subject as the title of my paper, I was under the impression that the plaintiff would be able to make out a very strong case against the defendant; but the more consideration I have given the subject, the more strongly am I of the opinion that the counter claim of the defendant more than offsets the claim of the plaintiff, and that the defendant is entitled to substantial damages. The time allotted to me does not permit an extended expression of my reasons for arriving at this conclusion, but I beg the indulgence of those present while I sum up what seems to me the most material evidence in favor of the respective parties.

merce.

The inability of the lawyer to obtain substantial justice for his client is caused, to a certain extent, not only by the low standard of legal ability throughout the country at large, but also by the fact that only a small percentage of lawyers in general possess an intimate knowledge of the laws of business, of trade and of comMuch has been done to raise the standard of requirement for admission to the bar, and in some States this standard is reasonably high, but, taking the average, much remains to be done. The novitiate should be longer, the foundation broader, and the test for admission more thorough. An occasional genius may thereby be retarded, but there will be no premature births. No one, in my judgment, can become a well rounded lawyer, unless he possesses a fair knowledge not only of the principles of jurisprudence, but of the customs and methods of business. A student of law should also be a student of business.

The failure of bar associations to present for disbarment, or reprimand, those members whose professional habits, while not dishonest, are contrary to the high ideals which should characterize a lawyer's conduct in and out of court, is responsible, to some extent, for the miscarriage of justice. There is a natural

reluctance on the part of a bar committee on grievances to present a brother lawyer for expulsion or suspension. I think that this committee should be a secret committee, the personnel of which should be known only to the President of the Association, and, upon complaint made by this committee to the president, it should be made his duty to cause the specified charges to be preferred. It should be considered not only a privilege, but an honor to become a member of a bar association in this State. The rules of admission are generally sufficiently rigid, but there is a tendency to evade, and, in some instances, to ignore them altogether. My observations in reference to the committee on grievances apply with equal force to the committee on admissions. This should be a secret committee.

I fear also that the desire of the average lawyer to win his client's case sometimes causes him to place the goal of success before the goal of justice. Hon. Woodrow Wilson, at a meeting of the American Bar Association a few years ago, speaking on the subject of the lawyer and the community, said:

"We are lawyers. We are servants of society, officers of the courts of justice. Our duty is a much larger thing than the mere advice of private clients. In every deliberate struggle for law we ought to be guides, not too critical and unwilling, not too tenacious of the familiar technicalities in which we have been schooled, not too much in love with precedents and easy maxims which have saved us the trouble of thinking, but ready to give expert and disinterested advice to those who purpose progress and the readjustment of the frontiers of justice." Again he said, "You are not a mere body of expert business advisers in the field of civil law, or a mere body of expert advocates for those who get tangled in the meshes of the criminal law. You are servants of the public, of the State itself. You are under bonds to serve the general interests, the integrity and enlightenment of law itself, in the advice you give individuals. It is your duty to advise those who make the laws, with a view of ameliorating every undesirable condition that the law can reach, the removal of every obstacle to progress and fair dealing that the law can