laureate, and in November, 1884, he was called to the bar as advocate at the Court of Appeal. The lawyers of Paris have a very pleasant custom of meeting together once a month, for the purpose of listening to papers spe cially prepared on legal subjects, and taking part in the ensuing discussion. The most brilliant of their number is chosen to be seeretaire de la eonferenee des avoeats, and this great honor was conferred on Fernand Labori before he had been four years at the bar. His inaugural address on the occasion of his investiture produced such enthusiasm among his colleagues, that it ranked as a historic event; and to-day the paper is re ferred to as one of the best ever read before a body of lawyers. The young lawyer had devoted his atten tion mostly to civil law, and his first briefs were in cases which were neither sensational nor historic. It was not until the trial of the anarchist, Duval, that Labori proved him self a past-master in forensic tactics. In a later trial he obtained the acquittal of the men accused of parricide in the De Niort case, and at once sprang into popularity. He wanted a wider field than the court room, and so he entered the ranks of litera ture and became the editor of the " Gazette du Palais," a daily law journal. In three months he had placed the paper in the very front rank of the judicial press. Though the edi tor of a daily paper, he did not neglect his practice at the bar. It was a mystery how he found time to study every case so thoroughly, to conduct them with such ability, and yet edit a daily paper, for every word of which he was held personally respon sible. Everything he undertook he did well. French practice requires different methods from either American or English procedure, and it is diff1cult to understand the expedi ents made use of by a successful French ad vocate. No modern lawyer has mastered the traditions and rules of the French bar more thoroughly than Labori. His smile, as he
addresses a witness, is as simple as that of a sincere child; his manner is that of a friend and comrade who is prepared to hear the most damaging confessions, and to forgive the most serious faults. Nothing indicates that he has been shocked or surprised by the evidence he has drawn out, and the witness is lured into a maze from which he cannot extricate himself. In the famous Vaillant case in January, 1894, Labori was counsel for the defense, and for the first time had an opportunity of giving the world the full measure of his marvellous eloquence, as well as a splendid example of his great tact. It was at that trial that he announced himself a Moderate Republican, and the Royalists shrank back shivering, for they had fondly hoped that this " hope of France " was in favor of monarchy. In 1895, Labori made his one attempt to enter the legislature as a representative of his native town, but he was defeated by 189 votes. Since that time he has appeared in nearly all the famous trials in Paris. He "defended the Turk, Ahmed Riza, when the journal "Meshvcret " was prosecuted, and, though he knew that a conviction was sure, he fought so well that his client was condemned to pay a nominal fine which was less than the minimum decreed by the code. In the Pan ama trials his eloquence was employed in the defense of Aristide Boyer to such good effect that he received the congratulations of the judges and his colleagues at the bar. It is not an exaggeration to say that Ma1tre Labori is the most eloquent advocate in France to-day. His eloquence does not consist in the uttering of flowery phrases and glittering generalities, but rather in weld ing together scraps of evidence which appear almost contradictory and having nothing in common, and in plain, simple, unvarnished language presenting them to the court. He does this with such thorough sincerity that all are convinced.
