MICHIGAN, NISI PRIUS CASES, DECIDED BY THE STATE AND FEDERAL COURTS TO WHICH ARE ADDED BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF THE JUDGES. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1884, BY CHARLES B. HOWELL, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. TETYMDZWWŁOMD OMAEKZI TIBKYBA 9.3103. COMMERCIAL PRINTED BY PUBLISHING COMPANY 97 JEFFERSON AVE., DETROIT. PREFACE. The number of pages involved in the plan of this work having already been exceeded, I will make the preface brief, although I would be glad to here give expression to many opinions in connection with Nisi Prius tribunals. I purposed to make the book substantially a report of practice cases decided at Nisi Prius and not carried to the Supreme Court. I have not quite fully carried out that plan, as the forensic efforts of eminent counsel take up much more space than I had counted on. Yet I could not abbreviate these and retain their symmetry. The Liographies of judges are brief, but as full as the space permits, and I think they will be read with interest by the bar and by many others interested in the judiciary of our great Commonwealth. Many of these sketches would have been more complete had those acquainted with the needed facts responded to my request for information. The anecdotes and reminiscences are confined to two counties for lack of space to include the hundreds of pages left out. But those published are written by one who, while not a member of the bar, seems to be a close and clear observer of the doings of courts and lawyers. I do not agree with him that the old times gave the bar greater orators than do these. I think the difference is more seeming than real. Before the days of railroads and telegraphs and other modern wonders, including |