In civil cases bribery of the judges is notorious, and the largest or the most liberal purse wins. Most persons carefully avoid a lawsuit, and prefer submitting to injustice. The judges, curiously enough, are rarely selected from among the lawyers. The Government can appoint any one it pleases, and as these posts are awarded for political services, those selected consider that the appointments are given to enable them to make their fortunes as rapidly as possible. As the pay is small, their wives often make it an excuse to keep shops and carry on a retail trade; but the fact is that the Haïtienne is never so happy as when behind a counter. The active bar of Port-au-Prince is composed of very inferior men. I often heard my friend Deslandes address the courts. He was at the summit of his profession, and to have him for your advocate was popularly supposed to secure the success of your cause. And yet I heard this eloquent and able advocate, as he was called, whilst defending an Englishman charged with having criminally slain an American negro, drop the legitimate argument of self-defence, and weary his audience for a couple of hours trying to prove that the Englishman was an instrument of Divine Providence to rid the world of a ruffian. Naturally the Englishman was condemned. Whilst in court the lawyers surround themselves with heaps of books, and continually read long extracts from the laws of the country, or--what they greatly prefer--passages from the speeches of the most celebrated French advocates; whether they explain or not the subject in hand is immaterial. I have often heard my French colleagues say that they have tried in vain to discover what these extracts had to do with the case in point. Few of these lawyers bear a high character, and they are freely accused of collusion, and of other dishonest practices. Unhappy is the widow, the orphan, or the friendless that falls into their hands. Many of my Haytian friends have assured me that, though they had studied for the bar, they found it impossible to practise with any hope of preserving their self-respect. No doubt the bar of Hayti contains some honest men, but the majority have an evil reputation. The laws of Hayti are not in fault, as they are as minutely elaborate as those of any other country, and the shelves of a library would groan beneath their weight. Had M. Linstant Pradine been able to continue the useful publication he commenced--a collection of the laws of Hayti--it was his design to have united in a regular series all the laws and decrees by which his country was supposed to be governed.