PROCEEDINGS. THE BANQUET. The session closed with a reception and banquet in the evening at the Leland Hotel, in charge of the following Committee of Arrangements, viz,: William L. Gross, Bluford Wilson, Stuart Brown, John G. Drennan, James A. Creighton, Alfred Orendorff, James W. Patton, George A. Sanders, Robert L. McGuire, George W. Murray. Between the hours of 7 and 8 o'clock a reception was held in the hotel parlors, the receiving party being composed of the old and new officers of the Association and the local Reception Committee. The banquet was held at 8 o'clock in the dining hall. The following toasts were responded to, Judge Harker, President of the Association, acting as toast master: "The Lawyer-the Advocate and Defender of Liberty and Law," Jesse J. Phillips. "The Respectful Laity," Charles Ridgely. "Blunders," E. B. Randle. "Attachments-Legal and Otherwise," Frank H. Scott. After the banquet a dance programme was enjoyed, which was followed by a german, and with the conclusion of the german, the Annual Meeting of 1896 closed. PART II. ADDRESSES DELIVERED BEFORE THE ILLINOIS STATE BAR ASSOCIATION, AT ITS NINETEENTH ANNUAL MEETING, SPRINGFIELD, JANUARY 24 AND 25, 1896. ANNUAL ADDRESS, Delivered BEFORE THE ILLINOIS STATE BAR ASSOCIATION, AT Springfield, JANUARY, 24, 1896. OLIVER A. HARKER, PRESIDENT. JUDICIAL PROCEDURE. Gentlemen of the Illinois State Bar Association: Nineteen years ago eighty-eight lawyers from different parts of the State assembled in convention in this city and formed this Association. It was not for the purpose of arranging schedules of fees or forming combinations for their own aggrandizement that they were brought together, but for the purpose of forming a permanent organization which should hold annual sessions, at which lawyers, as citizens of our great commonwealth, could look over the field in which they labor and counsel together upon measures that would secure to every person the full enjoyment of all rights and privileges of citizenship. The purposes declared in the constitution there adopted were "to cultivate the science of jurisprudence, to promote reform in the law, to facilitate the administration of justice, to elevate the standard of integrity, honor and courtesy in the legal profession, to encourage a thorough and liberal education, and to cultivate and cherish. a spirit of brotherhood." No happier statement of the purposes of such an organization could be made, and in passing through the stage of healthy infancy and vigorous youth which have marked its history, these purposes have been kept steadily in view. No higher honor could be conferred upon an Illinois lawyer than to be elected to preside over its deliberations, and when I reflect that the position has been filled before me by such eminent jurists as the present Chief Justice of the United |