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Rh questionable, not a received tradition which does not threaten to dissolved." Those are the words of a critic of life and letters writing forty years ago, and watching the growing sceptisim of his day. I am tempted to apply his words to the history of the law. Hardly a rule of today but may be matched by its opposite of yesterday. Absolute liability for one's acts is today the exception; there must commonly be some tinge of fault, whether willful or negligent. Time was, however, when absolute liability was the rule. Occasional reversions to the earlier type may be found in recent legislation. Mutual promises give rise to an obligation, and their breach to a right of action for damages. Time was when the Rh