Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/795

 20. VEEDER: A CENTURY OF JUDICATURE 781 judicial opinions. He was the stoutest of liberals, and looked with alarm upon modern socialistic tendencies — " grand- motherly protection," he termed it. " Please govern me as little as possible," he said. This was his point of view on many legal doctrines.^ Sometimes this tendency moved in di- rections where his fearless independence and plain speech were most needed. In the trades union case, R. v. Druitt, 10 Cox Cr. Cas. 592, he asserted in broad terms that by the common law of England the liberty of a man's mind and will, how he should bestow himself and his means, his talents and his industry, was as much the subject of the law's protection as was that of his body. Certain details of his exposition of the law in that case have since been regarded as obiter dicta, but his views deserve careful consideration. Nothing could be saner than his views in the great Mogul Steamship case (1892), A. C. 25, on the vital subject of freedom of trade. " It is admitted," he said, " that there may be fair competition in trade, that two may offer to join and com- pete against a third. If so, what is the definition of fair com- petition? What is unfair that is neither forcible nor fraud- ulent.'' It seems strange that to enforce freedom of trade, of action, the law should punish those who make a perfectly honest agreement with a belief that it is fairly required for their protection." The inquiry, " What is unfair that is neither forcible nor fraudulent? " is the sum and substance of his legal and political philosophy. Throughout his ju- dicial and political career he stood firmly on the ground of strict adherence to contract. " A bargain is a bargain," he used to say; and he strongly deprecated making contracts for people, whether by legislation or through equity. It may be inferred, therefore, that he had little sympathy with cer- tain equitable doctrines. In the case of Salt v. Northampton, (1892) A. C. 18, on the validity of fetters on redemption in mortgage transactions, he took occasion to say : " Whether it would not have been better to have held people to their bar- gains, and tauo;ht them by experience not to make unwise 1885, and his pamphlet "On the IJahilities of Masters to Workmen for Injuries from Fellow-Servants," London, 1880.
 * See his articles on " Drink " in Nineteenth Century, May and June,