Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/843

 ^0. VEEDER: A CENTURY OF JUDICATURE 829 Scotland to the House of Lords, was one of the most remark- able judicial characters of his time. In the domain of Scots law, to which his predecessors had mainly confined their at- tention, he displayed at the outset his eminent qualifications for judicial office. But Watson was not content to play a minor part. He proceeded to study English law; and, as his confidence in his knowledge increased, the modest expres- sion of opinion with which he had been content in his earlier cases, gave way, shortly before Blackburn's retirement, to those masterly expositions of English law for which, after the death of Herschell, he was unsurpassed by any of his associates. It is only necessary to mention in support of this statement such cases as Smith v. Baker, Allen v. Flood, Clarke v. Carfin Coal Company, Solomon v. Solomon, Mac- donald v. Whitfield, Nordenfelt v. Maxim-Nordenfelt, and Mogul Steamship Co. v. McGregor. His long and splendid service in the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council would alone place him in the front rank of modern judges. His opinions in Le Mesurier v. Le Mesurier and Abdul Messih v- Fassa, on the intricate subject of domicile, to cite only two examples, are as luminous as they are exhaustive. In eccle- siastical appeals, also, Presbyterian though he was, he took a prominent part. His knowledge of English case law was, under the cir- cumstances, extraordinary ; yet it can hardly be said to have exceeded his grasp of principle and certainty of judgment. Witness his sensible and suggestive reflections in refusing to adhere to a strict observance of the old doctrine with re- spect to restraint of trade : " A series of decisions based upon grounds of public policy, however eminent the judges by whom they were delivered, cannot possess the same bind- ing authority as decisions which deal with and formulate principles which are purely legal. The course of policy pur- sued by any country in relation to and for promoting the interests of its commerce must, as time advances, and as its commerce thrives, undergo change and development from various causes which are altojjether independent of the ac- tion of its courts. In England, at least, it is beyond the jurisdiction of her tribunals to mould and stereotype national