Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 21.pdf/506

 The Editor's Bag lized always have the most artificial govern ment. For instance, the inhabitants of Otaheite, who, when first discovered, were gov erned by hereditary kings, had arrived at a far higher grade than another branch of the same people, the New Zealanders, who, although benefited by being compelled to turn their attention to agriculture, were republicans in the most absolute sense. In Tierra del Fuego, until some chief shall arise with power sufficient to secure any acquired advantage, such as the domesticated animals, it seems scarcely possible that the political state of the country can be improved. At present, even a piece of cloth given to one is torn into shreds and distributed, and no one becomes richer than another. On the other hand, it is difficult to understand how a chief can arise till there is property of some sort by which he might manifest his superior ity and increase his power." If this extract, which we have requoted from a significant article in the August Fortnightly Review by Mr. E. B. Iwan-Muller, is read in the light of the principle of "the survival of the fittest," it is one of the strongest pronouncements against socialism and com munism ever written. The uses of the Darwinian position in solving some problems for the lawyer are not to be overlooked, at a time when Darwinism has become merely part of a stream of growing knowledge which it no longer helps much to swell. Formerly the lawyer's refuge from visionary, metaphysical doctrines was to be found in a wholesome Anglo-Saxon tradition of empiricism. The empirical grounds upon which judges have ' repeatedly refused to sanction eight-hour labor laws, in compliance with a metaphysical socialistic program, are sustained by more weighty and convincing reasoning. The liberty of the individual, safeguarded by the Constitution, is not a barren metaphysical dogma, but is something which is dependent upon natural capacity and must be subject to qualification in the interest of the general welfare. Judicial interpretation can no more override stubborn scientific facts than can the public opinion which gives to laws their ultimate sanction. In defining the new articles of the Bill of Rights of modern democracy, constitutional jurists must pay due heed to the rigime of competition, which even monopoly in the field of economics cannot utterly destroy, and the extent and character of fundamental guarantees must be set forth with reference to a sound ideal of social justice. If the correlated principles of the supremacy of merit in consequence of the survival of the

477

fittest, and the progress of mankind as a result of the same process, are to exert a formative influence on the jurisprudence of the future, the inevitable scientific movement in legis lation will have owed not a small part of its impetus to Charles Darwin.

AN EXTRAORDINARY WILL AN exceptional case was lately before the Superior Court of St. Petersburg. One of the wealthiest land owners near Smolensk died not long ago, and after the funeral the heirs looked vainly for the will, but without success. A few days later, a young man, seeing a graphophone on a table in the dead man's library, put into it a record which he supposed was that of a popular Russian song. To his amazement and terror, instead of a song he heard the voice of the dead man recite the words of the missing will. The heirs were notified of the discovery, lawyers were summoned, and they lost no time in examining the record containing the will. It was found to be flawless, and the question then arose whether a will left on a graphophone cylinder would be deemed valid by the courts. It is, therefore, on this unique point that the Superior Court must render its decision.

THE LAW AND LITERATURE T) Y the bye, Wells, I have read your author of "Joseph and his Brethren," one of the finest poems ever written by a solicitor. "I consider that it shows real genius, and— I advise you to stick to your profession." Mr. Birrell, in the happy and humorous speech he made at the Hardwicke dinner, gave similar advice to young lawyers with a lean ing towards letters. Describing his own prac tice at the bar as "a pleasant trickle of work between a great margin of leisure," he ob served that the income he had enjoyed as a Chancery lawyer was ten times greater than that he had obtained as an essayist, and advised such of his auditors as had literary ambitions to stick to their less attractive calling. The worst of this advice, however wise from one point of view, is that the world has so much reason to be thankful that it has not always been acted upon. Bacon, Scott,
 * J poem," said Hazlitt to the young