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 The Green Bag

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that, for the purpose of giving eﬁect to state prohibitory legislation, in toxicating liquors are not to be regarded as “subjects of interstate commerce.” Such

legislation

would

seem

free

from the constitutional objection that has been urged against the proposition to extend the scope of the Wilson act, namely, that it is an invalid delegation of the powers of Congress to the states.

The act, as interpreted, does not become

eﬂective until arrival of the liquors at their destination within

the state,

coupled with delivery to the consigneeu though, as .proposed to be ex tended, it would be thus eﬁective upon such arrival at the boundary

of the state. '1 See Heyman v. Southern Ry. Co., 203 U. S. 270 (1906).

The Law and the Lady By FREDERICK G. FLEETWOOD, or THE VERMONT BAR [At the recent meeting of the Vermont Bar Association, Mr. Fleetwood responded felicitously to the toast, “The Law and the Lady," in words that created some merriment. His remarks are here printed.—Ed.]

MR. President and Brothers in Law:

the application of the one but never

The Law and the Lady. The one always troublesome to a lawyer, the

control the conduct of the other. Both frequently use the aid of twelve good

other equally vexatious to a bachelor.

men and true.

Both are uncertain, variable, varying,

The relations of the Law and the Lady have been three-phased. First

requiring constant interpretation.

The

one harks back to precedent, the other is a creature of the compelling present.

The authority of the one rests on the written opinion, the authority of the other fastens itself to the spoken word. The centuries bound the age of the one, the other never crosses the great divide

of forty years. Reason fortiﬁes the one, emotion controls the other. The great commandment of the one is, “Thou shalt not”; the credal state

ment of the other is, “I will.” Both delight in declarations and pleas. Re joinders are rare in the one but per sistently present in the other. Repli cations appear in the one, supplica tions are the life of the other.

came the period of infraction, then the

age of subjection and ﬁnally the era of enfranchisement. The ﬁrst lady of the land did what we commensals are doing,

she ate what she ought not.

Disaster

followed her, dyspepsia us. As a pen alty for her transgression she was cast

out of the garden of Eden along with her husband with no reduction of sen tence through good behavior. She should have been placed upon probation, which would not have harmed her and might have purged her. As it is we are tainted, tinctured and tarnished with this ﬁrst great fault of our forbears.

In revenge for this disregard of its

Mergers

precepts the law at once overwhelmed

are common to the one while the other

the lady with punishments. Moses had no faith in her vow but allowed her hus band or brother to disallow it. She

is never merged or submerged but is ever paramount. Estoppels often bar