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 “The Genius of the Common Law” authority on the necessary toleration of competition relates not to rival trades men, but to rival schoolmasters, who certainly would have joined in making short work of any unqualiﬁed intruders, a process not unknown, it is said, in modern politics. It is obvious that in a frame of society,

which no longer limits competition, the claim of the individual to be guaranteed against unfair competition becomes much stronger. Indeed, if we insisted

on our institutions being or appearing

logical (as happily we do not), the in dividual might say with some plausi bility to the state: —

"You turn us all out to compete with one another, and say that if half of us

are ruined the other half have only

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seemed to be ﬁnished the law would have ceased to be a living science, and would be ﬁt for nothing more than to be petri tied in an oﬁicial corpusjuris. For prin ciples, even the most certain, are capable of inﬁnite application, and the matter is

always changing. The Knights Errant of Our Lady the Common Law must be abroad on a perpetual quest; no sooner is an adventure accomplished than a fresh one is disclosed, or arises out of

,that very achievement. There is no strife in the past which has not some lesson for the future. Courts have to be guided, legislators

have to be warned. Not a word shall be said here in derogation of an advocate's duty to take every point that can fairly be taken for his client. Still, there is a higher and a lower kind of advocacy, in

exercised their common rights. You say the result is worth more to the com

cluding work out of court, without any

munity than it costs.

prejudice to the client's interest.

Good: but why

should the cost fall wholly on innocent,

unsuccessful competitors? If they suffer for the common good, why should not

the community compensate them? Either go back to the old plan of limit ing competition or insure us as individ uals against the consequences of your collective policy." Thus the Nemesis of unchecked indi

Not long ago a learned friend of Lin coln’s Inn was talking with me of a late eminent English conveyancing counsel whose pupil he had been. Other men

might be as learned, said my friend, but I worked much with him, and whoever

worked with him might be sure that he wanted to put the business through. That is, in plain words, which no rhetori

vidualism would lead to something which I suppose would be not improperly de scribed as a form of state socialism. There is one answer to be sure which is decisive if accepted, namely, that

cal expansion could better, the spirit

these matters do not concern the state

science and grateful clients.

at all.

We shall not think the less of the common law for not being infallible and

VIII. THE PERPETUAL QUEST What shall be the attitude of a good

lawyer and a good citizen toward the problems among which the lot of the

of the law and the true lawyer.

Ask

yourself at every doubtful turn what will best help the business through, and you will have a good professional con

invincible.

Some say she is a hard mis

_ tress. It is true that she will not be content with any oﬁering short of man's best work; she would not be faithful to

in the ﬁrst place, that they are alive and not to be solved out of a digest and that

herself if she were. Some call her capri cious. It is true that she does not un dertake to command world success for

the work is never ﬁnished.

her followers; earthly fortune may be

common law is cast?

He will recognize,

If it ever