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The Green Bag

a number of applicants for admission to the federal bar at Phoenix, Ariz., in May on the subject of professional ethics. He referred to an article in the Outlook in which Colonel Roosevelt had ex pressed his distaste for legalism, and his objection to the caveat emptor side of the law. In this connection Judge Morrow said : — "I need not tell you that the maxim of caveat emptor is a legal maxim, and expresses the rule of the common law that the purchaser of property buys at his own risk, as to title and quality, unless the seller gives a warranty, or the law implies one. The buyer is pre sumed to know what he wants, but if he is not competent to judge of title or quality he requires a warranty. Had Colonel Roosevelt extended his studies into the civil law, he would have found a similar maxim with respect to the seller. The maxim there is caveat ven ditor, "let the seller beware." This maxim requires the seller to protect him self from future responsibility by an agreement with the purchaser. "The rule of caveat emptor prevails in England and in this country. The rule of caveat venditor prevails on the Continent of Europe. In actual practice there is but little difference between the two. The results in trade, in commerce and in all the affairs of business are about the same. The underlying prin ciple in both cases is common honesty, and, to my mind, the legalism of caveat emptor or caveat venditor is of small consequence. The real question is not so much the protection of the buyer or the seller by the use of maxims of law, but to secure common honesty in all business transactions; and where there is a departure from this requirement, the penalty should fall upon the trans gressor, whether he be the buyer or the seller; and this is, in fact, the law of the

land. It is this law you are called upon to uphold, and I am sure that will be your purpose in your professional life." Professor Roscoe 'Personal Pound of Harvard Law School gave an address at the annual meeting of the Berkshire Bar Association at Pittsfield, Mass., May 19, on "Democracy and the Common Law." Robert McMurdy's name has been sent to the state senate by Governor Dunne of Illinois for the office of minor ity member of the Court of Claims. Mr. McMurdy, who is president of the Illi nois State Bar Association, succeeds A. G. Kennedy. Henry L. Stimson, former Secretary of War, delivered the annual address before the Law Academy of Philadel phia May 27. His subject was, "Ini tiative and Responsibility: a Remedy for Inefficient Legislation." The closer participation of the Executive in legis lation was advocated. It was proposed that the President be given power to prepare the budget and to introduce it into Congress, and to introduce other bills, and that members of the Cabinet have the right to appear on the floor and discuss any bills affecting their departments. Judge George Hutchins Bingham of Manchester, N. H., who succeeds former Judge Colt, now United States Senator from Rhode Island, on the bench of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals, first circuit, is forty-eight years of age, a graduate of Dartmouth and Harvard Law School, and has been a judge of the Supreme Court of New Hampshire for the last ten years. His father, George A. Bingham, was a member of that