Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 25.pdf/510

 Index to Periodicals for twenty-five years. He does occupy an enviable position at our bar. He is, in addition, the author of two insignificant books treating of the art of cross-examination and trial practice, in a popular way. Though the books are worth less, though they contain nothing that is not better expressed in any number of works I might mention, though they include much fat and little meat, they are somewhat used. And in spite of the fact that they inculcate expressly and by implication the idea that a trial is a game, and that all sorts of tricks are allowable, and not at all that it is a stern, solemn proceed ing for the ascertainment of truth, they have acquired a certain sort of popularity. He is a man who is looked up to, especially by the younger generation. I saw present at the trial young men just out of school, and some still raw and callow in the practice of law. To these there is responsibility. To these, as well as to 'others, men like this distinguished counsel must talk. What are such members of our pro fession going to think about it? What are they going to do about it when they hear declared in open court by a person who is prominent and mighty in the profession that to break the law of morals is a sacred duty not only of a lawyer, but of a clubman, of a policeman, of a juryman, of all of us? What is the public who listens in wondering astonishment to this oracle to think of us lawyers when such a model speaks in our name, proclaiming that he who reveals to the lawfully constituted authorities that a crime has been committed is an outlaw and an out cast? fs it right? Is it fair? Is it just that we should be dishonored and debased in that way? Is it right that a distinguished lawyer in a foolish attempt to save a client from conviction of a misdemeanor should drag into the nether most depths of Hell unexperienced young men who believe in him; should disgrace a profes sion that is not yet, thanks be given, permeated with putrefaction, and should hold up to the community an ideal that is against morality?" See Admission to the Bar, Legal Education. Real Property. "Future Estates." By Her bert T. Tiffany. 29 Law Quarterly Review 290 (July) . A paper which deserves the attention of every student of real property law who aims at pre cision of thought. The author examines funda mental conceptions expressed by writers of recognized standing, which appear to him open to criticism, in the endeavor "to show that, by a different method of treating parts of the subject, some of its difficulty and obscurity may be removed." "Powers of Distress and Bills of Sale Acts." By Walter Strachan. 29 Law Quarterly Review 340 (July). The writer contends, challenging a statement made in Key and Elphinstone's Conveying Precedents, that the English Bills of Sales Acts do not invalidate a power of distress given by way of indemnity between co-owners or for securing rent-charges. See Conveyances, Perpetuities.

481

Roman Law. "The Teaching of Roman Law." By Professor Paul Frederic Girard, Uni versity of Paris. 13 Journal of Comparative Legislation N. S., pt. 2, p. 171 (no. 28, July). "If the edifice is already almost completed, if we can contemplate the grand lines of it with the feeling of satisfaction inspired by the view of a solid and welcome building, this does not mean that this building does no longer call for any complementary work. ... It fol lows that this learned and admirable edition [Mommsen, Digests of Justinian], which many people — and I am one of them — have long considered as definitive as a human work can be, will have in its turn to give place to a new edition that shall preserve its merits while avoid ing its shortcomings." "Problems of Roman Criminal Law." By W. D. Aston. 13 Journal of Comparative Legis lation N. S. pt. 2, p. 213 (no. 28, July). "On the whole Mommsen, happy in the pos session of the German word Strafrecht, properly covering the whole penal law, takes care to avoid speaking of 'criminal law.' If the Roman system contained no definite conception of crime, the statement that the delicts were part of the criminal law would have meant little to a Roman jurist." See Biography. Sales. "The Transaction of Sale in Saxon Times." By Gilbert Stone. 29 Law Quarterly Review 323 (July). "We suggest that by 'port' the Saxons meant 'market,' and that the 'portgerefa' was the per son to whom, in each place, the control of the trading community and the markets was given. If this is so, the Liber Albus is correct when it describes him as the ancestor of the mediaeval Mayor." Torren8 System. See Conveyances. Treaty Power. See Government. Waters. "Beneficial Use as the Basis for Greater Uniformity of State Laws Governing Water." By Clesson S. Kinney. 77 Central Law Journal 3 (July 4). "The question arises as to which of these two systems is the best adapted for the fullest development of irrigated agriculture in this Western country — the system which permits the water to flow by a man's riparian land simply because it enhances the prospect, or the system of beneficial use, under which every drop of the water in the stream may be used for some beneficial use or purpose. . . . The com mon law of riparian rights is in force in England at the present day. But the greatest argument in favor of the total abrogation of the common law of riparian rights in this Western country, is the fact that all of the English provinces which occupy territory where irrigated agriculture is necessary, with one exception, have either abro gated entirely common law of riparian rights, or have so limited and restricted these rights that they are practically abrogated. In Egypt