natural result of the increase of legislation and the volume of case-law during the twenty-two years that have elapsed since the last edition. Yet with all this the appearance of the book has not substantially changed, and it looks out familiarly upon us from the shelves. One great improvement to the user of the volume lies in the fact that the dates of all the cases cited have been inserted. The text has also been 'sectionalized' with headings, and marginal notes have been inserted throughout, all of which makes for greater convenience in handling the book. Such of the Crown Office Rules and Forms as apply to matters germane to the work are printed in the Appendix. C.M. Stephen's Digest of the Criminal Law (Indictable offences). Seventh Edition. By Sir Herbert Stephen, Bart., and Sir Harry Lushington Stephen. London: Sweet & Maxwell Company, Ltd. Toronto: The Carswell Company, Ltd. 1926. The editors explain that when the last edition of this work was published in 1904 the stability of the English law relating to Crimes and Punishments justified them in making the edition a large one. Subsequent events, they say, have shown that this policy “ was correct as to matters of substance, but far otherwise as to matters of form.” They point out that the form of the law has been very considerably altered by such enactments as the Perjury Act, 1911, the Forgery Act, 1913, and the Larceny Act, 1916. Some very lucid and helpful criticism of these enactments is submitted in the Preface (pp. vi.-xiii). They comment, also, upon the important fact that to-day in England the distinction between felonies and misdemeanours has almost been obliterated by "piecemeal legislation." Such vestiges of difference as remain could be abolished with utility in their opinion. Chapters xxxvi. and xxxvii. exemplify "many of the obscurities that still encumber the criminal law" which in the opinion of the editors would be easily dispelled "if only the Legislature could be brought to believe that the criminal law is capable of amendment." Sir James Fitzjames Stephen's work has been accounted a classic since its first appearance in 1883. To have it brought down to date is a benefaction to the profession. C.M. Law Courts, Lawyers and Litigants. By Frederick Payler. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd. 1926. While on may flout with gay unconcern the obligation imposed by the Delphian oracle upon every individual in the command: "Know Thyself,” it is the task of others-generally quite scrupulously fulfilled-to see that we do know the foibles in our character no matter how unimpressive its strength may be. And what is true of individuals in this way is true in much the same measure as between the various group organisations of men. Races and tribes, religious bodies and political parties, the trade unions and the liberal professions are all in singular accord as to the duty of pulling the mote out of the eye of the other fellow. Now as the profession of the law is not only the most learned, but ethically the most perfect, of all the professions, it is obvious that the fierce winds of outside criticism must ever blow about its head. And it must all be accepted with unruffled temper-nay, with that complacency which always marks the consciousness of impeccability. These observations have been evoked by the fact that the book in hand is written by one who confesses that he is not a member of the Bar; but we hasten to assure our readers that while they will find in the book criticism of the way in which justice is administered according to law, it is always kindly-intentioned and always fair. As the author explains in his Preface, "the matter of the book is to a small extent historical, to a larger extent explanatory, partly descriptive, and partly anecdotal. .. Nor is it sought to appraise the law, either on the lines of Mr. Bumble, who hesitated not to describe the law as a ass, a idiot,' or of that oft-repeated judicial averment that the law is nothing but educated common sense.'" These shrewd words very justly describe the method of the book, and the author never loses sight of his exact undertaking. He is always interesting and correct in what he says, and his good taste and judgment never fail him. It is therefore quite a remarkable book for a layman to write about lawyers and the law-in fact so far as our reading goes we have never met so good a thing of its kind. C. M. CORRESPONDENCE The Editorial Board of the Canadian Bar Association does not hold itself responsible for the opinions of Correspondents. Contributions to this department of the REVIEW will be published only over the genuine names of the writers. PROFESSOR SMITH EXPLAINS HIS LETTER TO THE TIMES. To the Editor of the CANADIAN BAR REVIEW, SIR,-Although I am very conscious of having already taken up much more than my fair share of space in this REVIEW I trust you will permit me to correct a misunderstanding that has apparently arisen from my letter to the Times, reprinted in your May issue. The purpose of the letter was to advocate the cstablishment of an Imperial School of Advanced Legal Studies in London, but in the course of it I remarked, perhaps indiscreetly, that "the general educational level of the profession in Canada is far below that which prevails at the English Bar." Had I foreseen that these words would bring me, even for a day, into the lime-light of front-page headlines, I would have left them unwritten. As it is, they must be explained, since I fear that they have not been read with the same care that was bestowed upon writing them. The education of a professional man falls usually into three parts-his general education at school and college, his professional instruction in the professional faculty of a university, and his practical training in an office. My criticism was confined to the first of these three. As for the other two, I believe that the strictly professional education given in the three or four leading Canadian law schools is now much better than anything received by the great majority of English students, but this development is of very recent date. With regard to the practical training, I believe that on the whole this is much better done in England. It is now the common experience of all countries that in the long run the leadership of the profession falls to the most highly educated men, and no one who is well acquainted with both countries would deny that the education given in the English "public schools," followed by an honours course at Oxford or Cambridge, is much better than anything which we have at present reached in Canada. As for our professional academic training. until recently it consisted almost entirely of a few lectures dictated in the early morning or late afternoon to students who spent the rest of the day in offices. Unfortunately this is not yet extinct in Canada, and it is still the practice in the newly-established law schools of the modern English universities. So much by way of personal explanation. With regard to the more important matter of the proposed Imperial School, your readers may possibly be glad to know that an active interest in the proposal has been aroused, and there is every reason to hope that the coming year may see a definite move forward. The Lord Chancellor has very kindly consented to preside over a small London committee which will investigate the possibilities of the scheme. If this committee reports favourably, it may be possible to work out a more detailed plan next year. I am, etc., 7th Oct., 1926. McGill University, Montreal. HERBERT A. SMITH. THE CANADIAN BAR REVIEW VOL. IV. TORONTO, NOVEMBER, 1926. No. 9 RECENT EXPERIMENTS IN GOVERNMENT.1 Every form of government is really experimental. It is the result of an attempt to erect machinery for the management of the common affairs of a smaller or larger group of people under the conditions existing at the time. The important factors may be either external or internal. A form of government which will work satisfactorily when the group has no warlike neighbours and is under no necessity to protect its corporate existence against outside aggression may be exceedingly ill-adapted to handle properly the common affairs of a group whose chief concern is to ensure its continued existence as a group in face of the desire of other groups to dominate it and enslave its members. A form of government adapted to manage the common affairs of a group among whose members communication depends upon horse transport over mere tracks is not likely adequately to serve the interests of a group within which communication is carried on by railway, motor car, telegram and radio, not to speak of the aeroplane or airship. A form of government which will efficiently meet the needs of a group 95 per cent. of whose members can neither read nor write will probably break down if it is sought to perpetuate it without radical alteration when the percentage of illiteracy has fallen to 1 per cent or 2 per cent., and the percentage of literate persons has risen correspondingly. There are thus physical, psychological factors and environmental factors which determine the effectiveness of a given form of government, and a governmental machinery which has given entire satisfaction. at one time and under one set of circumstances may be insupportable when these circumstances have changed. Moreover, an experiment in government cannot be repealed like a chemical or physical experiment. The factors upon which success or failure depends cannot be An address delivered before the University Club of Ottawa, February, 1926. 39-C.B.R.-VOL. IV. reproduced, and discussion of constitutional questions can go on, and will go on as long as human beings continue to try to live in association. Such discussions will always turn, consciously or unconsciously, upon the effect of new factors-of changes in environment, in control over natural forces, or in the intellectual or psychological outlook of the members not only of the group in question, but of other groups with whom it has points of contact. It is a commonplace that in the last one hundred and fifty to two hundred years there has been an enormous advance in man's knowledge and control of physical forces. Dr. Garnett, the Secretary of the League of Nations Union in England, in a recent address before the Canadian Club at Ottawa, gave a striking illustration of this advance. He said that the fastest recorded trip of a Roman courier between London and Rome, such a courier, for example, as might have carried despatches from Julius Caesar in the last century before Christ, was fourteen days, but that one of the most eminent classical scholars in England had told him that the journey could probably have been made in twelve. This was exactly the time a journey from Rome to London took Sir Robert Peel eighteen hundred years later, when his presence in England was very urgently required for the purpose of forming a government, and every facility for travel the time afforded was at his command. Moreover, there was nothing whatever he could do before his actual arrival in London to pave the way for the action he would take when he arrived; he had to wait until he had completed his journey before he could communicate with his friends or with the King. Probably during about fifteen hundred of the preceding eighteen hundred years, Sir Robert Peel could not have made even so rapid a journey as he did. In 1834, what made it possible for him to reach London in twelve days was primarily an improvement in roads which had been going on for about a century, and in that interval there had also been other developments which had increased the ease of communication and the points of contacts between separated individuals and nations. Since 1834 the material advance has been still more remarkable, but if we take the beginning of the last quarter of the eighteenth century as the date by reference to which we compare the forms of government then existing with those of the world. of to-day, we find that there is not a single country of any importance whose present constitution even remotely resembles that then in force. It may fairly be said that the constitution of the United States is the oldest important constitution in the world. Though |