Dee.
'Two great British lawyers have been enlightening the public on the principles and practice of law in times ancient and modern, Lord Shaw of Dun-form line, the Scottish Lord Advocate, writes, in "John O° London's' Weekls," a series of articles on the trial of Jesus Christ, Ie shows that, according to Jewish jurisprudence, the action of the Sanhedrin was in flat defiance of the sacred law.
Earl Birkenhead has issued a second book on "Famous trials of history" and reviewers declare it to be more fascinating reading than a best seller, The ts out the similarity the fate that befell Antoinette and the Empress Marie of Russia. Both were aliens in the lands to which they went aseQueens, Both were beauties and each possessed an imperious will. Both were wedded to weak husbands and made enemies by their incursions into the polities of their adopted countries. The lives of both had a tragic ending and, in the case of the Queen of France, the majority of her judges died on the same scaffold and by the same instrument as their victim.
Ear! Birkenhead wonders wheth-the murderers of the Russian Queen may not soon reap the me reward as overtook their predecessors. in France, The former Lord Chancellor of Eny-land is one of the hardest headed business men as well as, probably, the cutest lawyer in Britain, In thus moralizing he shows that his mind runs along a well worn groove for he indicates his feeling that, sooner or later, retribution overtakes the evil doer. We say "feeling" and not belief" because this presumpjon is a subconscious intuition and not a reasoned conclusion.
It is held as firmly by the rudest voees as by this cultured logician, It shows itself in the popular demand that a romance or a play should have a happy ending. The reward of good and evil should, in the words of the founder of Taoism, "follow the action ax the shadow follows the sub-life events ways ce) theory and the sombre philosophy of Thomas Hardy led him to defy the common prejudice and end his tales on a note of tragedy rather than of bliss The reader is conscious that his books are works of genius but that there is something wrong, not with the writer, but with the scheme of things that permits such an unfortunate climax.
'The universal belief, then, is that somewhere, at the heart of the government' of the universe, there ix. rightness that makes for well doing. This may be called the religion of humanity and every church steeple and the dome of every temple and even the sacred grove of every munibo-jumbo is a testimony to its truth. Tt was expressed by the writer of Genesis, the oldest ook in the world, in the words "Whose sheddeth man's blood Though buted to Moses by man shall his blood be shed."
these words bear all the marks of a quotation from scme more wrong cries, like Abel's blood, to heaven for vengeance. The Inws of every country are the solemn enunciation of this principle backed with all the sanc-ion of the will of the people. Rudyard Kipling, in his usual forceful style, writes it down in letters of fire.
"Whatsoever for eny cause seoketh to take or to give Power above or beyond the Jaws, suffer it not to live Holy state or holy king or holy Have no truck with the sen-soless thing, out with the guns with poetic licence and appropriate hyperbole but the inner meaning is plai enough. It is that, just a painter strives to put his ideal on canvass and never wholly succeeds, s0 the legislature of state Seeks to embody, in its jurisprudence, the deep convic tions of its people. Like the painter it docs not wholly succeed; laws are sometimes Unjust and always imperfect, nevertiveless, they express the opinion of the highest authority available and must be obeyed by the king to the Service required him to take action and in a letter of i ts which in Chinese eyes July 2, 1924, he reported the matter officially to the then Associate Chief Inspector. In due course Mr. Giolma got a reply, which was in fact a severe huke. It referred to some previous criticism of ith something like dis With ever hope of what China may be another day, wi all the confidence that may be felt in some leading men in the jonalist ranks, it is impos-
10 think that the him; it described his charges trot concerning the Chungking ad- ne: ion as a whole is condition in w i unsubmaterial ey and it ended by calling him to resign. Mr. Giolm cordingly sent in his resignation but added that "in the interests of justice? no less than of my reputation both ax a servant of the Chinese Government and as 'a private individual" he claimed the right of being heard in his pwn defence and respectfully urged that in the light of the evidence attached to his letter, the sentence passed upon him should be reconsidered. be entrusted with jurisdiction over foreigners and this feeling is intensified by the ugly spec-tale of the politic attempts to pervert the Provi ional Court, and to use it for their own ends, But if we read the new treaties attentively, it will appear that the surrender is not 80 absolute as it seems first sight, There are loopholes mitting of considerable delays. The first appendix says that the abolition of extraterritoriality shall not be operative before January 1, 1930, and tinues:
This is the point on which Mr. Giolma rests his whole case. He has repeatedly asked for an in-
Before such date the Chinese Government make detailed arrangements with the (Belgian or foreign, large and small, At a when a important section of Chinese is ple ant to be faced with leyis-State Jism in a tolerably advanced degree and, while seemingly ignoring the interests of employers, is very much of perfection where the employees are concerned. Looking at the summary of provisions which have been announced, the Factory Law is likely to have in the first pla the effect of chasing capital away from its proper function as the hand-maiden of industry because of the small return it will offer to investors, and in a country where rates of interest are very much higher than those looked for in Europe and America, that spells disaster, In the second, the privileges secured for the working classes are of such a nature as to lead to chaos in We have seen in Shanghai how much disruption has already been created by the Communist elements among the may be, sometimes is, necessary, satisfaction. He quotes two re- ya a well as by the peasant, Tt restigetion, but has received no Ballan) Government for assump-workers, and not only is there for conscience sake, to refuse to gulations of the Service in sup- (Bewian or Malan) Bene oon ins jons. lcortain of the provisions of curbing this, but obey an unjust law. But thelport of his demand, one to the|¥0y "Ste (Belgian or Italian) Rot@bly that providing for the man who does so, like Johnfeifect that no officer shall even] ubjects shall thereafter be amen- Cismissal of a worker who takes Brown of slavery days, perils he suspended on any charge able to Chinese laws and jurisdiction More than two months' holiday 8 life on the action and, if he] nst him "until he has been majority of 0 in a year—are liable to foster soon as the be a stood citizen, he states his vonable opportunity now possessing extraterrlit, It is, of course, one thing reason for his disobedience and the other of torial privileges ima shall have to draft such Jaws and another surrenders himself to the punish-import.
"And he not unnaturally soved to relingui them. to enforce them, but there are
ment decreed for his crime dwells on the el jementary prin-lit is imaginable that such ar-districts where, possibly, they strong the belief that ciple of justice that ery man rangements may prove difficult can be enforced and these are posterity will justify his conduct has a right to be heard in his jin the making; and, in this con-exactly the places where in-and rescind the oppressive law. own defence. In February, 1925, nection, the subsequent referdustrialism is most developed. Not even the will of the people five months after the letter ence to the new civil and com-At the outset of the Law is superior to the law. While it asking for resignation, Mr cial codes h Dr. Wang find clauses prohibiting child ands on the statute book it Giolma received a cheque for foreshadows suggests that both labour which would be entirely is sovereign and must be obeyed.
995 described in an accom ly, and Belgium will first re~ admirable but for the fact that In former days the divinity that letter as a "retiring they take no cognizance of the re ction as to the doth hedge a king surrounded but this he returned, treatment their subjects are to present conditions in this respect, The first attempt the Emperor of China and his ing that what he sought was receive.
If they. are not satis abolish child labour in mills and will was the supreme law, The not payment but an investigation then surrender of extraterabrogation of the monarchy has of his action as a servant of the ritoriality stands over until the factories here came from the Powers are British mill-owners, and it will left a blank sack in authority Chinese Government. We can-majority of the te romemberad that as a result which the administration of the not but think that the claim is to ubaridon it, fo fills There are those, who large such, eases, may seem avian te tae: that Italy aod ita commission teak appointed law courts has not yet been able well founded. To the world at ch perspicuity la ro-|°f their desire to do away
sedulously that the party is above the law, propagate the theer; fo the individual 9 the indic hey they ycium are depending largely 0 transpired that the Chinese aube the policy of the Powers that themselves, the parents of these but this is bolshevism, pure and the largest interests children, wore those who most simple. Only when reverenc the China, Here, then, we come tol for the law occupies the place in the people's mind that was once may be made tyes of those. who know "him [S£e, appear in the the ala been things a they HEE OHO pretended to be and things filled with reverence for the pretended to, be fine near. [economic grounds and partially Emperor will China be a"well The Salt Gabelle is, in a manner tions of idealists sitting at one] on the very practical one of not governed country.. This may] of speaking, starting on a new] point of the coast and the hard knowing what to do with their seem an ideal dificult to attain but the fact that a Chinese, Dr. H.C. Wang, dispenses law in the Hague tribunal indicates that not impossible.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.