only effectual means within our power—that is to say, the revision of the Constitution." If M. Jules Roche's resolution for a re vision be approved, in principle, by Parlia ment, the following will be presented to the National Assembly: 1. The Declaration des Droits de ¡' Homme and of the citizen shall be reproduced and placed at the head of the first article of the Constitutional law of February 25, 1875, dealing with the organization of public pow ers. The article shall then terminate in the following clause: "The Chambers cannot pass any law which diminishes and arrests the excercise^of these rights. 2. In case the new revision is required by the President of the Republic, the new articles of the Constitution cannot be adopted except by a majority composed of two-thirds of the members of each Chamber. 3. A Supreme Court is to be established which shall decide cases brought before it by citizens for violation of their Constitu tional rights by the Parliament or the Exe cutive power. The Cour de Cassation (its va rious Chambers united), shall be raised to this Supreme Court.
4. Article 8 of the Constitutional law of February 25, 1875, relative to the organiza tion of the Senate, shall conclude as follows: "However, no proposition or motion tend ing to open up a credit or implying an ex penditure on the part of the State, the De partments, or Communes, shall be allowed in the Chamber of Deputies or the Senate outside of the demands made by the Govern ment." The above proposal for a revision of the Constitution, it must be admitted, do not go far, but that the question of agitating for a revision of the Constitution with the pro fessed object of securing the blessings of the Revolution more effectively, has come up at all is a hopeful sign. What seems incompre hensible is the national reluctance to revise the Constitution so as to provide specifically for the protection of citizens by the adoption, for instance, of the Habeas Corpus Act. This is the real trouble, the real defect in the French Constitution. But, as matters stand, France does not possess a Constitution properly so-called. H. CLEVELAND COXE, Officier d' Academic.
LONDON LEGAL LETTER. AMERICANS who follow with interest either the system for which the judiciary is appointed in England or the personnel of the bench, must have remarked the regular ity of the working of the promotions from the bar whenever vacancies occur. In this respect the English judiciary follows with equal precision military promotions in a well-regulated army. Volumes have been written upon the unhappy experiences of the briefless barrister. His lot is the occasion of many jokes and furnishes the plot of in numerable novels. It is true that he mav
JULY, 1904. have to serve without compensation a num ber of years before he can earn enough to pay his ordinary living expenses, and many young men of brains and ambition fail in the ordeal. Those who survive fill in their time by deviling," an occupation which brings them no pecuniary compensation, but serves to give them an opportunity to demonstrate their abilities to other barristers and to the chance acquaintances they may thus make among solicitors, who ultimately become their clients. Once they have got into the full tide of junior practice the next step is to
