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stood, or it would not be asked for; but it is the truth.
So much for the existing law, and so much for the reason of it. Now for the proposed change and the reason of it.
The largest proposed change is, that the master should be liable to his servant for the negligence of a fellow servant. Why? I have shown that the supposed grievance does not exist. That it is not a natural right that the master should be liable nor any thing that exists in the nature of things. That it is reasonable a railway company should be liable to a passenger for the negligence of its servants, because it has so contracted, and that it should not be to one of its own servants, because it has not so contracted. We are to start afresh then and make a new rule. Why? Why if I have two servants, A and B, and A injures B and B injures A by negligence, should I be liable to both when if each had injured himself, I should not be to either.[1] There can be but one reason for it, viz.—That on the whole, looking at the interest of the public, the master and the servant,it would be a better state of things than exists at present. Is that so? Now we must start with this, that it is under the present law competent for a servant to stipulate with his master that the master shall be liable for the
- ↑ As has been amusingly asked, why, if the housemaid puts damp sheets on the footman's bed and he leaves the scuttle at the foot of the stairs and she tumbles over it, should the master be liable for the damage ensuing?
