EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT errors which they claimed had been committed by the trial judge, together with a brief in support of their contentions. After all those documents had been carefully considered by the judges it was held that the errors assigned were too frivolous to warrant the granting of a writ of error, which was denied. If the judges had considered the errors assigned grave, they would have granted the writ of error, and thereupon the case would have been docketed and heard at the bar. Thus an appeal upon unsubstantial ground was pre vented, after the judges had determined, from a careful inspection of the record, that no good grounds for it existed. The execution which promptly fallowed prevented an appeal to lynch law. It is not too much to say that the Virginia plan is ideal. In theory it is per fect, and in practice it has proven entirely efficacious. Under such a system the back bone of the trial judge is sufficiently stiffened. He does not fear - reversal upon a series of frivolous objections; he knows if he conducts the trial firmly and promptly the result will not be a failure of justice, provided no grave error of law is committed. In no state in the Union is the administration of criminal law upon a more wholesome foundation than in Virginia. The trial of the Strothers now in progress for the killing of Bywaters is a striking illustra tion of the promptness of the trial pourts. Within a few months after the tragedy the case is in the hands of the jury. If all the states would simply adopt the Virginia plan, which' is proving so efficacious and so just in practice, lynch law in this country would soon become a thing of the past. No constitu tional amendments would be necessary any where. Nothing more would be required .than a few statutory changes that could be con densed within a very narrow compass. The moment that the people are convinced that they can safely rely upon the courts for the prompt and efficient enforcement of the criminal law, all motive for mob violence will disappear. Until that result is reached Judge Lynch will continue to reign." MORTGAGES. "The Law Relating to Mortgages in India, Edit., Bombay Law Re porter- (V. ix, p. 89). MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS. "Muni cipal Corporations — Their Powers," by John Roaten, Oklahoma Law Journal (V. v, p. 280).
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NEGLIGENCE. "Telegraph Companies and ' Gross ' Negligence," by A. R. Watson, Bench and Bar (V. viii, p. 91). PRACTICE (Appellate Jurisdiction). In the April Columbia Law Review, Everett P. Wheeler writes on "Appellate Jurisdiction," in New York, strongly supporting the move ment to have an appeal take up the whole cause and allow new trials only when the error committed can be seen to have worked injustice. The tendency of New York Appel late Courts to decide on technicalities is adversely criticised. PRACTICE (Insular Possessions). " Writs of Error and Appeals from the New Territo rial Courts," by Howard T. Kingsbury, in the April Yale Law Journal (V. xvi, p. 417), outlines briefly " the procedure necessary to invoke the appellate jurisdiction of the United States Supreme Court in cases coming up from Porto Rico, from Hawaii, and from the Philippines." PRACTICE. " How to Get Law Practice," by Lewis E. Stanton, Yale Law Journal (V. xvi, p. 405). PRACTICE. "The Power of Appellate Courts to Cut Down Excessive Verdicts," by R. L. McWilliams, Central Law Journal (V. lxiv, p. 267). PRACTICE. " Res Judicata," by J. D. Dixit, Bombay Law Reporter (V. ix, p. 73). PROPERTY. ' " Do Freight Carrying Interurban Electric Railways Impose a Servitude on Streets? " by Edward F. White, Central Law Journal (V. lxiv, p. 283). PROPERTY. " Is Rolling Stock of a Rail way Real or Personal Property? " by S. W. Jacobs, Canadian Law Times (V. xxvii, p. 159)PROPERTY. "Cujus est Solum ejus est usque ad Coelum," by S. Varadachari, Madras Law Journal (V. xvii, p. 1). PUBLIC POLICY (Executive Justice). The March American Law Register has a sugges tive article by Roscoe Pound on " Executive Justice " (V. lv, p. 137). He finds an in creasing reaction against the doctrine of " a government of laws and not of men." " Noth ing is so characteristic of American public law of the nineteenth century as the com pleteness with which executive action is tied down by legal liability and judicial review.
