EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT limited in all cases to ten shillings, and where a workman is employed by several different masters at the same time working part of the time for each, his weekly earnings are to be calculated as if his earnings under all the contracts were earnings in the employ ment of the one whom he was serving at the time of the accident. The persistent tendency to broaden the scope of the Eng. lish statute and to increase the burdens imposed upon the employer, is an important sign of the times in England and it is to be feared that it will tend to increase opposition of employers in this country to the enact ment of this important legislation, since they can justly argue that the enactment of a reasonable provision in the first instance will give them no assurance that it will not prove merely an incentive to demands of a more burdensome nature. JUDICIAL DISCRETION There are two divergent views of the proper attitude of a judge toward the trial of a case, each born of the political conditions of the ages in which it has held sway. The one makes the judge a presiding officer at a partizan contest, who pronounces the rules by which a jury ought to be governed and leaves the parties by their counsel to conduct their own cases. The other makes the judge a public officer charged with the duty of administering justice who is to ascertain the facts and in case of doubt relieve himself of the responsibility of guessing, by leaving it to twelve plain men who have heard the evidence. The necessities of the times in cline us from one theory to the other and perhaps it is well that our system should contain the elements of both and that neither method should be irrevocably fixed so that we may modify our practice when courts
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have swung too far in the one direction or the other. It is the belief of many that the courts in the United States have become too negative, and have lost right of justice in the confusion of conflicting principles laid down by a too voluminous collection of precedents, and many are urging changes of practice which will incline judges to a freer exercise of their prerogatives in the trial of cases in the interest less of the litigant than of the public by the expedition of causes and the cultivation of confidence in the justness of litigation. This is perhaps but one of many indications of greater regard for the people than for the individual. One of the simplest of these suggestions and perhaps the most effective in criminal cases requires a change in the attitude, and perhaps an increase in the labors of appellate courts. It is said that courts of appeal should examine the whole record and reverse a case only for error going to the merits leaving it to the good sense of the appellate body to ascertain what is a meritorious defense. This will require the abolition of the old fashioned bill of exceptions still used in many States to isolate and thus magnify minor mistakes in the conduct of trials or at least compel the excepting party to show from the record that the error of which he complains, did prevent a just decision. It is this proposi tion which has been recently endorsed by the Alabama State Bar Association, whose energetic committee of correspondence, of which Mr. Julius Sternfeld is chairman, is planning an active campaign of correspond ence to ascertain if possible, the sentiment of the Bar throughout the United States on the subject such a wholesome work deiserves and has a ready received hearty support from influential attorneys and judges and the results of the labors of the committee will be awaited with great interest.
