EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT assailant will always trade on the unlikelihood of its being used. There is no need, and there is grave danger in trying, to amend the defini tion of Grotius by a reference to the special aims of the assailant. The plain fact that he is interfering with his neighbour's territory, and avowedly prepared to overcome any resistance by force of arms, constitutes the status per vim certantium, however little he wishes or supposes that actual physical con flict will be the outcome." In enforcing his argument Mr. Baty quotes Mr. Dooley: "Th' dillygate fr'm Chiny arose, an' says he: 'I'd like to know what war is. What is war anyhow? ... Is it war to shoot my aunt? ' says th' dillygate fr'm Chiny. Cries of ' No! no! ' Is it war to hook my father's best hat that he left behind him when he bashfully hurried away to escape th' attintions iv Europeen sojery?' he says. ' Is robbery war? ' says he . . . ' I'd like to go back home an' tell them what war really is. A few years back ye sint a lot iv young men over to our part iv th' worruld an' without sayin' with ye'er leave or by ye'er leave they shot us an' hung us up by our psyche knots, an' they burned down our little bamboo houses. Thin they wint up to Pekin, set fire to th' town an" stole ivrything in sight. I just got out at th' back dure in time to escape a jab in th' spine fr'm a German that I never see before .... Was that war, or wasn't it?' he says. ' It was an expedition,' says th' dillygate fr'm England, ' to serve th' high moral juties iv Christian civvylization.' ' Thin,' says th' diltygate fr'm Chiny, puttin' on his hat, ' I'm f'r war,' he says. ' It aint so rough,' he says. An' he wint home." . JURISPRUDENCE (Mussulman). "In fluence of Custom on Mussulman Jurispru dence," by S. Vencatachariar, Allahabad Law Journal (V. v, p. 217, continued from p. 207). JURISPRUDENCE (India). " Chanakya's Arthasastra," by R. Shama Sastry, Mysore Review (V. iv, p. 344). Giving the law of inheritance and buildings. LAW'S DELAY. " The Law's Delays," by W. Bourke Cockran, Ohio Law Bulletin (V. liii.p. 351). LEGAL ETHICS. "Modern Municipal Conditions and the Lawyers' Responsibility,"
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by A. Leo Weil, Albany Law Journal (V. Ixx, p. 193). This paper read before the Penn sylvania Bar Association at Cape May, June 24, is a plan for a higher standard of responsibility toward the community on the part of eminent counsel for public service corporations, and calls for professional condemnation of those who devote their talents to enabling such corporations to get franchises of enormous value without compensation to the community. MECHANICS' LIENS (Jamestown Exposi tion). " Will a Mechanic's Lien Lie Against the Property of the Jamestown Exposition Company? " by Thomas W. Shelton, Central Law Journal (V. Ixvii, p. 163). Discussing the point raised that such a lien will not lie because the exposition company is a private corporation. PRACTICE. " Organization of a Legal Business. XII. Collection Department," by R. V. Harris, The Canadian Law Times and Review (V. xxviii, p. 605). PRACTICE (Right of Appeal). " Reversals for Technical Reasons," by Thomas J. John ston, Law Notes (V. xii, p. 105). Examining statistics from several widely distributed states and from the federal courts, Mr. John ston shows that of 145,500 cases there were 3,000 appeals which resulted in 750 reversals, the percentage of appeals and of reversals being respectively 2.13 and 0.518. From these figures Mr. Johnston concludes that the outcry against reversals for " technical reasons," of which a good deal has been heard lately and which was embodied in one of President Roosevelt's messages to Congress, is all moonshine, the utterance of well-meaning but ignorant persons and of demagogues. Mr. Johnston declares the remedy for the law's delays is not to be found in restriction of the right of appeal. He finds the real evils to be: "Crowding of calendars by unnecessary motions; appeals on practice questions, leading to long delays; a foolish rigidity of practice, fixed by statute; stays of the action of one judge obtained from another, sometimes by false pretences, and the like, are practical denials of justice. Our federal courts, left substantially to make their own practice upon certain broad lines, transact with relatively few judges a large business, and are up with
