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to the general public and perhaps never can be appreciated by them, for it manifests itself only in delays in the administration of
justice and unintentional injustice in de cisions of courts." But the public does realize that the results are not what they should be and the public is just now eagerly interested in the broad minded discussions that are going on about the law's delay and the expense of litigation. Practice of law by principle, and not so much by precedent or cases, is the need of the time. There are so many precedents that one lawyer cannot master them. We need to have prin ciples deduced from the century of decisions and set forth in philosophic and scientific arrangement.
Boston Advertiser:— THE BODY OF THE LAW It has been stated by many admirers of the late James Barr Ames, that he was specially fitted to have undertaken a task which has never been adequately performed for this generation-the preparation of a treatise which should aim to present in terms intelligible to all, the clear and concise state ment of those general principles of justice which rule in all the decisions of the courts,
as to essential principles of American juris prudence, apart from mere statutory law. He did not, however, perform that task, because he was never in a position to carry it out, unaided; and as such a work would have covered years of effort, and would have demanded an independent income, Dean Ames never saw his way clear to perform it. His death, however, has called attention to the fact that such a work would be of in estimable value, not only to the legal pro~ fession, but to the whole nation, as well. It has already been pointed out, in the discussion of the plan to compile a statement of an American Corpus juris, that the leading American jurists have always recog nized the need of such a statement. James Wilson, one of the first American jurists in point of time, as well as in ability, speaking not only as a member of the Supreme Court, but as a citizen, dedicated his own life to the task, so far as his time would permit. Unfortunately death intervened. Since his day, the dawn of the republic, no American has attempted it, with as much prospect of success. . .
The idea of a Corpus jun's is to trace out the principles of law, settled, immutable, fixed, on which all decisions must rest. If _ decisions alone were to constitute the law, from one generation to another, the outlook would be hopeless. But, as Justice Holmes has pointed out, the number of our precedents when generalized and reduced to a system, is not unmanageably large: "They present themselves as a finite body of dogma, which may be mastered within a reasonable time. And this is so for the reason that the reports of a given jurisdiction in the course of a generation take up pretty much the whole body of the law and restate it from its present point of view." So also Judge Dillon has stated that “the number of cases is legion, but the principles they establish are com paratively few, capable of being thoroughly mastered and capable also of direct and in telligent statement." In recent years men of large fortune have established "foundations" for the discovery or the statement of great truths in medicine or in science.
In no other fashion, as We have
recently taken pains to point out, could the progress of the healing art, for example, be so ably advanced as by the great Rocke feller foundation, which has furnished the income to support the men who are delving into the deep mysteries of such diseases as cancer, tuberculosis, the hookworrn disease,
etc. Mr. Phipps has done great things for the investigation of tuberculosis. Mr. Car negie has given millons to scientific investi gation. Why is it not possible for the legal profession to interest some American million aire in the work of preparation of the Ameri can Corpus legis, not merely for this genera tion, but for all generations to come? It is practically self-evident that in such fashion, and in no other, will this work be done, if it is to be done for all time. And it can be done, if the men of great fortune will do for the American people, in law, what has been done in medicine, in science and in general education. Philadelphia Pram A BODY OF LAW American law has grown to an unmanage able bulk. One Congress and forty-eight states and territorial legislatures are turning out new laws annually or biennially in be wildering profusipn. As many supreme courts
