“The Genius of the Common Law” authority on the necessary toleration of competition relates not to rival trades men, but to rival schoolmasters, who certainly would have joined in making short work of any unqualified intruders, a process not unknown, it is said, in modern politics. It is obvious that in a frame of society,
which no longer limits competition, the claim of the individual to be guaranteed against unfair competition becomes much stronger. Indeed, if we insisted
on our institutions being or appearing
logical (as happily we do not), the in dividual might say with some plausi bility to the state: —
"You turn us all out to compete with one another, and say that if half of us
are ruined the other half have only
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seemed to be finished the law would have ceased to be a living science, and would be fit for nothing more than to be petri tied in an ofiicial corpusjuris. For prin ciples, even the most certain, are capable of infinite application, and the matter is
always changing. The Knights Errant of Our Lady the Common Law must be abroad on a perpetual quest; no sooner is an adventure accomplished than a fresh one is disclosed, or arises out of
,that very achievement. There is no strife in the past which has not some lesson for the future. Courts have to be guided, legislators
have to be warned. Not a word shall be said here in derogation of an advocate's duty to take every point that can fairly be taken for his client. Still, there is a higher and a lower kind of advocacy, in
exercised their common rights. You say the result is worth more to the com
cluding work out of court, without any
munity than it costs.
prejudice to the client's interest.
Good: but why
should the cost fall wholly on innocent,
unsuccessful competitors? If they suffer for the common good, why should not
the community compensate them? Either go back to the old plan of limit ing competition or insure us as individ uals against the consequences of your collective policy." Thus the Nemesis of unchecked indi
Not long ago a learned friend of Lin coln’s Inn was talking with me of a late eminent English conveyancing counsel whose pupil he had been. Other men
might be as learned, said my friend, but I worked much with him, and whoever
worked with him might be sure that he wanted to put the business through. That is, in plain words, which no rhetori
vidualism would lead to something which I suppose would be not improperly de scribed as a form of state socialism. There is one answer to be sure which is decisive if accepted, namely, that
cal expansion could better, the spirit
these matters do not concern the state
science and grateful clients.
at all.
We shall not think the less of the common law for not being infallible and
VIII. THE PERPETUAL QUEST What shall be the attitude of a good
lawyer and a good citizen toward the problems among which the lot of the
of the law and the true lawyer.
Ask
yourself at every doubtful turn what will best help the business through, and you will have a good professional con
invincible.
Some say she is a hard mis
_ tress. It is true that she will not be content with any ofiering short of man's best work; she would not be faithful to
in the first place, that they are alive and not to be solved out of a digest and that
herself if she were. Some call her capri cious. It is true that she does not un dertake to command world success for
the work is never finished.
her followers; earthly fortune may be
common law is cast?
He will recognize,
If it ever
