The Editor's Bag the recall is that it avoids the real issue. Of the changing social ideals of our time we will say only a word, the subject is so vast. We concede that our judges are not always progressive enough in adapting their views to those which have become predominant in the com munity, and that they do not always keep in mind the fact that even the in terpretation of constitutions must bow to the will of the people. But conceding all this, the recall of judges is but a poor expedient, in comparison with the amend ment of state constitutions, for what se curity is given that the new judges raised to office by a popular whim would be capable guardians of these constitu tions? Law must of necessity lag be hind public opinion; and the moment we attempt to pack our judiciary with "progressive" judges we run the risk of filling the bench with very bad law yers, who will render the logical and consistent development of our law im possible. The suggestion was made recently by Chief Justice Winch of the Ohio Cir cuit Court, that judges should be re movable by the legislature for incom petence, the question being brought be fore the legislature by a system of popu lar initiative and referendum, and the accused judge having the right of an impartial hearing before the legislature. This device would be highly objection able, though it might perhaps be a safer remedy for an existing evil than Prof. W. F. Dodd's radical proposal that the power to pass on questions of the con stitutionality of state statutes be taken from state judges. LORD MACNAGHTEN Lord Macnaghten completed on Jan. 25 his twenty-fifth year of judicial ser vice as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary.
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The whole of his judicial career has been spent in the House of Lords. The learn ing and eminent intellectual gifts of Lord Macnaghten have made him famous in this country as one of the brightest ornaments of the English bench.
RECENT CONFESSIONS OF CRIME DR. GEORGE A. ZELLAR, a wellknown alienist and superintendent of one of the Illinois hospitals for the insane, in discussing recent confessions of crime of a notorious character, de clares that they were prompted by psy chic manifestations, due to a general stirring up of men's consciences. "This country," he says, "has with stood crime waves, industrial waves, and waves of religion, but a new period, in which the conscience is supreme, is rapidly manifesting itself." In proof of this, he cites the notable cases, East and West, that have occurred within the past few months. Seemingly he has made out a strong case. However, when we come to a thor ough analysis of these confessions, we are not altogether convinced of the sound ness of his deductions. As an instance, we take his first example, that of the seventeen hundred Adams county, Ohio, voters who confessed their participa tion in the election bribery which had been going on in that county for years. Undoubtedly it has a most remarkable display, but we doubt very much the genuineness of the remorse that prompted it. If our recollection of the matter is correct, in this case, the prosecution had evidence more than sufficient to con vict, long before the offenders were brought into court, and it a was knowl edge of this fact, rather than a quickened conscience, that prompted the confes
