The herald., 1896-02-24
has sienified its will that it should be

SUCH"
"But the term right, universally car
ries with it. as part of its essential con.
notation, the notion Of rightness, and con-
seqUently, ex vi termni, il is impossible to
conceive of right that is not just or right
full; and hence. Austin was compelled to
| advance to the position that lin truth, law
Il. e., the expressed will of the govern.
menD is itself the standard of justee.'
This view he based en- the proposition .aat
the term, Just or unjust, justice or inn;.
tice, is a term of relative or varying i'm.
port deno.ing merely conformity, II non
formity. to some standard of compar.cG.
referred to by the speaker. This standard
may be either tll the will of God, as eyi-
denced by utility. or (2) positive morality.
or (S) the will of the government; and, ac.
standards is referred TO, the term has an
essentially different meaning. Hence, it
may be said, with equal propriety, that
Socrates was poisoned and Christ crucifed,
either justly or unjustIy; or that it is either
just or unjust for one to refuse TO pay al
honest debt, or to return a deposit. where
the action of the creditor or owner is
barred by the statute of Limitation. Or we
may, in one sense of the term, approve as
just the fate of the gladiator 'butchered to
make a Roman holiday or the spectacle
of Christians converted by Nero by way of
the crazy act of Caligula in making his
horse consul, or the marriage Of Elaga-
bu,us to his catamite.''
The chief idea of the author being to
sh wv that all authority rot based on right
is Invalid.
= The argument following. in support of
:, is excessively interesting, but too long
by far, to be embraced within the scope of
a notice.
The theories above mentioned have all
been Incorporated into the introduction,
have been met and have been answered;
the arguments and positions OF the author
are strengthened and sustained in copious
notes and quotations from numerous au-
thors of ancient, medieval, and modern
writer's.
Having answered and cleared away fall
lacies which might have been troublesome,
the author begins with full and clear defi-
milton of the nature of the state; passes on
to the historical origin of the state; OF the
causal origin or raison d. etre of govern.
ment; and then coming to the practical
application of his theory treats of the func.
tions OF the state generally. Then, partic.
ularizing, of the received classification of
all the functions of the government; of the
administrative, executive, legislative and
judicial. But the whole, and every subject
treated, as the gentlemen of the committee
have well said, with originality and philo.
sophically.
III my tnluO'S eye l. can see tno sIllile
upon the authors face as he writes the fol-
lowing:
''All who have written concerning laws
have written as either lawyers or philoso-
piers. The philosophers lay down many
principles, fair in argument, but not appli.
cable to use: the lawyers being subject and
addicted to the positive rules, either of the
laws of their own country or else of the
Roman or Pontifical law, have no freedom
of opinion, but walk, as it were, in fetters.
Pantagruel expresses the same opinion of
the French lawyers in somewhat more
forcible language. SEEING he says, that
the law is excepted from the very bowels
of moral and natural philosophy, how
should these people know the law, who.
by have read no more in phil
osophy than an ass"
In the summing up of the argument, in
the last portion of the pamphlet, the writer
grows more forcible, more instructive and
more eloquent, until it rises beyond the
power of the reviewer to do it adequate
justice, so that, in commencing the work
to the public, and more particularly to the
profession, we will only say that we have
here work which the highest authority
has deemed worthy of the highest consider
alton. 1t remains to see whether 1t will
meet with that due appreciation which it
merits and which is it's due, or whether the
words Of Pantagruel will be applicable to
the modern student of law, as it seems to
have been applicable to the French lawyers
of the past. X. H. BARNwELL.