Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1902-09-04

or pass the limit of the individual
freedom prescribed by many con-
sciences.
Justice Holmes turns precedent
topsyturvy in his mode Of treatment
OF the law of contract, where the
meeting of the parties minds had
hitherto been supposed to be an es-
sential element of validity: THE
duty to keep a contract at common
law means a prediction that you
must pay damages if you do not
keep it-and nothing else. If you
commit a tort you are liable to pay
a compensatory sum. If you commit
contract you are liable to pay a
compensatory sum, unless the prom
ised event comes to pass, and that Is
ali the difference. We talk about d
contract as the meeting O. the minds
of the parties, and hence it is infe1-
ed in various cases that there is no
contract because their minds have
not met; that is, because they have
intended different things, or because
one party has not known of the as
sent of the other. Yet nothing is
more certain than that parties may
be bound by a contract to things
which neither of them intended and
when one does not know of the 9th
er's assent
Still more startling is the judges
comment on the criminal law: what
to show that the criminal law, in its
present form, does more good than
harm? l do not stop to refer, to the
effect which it Las had in degrading
prisoners and in plunging them fur
Their into crime, or to Inc question
whether fine and imprisonment dc
not fall more heavily on the criminal
wife and children than on himself
have in mind more far-reaching
questions Does punishment deter
TO we deal with criminals on proper
principles?"
Judge Holmes was the younges
judge of the Massachusetts supreme
court, but he is older than either Jus
tice White or Justice McKenna O.
his new associates. He is past G!
a statement difficult to keep in mine
Of him who remembers mat he is
the hero of ,--e Autocrat's search fol
My Captain, which, though writer
or the Atlantic Monthly after An
tietam, is still fresh in it's literary
purity.
Personally Justice Holmes is a
pleasing man and courteous. He is
quite tall, with an erect slender fig,
ure. He has a literary taste and his
acquaintance is worldwide. He IS
especially well known in England
and Ireland, and numbers many OF
the leading judges and lawyers of
England as his friends.
Equipped in early life with the
best advantages that society, envi
ronment and education could give
the full enlargement of his powers
has been gained by interchangeable la
ty for thinking. Possessed of strong
powers for diagnosis and analysis
which were perhaps inherited, he
has never let his brain loiter, but
has kept it thinking out things fol
himself. His studies have been wide
and varied, and he is, in the broad
est sense a scholar. He has moi
read merely for the sake of readins
but for knowledge and ability tha
he might be useful. His legal writ
ings show a historian of events will
eyes broad in their view of facts anC
adopted the easy course of followin,
legal rules merely because they ex
! ist as such without first tracing gu
their history and origin and thei
relation to the matter in hand
AS a magistrate he has shown
much learning and profound think
! ing. his opinions. which run
through the last 40 volumes of the
! Massachusetts, reports, are express
ed in a fine literary style which Is
peculiarly his own and occasionally
sparkle with wit. He has generally
reasoned and explained the law O.
| the case in hand, citing such cases
as may have relation to it, without
copying, in wholesale manner, gen
eral rules. His opinions are almost
always brief, and are prepared gener
ally with celebrity.
Justice Holmes, in addition to his
eminence in law matters, has achiev
ed prominence as a writer and lee
turer on legal subjects, upon whicr
he is a recognized authority. Al
Harvard university he taught consti
tutional law in 1870 and 1871, anC
was university lecturer on iurisprl,
Gence in 1871 and 1872 In 1873 he
| published four volumes of the twelfth
edition of Kent's Commentaries. add
| ing elaborate notes, this being since
recognized as the standard edition OF
that work. He had editorial charge
OF the American Law Revew from
1870 to 1873. In addition to his
numerous writings a volume of his
speeches has been published