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fashion on the objects already contemplated by the judicial and positive arrangements, and, therefore, on those arrangements themselves.

The antithesis between the natural and the positive. Right, between the Phusei dikaion and the nomo or Theoei dikaion on which the classical philosophy of Right is in all its developments concentrated, expresses exactly this fundamental law of our being, this necessity of a refraction of the absolute in the relative. It has been in vain attempted to eliminate the antithesis, dogmatically denying its first term, or ending in its confusion with the second. The exigency of natural Right persists, notwithstanding the denials of positivists and the attentuations of equivocal "historism;" it persists, in spite of the much more harmful errors of the very persons who advocate it with an inadequate apparatus or by improper methods. Natural Right exists, that is, it is valid, because the human being exists and must be reckoned with, whose inseparable attribute it is; and its determinations are drawn simply from the examination of human nature itself, which reason can perfect, bending back upon itself: "ex ratiocinatione animi tranquilli," to repeat the formula of Thomasius.

The dogma of the essential "positivity" of Right is thus dissolved by criticism. We see that "positivity" is nothing else than a transient and superficial image of a more profound truth. The analysis of the process which leads to the imparting on the stage of history of a "positive" quality to Right, obliging us as it does to recognize in the process itself only a "consecutivum "a purely secondary resultin respect of the idea that is thus rendered positive, confirms in an indirect but undeniable manner, the legitimacy of the deduction of pure Right as an ideal conception.

GEORGE DEL VECCHIO.

DETECTION AND PROOF OF FORGERY.

BY J. W. JOHNSON, F.C.A., M.P.P.

Detection and proof of forgery in handwriting are best accomplished by comparing the alleged forgery, say of a signature, with a number of signatures that are admittedly genuine. The handwriting of an individual is as much a part of his identity as are the features of his face, his voice, his walk and carriage. Without an effort that is strained and unnatural, and therefore easily detected, a man cannot counterfeit the features, the voice or walk and carriage of another. So it is with handwriting; the movement of the arm and fingers that produces the writing of an individual is as unconsciously performed as is the movement of the legs in walking; thus use breeds a habit that becomes so confirmed that the man's walk and handwriting are his alone and are so recognized.

When considering a case of alleged forgery, bear in mind the facts above stated and the principles they imply, and if you are accustomed to receive and deal with the correspondence of many people, you are competent to give valuable evidence in a Court of Justice on a charge of forgery. There are two things to do:

Become familiar with the genuine signature as a whole and it will be in the mind, through the eye, as distinct as any other personal characteristic of the person could be, and wherever the signature is seen, on a cheque, on a draft, on a note, on a deed, on a mortgage or on a letter it will be recognized as the signature of the individual with scarcely the possibility of error.

2nd. Following the general comparisons it will be well to analyze and compare the letters forming the words and their connections and combinations, and what has been conviction as the result of the general comparison will, when taken with the analyses, become a moral certainty.

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The following message, brought by Lord Haldane from His Majesty King George V., was received with enthusiastic applause by the visiting members of the American Bar Association:

"I have given my Lord Chancellor permission to cross the sea, so that he may address the meeting at Montreal. I have asked him to convey from me to that great gathering of the lawyers of the United States and of Canada my best wishes for its success. I entertain the hope that the deliberations of the distinguished men of both countries who are to assemble at Montreal may add yet further to the esteem and good will which the people of the United States and of Canada and the United Kingdom have for each other."

VOL. XXXIII. C.L.T.-49

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Annual address by Rt. Hon. Richard Burdon Haldane, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, at the meeting of the American Bar Association, at Montreal, Canada, September 1-3, 1913.

It is with genuine pleasure that I find myself among my fellow-lawyers of the New World. But my satisfaction is tempered by a sense of embarrassment. There is a multitude of topics on which it would be most natural that I should seek to touch. If, however, I am to use to any purpose the opportunity which you have accorded me, I must exclude all but one or two of them. For in an hour like this, as in most other times of endeavour, he who would accomplish anything must limit himself. What I have.to say will therefore be confined to the suggestion of little more than a single thought, and to its development and illustration with materials that lie to hand. I wish to lay before you a result at which I have arrived after reflection, and to submit it for your consideration with such capacity as I possess.

For the occasion is as rare as it is important. Around me I see assembled some of the most distinguished figures in the public life of this Continent; men who throughout their careers have combined law with statesmanship, and who have exercised a potent influence in the fashioning of opinion and of policy. The law is indeed a calling notable for the individualities it has produced. Their production has counted for much in the past of the three nations that are represented at this meeting, and it means much for them to-day.

What one who finds himself face to face with this assemblage naturally thinks of is the future of these three nations;

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