ing barbaric forms and precedents, boldly and avowedly legislated on each new question; and thus built up the systems of jurisprudence which illustrate, and largely created, the civilization of their peoples.

While the Roman law remained uncodified there was no uniformity of decisions in the various divisions of the Empire. Codification brought order out of chaos throughout its wide dominions. When the Empire fell, its jurisprudence, had it remained uncodified, would have fallen with it, a mass of shapeless ruins; but the code survived as a model for other nations, the most beneficent work of man in the domain of philosophy and government. One-third of Brackton's "English Law and Customs," the earliest commentary on the common law, written in the thirteenth century, was taken bodily from it; and a century ago Lord Mansfield created the British mercantile law by legislation from the bench, which he adopted almost wholly from the codes of Justinian.

A like necessity which led to the codification of the Roman private law by Justinian has already forced the partial codification we have accomplished in America, and will in time, I am sure, lead to a complete codification of all our law. "When Justinian ascended the throne," says Gibbon, "the reformation of the Roman jurisprudence was an arduous but indispensable task. In the space of ten centuries, the infinite variety of laws and opinions had filled many thousands of volumes which no fortune could purchase and no capacity could digest." In a pamphlet published in 1866, the Lord Chief Justice of England said: "We seem to be making no progress whatever towards reducing to any intelligible shape the chaotic masscommon law, equity law, crown law, statute law, countless reports, countless statutes, interminable treatises-in which the law of England, by those who know where to look for it, and not always by them, is to be found."

The western States of our Union have a spirit of intellectual independence, and freedom from the servitude of custom, beyond their eastern sisters. They are equally with them inheritors of a genius for self-government. While New York has delayed and hesitated, three of the western States, California and the two Dakotas, have already adopted the

Code of private law. I would be proud to see intrepid Kansas join the head of the column in conforming our entire system of American jurisprudence to the principle of popular government, and to the convenience and interest of the people-so that all our law shall be plain, consistent, and open, and so that every amendment shall be made by the Legislature, and reflect the growing conscience and judgment of the people.

CURRENT COmment:

Dear Sir-Please allow me to suggest that Mr. Freeze did not say "that the majority of the profession in Pennsylvania has not received with any cordiality the attempt to remove hoary absurdities from Pennsylvania practice." What he said was, that the profession in Pennsylvania has not cordially accepted the "Procedure Act of May 25, 1887," and he thinks there is a mighty difference between the two sayings. He agreed quite cordially to the statute, as confined "to actions of Assumpsit," questions of dollars and cents in which the facts are usually attainable quite readily, and where delay is dangerous-affidavit to the account, affidavit to the defense; judgment for want of a sufficient affidavit, or before the Prothonotary under the Act of April 22, 1889, P. L. 41. In all this, let there be as little technicality and delay as are consistent with the rights of suitors.

But as to actions ex delicto, the statute is an immense "absurdity" though it may not yet be "hoary." No progress of time can ever make it reasonable or satisfactory in actual practice. It is not a workable statute in that regard, neither to the elder men or to the younger ones. It is agreed that the distinctions in these actions might be usefully abolished; but if these" distinctions served a valuable purpose" in times past, "when judges and lawyers observed the science of the law," and if, notwithstanding those checks and "distinctions they do so no longer, what are we to expect when even these are swept away, and the once noble "science of the law" becomes a mere mass of judicial opinion, uninformed by learning and unguided by legal scientific lore? Better John Doe and Richard Roe a thousand times than such a condition. JOHN G. FREEZE.

"

Bloomsburg, Penna,

PEDDLING AND CONSTITUTIONAL LAW.-The remarks of Mr. Justice WILLIAMS upon the argument put forth in Comm. v. Gardner (Supreme Court of Pa., March 17, 1890), 47 Leg. Int. 167, that a peddler could not be prohibited from carrying on his trade, by reason of the inalienable right to acquire property or to pursue his happiness in that way, are very appropriate, and if such questions are by the advising class of the community deemed worthy of an appellate court, one need not be surprised at the extent of the litigation.

But when he and the court justifies the legislation that draws the distinction between domestic and foreign goods as used in Comm. v. Brinton (Supreme Court of Pa., January 27, 1890), 25 W. N. C. 277, where it was not merely said, but decided, that this attempted discrimination makes the law unconstitutional. Robbins v. The Shelby Taxing District (1887), 120 U. S. 489, Asher v. Texas (1888), 128 U. S. 129 are to the same effect.

No one can suspect an intention to disregard the now well settled rule, as thus established by the only authoritative expounder of the Constitution of the United States. But we are left wholly without allusion, so far as I can see, to the distinguishing feature of Comm. v. Brinton, and unfortunately there is no evidence in the report that the intention of the Court called to the cases I have mentioned, which are but a few of the authorities on the subject, and their number shows that the question is very obscure. No State Court seems also to understand it. R. C. McM.

THE MARCH number of The American Law Register opens with an exhaustive article on Legal Holidays, designed to combat the too common confusion of thought which treats a holiday as a Sunday. There has been a surprising increase of recent years, in the number of these holidays, and the reprint of the statutes gives, for the first time, as accurate a list of these days as can be compiled. The case which is annotated, answers affirmatively the tender of a five dollar gold piece to a street railway conductor, with demand for the change after deducting five cents fare.

DICKINSON LAW SCHOOL.

A charter has been obtained for a department of law under the supervision of the president of Dickinson College, located in Carlisle, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. Among the names of the incorporators appear the following distinguished citizens of Pennsylvania: President Reed, Judge Sadler, Hon. M. C. Herman, John Hays, Esq., Gen. A. B. Sharpe, J. H. Bosler, C. H. Mullin, George H. Stewart, T. B. Kennedy, Hon. John Stewart, A. K. McClure, Gov. Beaver, ex-Gov. Curtin, Judge Agnew, and ex-Gov. Pattison. Dr. Reed, president of Dickinson College, will be president of the law school. The Emory chapel will be remodeled for the use of the school.

Dickinson College, that numbers the late President Buchanan and the late Chief Justice Roger B. Taney among its graduates, is one of the old colleges of the country. It was incorporated by an Act of Assembly passed by the legislature of Pennsylvania, September 9th, 1783.

The religious and patriotic motives that prompted its formation may be gathered from the following extracts taken out of the preamble to the Act of incorporation. It might be termed a thank offering by its illustrious founders for the successful termination of the war of independence:

WHEREAS, The happiness and prosperity of every community (under the direction and government of Divine Providence) depends much on the right education of the youth, who must succeed the aged in the important offices of society, and the most exalted nations have acquired their pre-eminence, by the virtuous principles and liberal knowledge instilled into the minds of the rising generation.

AND WHEREAS, After a long and bloody contest with a great and powerful kingdom, it has pleased Almighty God to restore to the United States of America the blessings of a general peace, whereby the good people of this State, relieved from the burthens of war, are placed in a condition to attend to useful arts, sciences and literature, and it is the evident duty and interest of all ranks of people to promote and encourage, as much as in them lies, every attempt to disseminate and promote the growth of useful knowledge. Be it enacted, etc.

From the Prospectus, we learn that as early as 1836 a law school had been established at Carlisle, but in order to give the department of law the position its importance required a number of gentlemen from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia procured a char

ter of incorporation on the 19th of February, 1890, and have announced the first Wednesday of October as the opening day of the "Dickinson Law School."

The school year is to cover a period of eight months, and two years' attendance in compliance with all the requirements of the course, as to study, examinations, deportment, etc., will entitle a student to the degree of L. L. B.

Quite an array of subjects and text books has been given and yet we fail to find either Blackstone or Kent enumerated in the list. Specialists, and specialties have been chosen, but no general comprehensive system, such as doubtless they contemplate. There may be a degree of very old-fashioned theory in the idea of having some one text book that will cover the most of the field, to be used as a text for recitations, but we venture the suggestion that with the aid of oral lectures, either Blackstone or Kent, and especially the latter on Real Property, Contracts and Domestic Relations, might be found sufficient.

There are several very important features of proposed method of instruction announced,-daily recitations-oral lectures— analysis of reported cases-drafting of legal papers and moot court exercises. The daily text book recitations, and the drafting of legal papers is within the accomplishment of every student and, exactness in the one, and exactness and neatness in the other persistently insisted upon and carried out for a period of sixteen months, ought to prove very helpful to their classes. We are living in a practical age, and while theory must not be sacrificed for the merely practical, the successful combination of the two will insure a coveted place for any institution that has a mind to work for it.

The location of the School is quite favorable both from a sanitary and literary stand-point, Being the county seat of a large county, there will be sufficient opportunity given the student for attending legal clinics to familiarize him with general court proceedings, and by careful oversight and methodical arrangement the practical court privileges can be used to great advantage to the student. A number of years ago ex-Judge Rowe, of Franklin County, Pa., in comparing the advantages of the law schools of Yale and Harvard with those of Columbia and Union, spoke of the literary atmosphere of the former,