No doubt, this is also to a large extent true of our Constitution. And so, while impatient reformers cry out for swift and radical action, the sober judgment of the Canadian people will approve a sure-footed deliberation in dealing with proposals for scrapping the British North America Act or making therein any serious changes.

R. W. S.

LORD HARDWICKE.-" Lord Hardwicke was, perhaps, the greatest magistrate this country ever had. He presided in the Court of Chancery about twenty years, and in all that time none of his decrees were ever reversed, nor the justness of them questioned. Though avarice was his ruling passion, he was never in the least suspected of any kind of corruption-a rare and meritorious instance of virtue and self-denial, under the influence of such a craving, insatiable, and increasing passion.

"And it is no small evidence of the acknowledged abilities and integrity with which he presided in the Court of Chancery that, during the space of twenty years, in which he sat there, only three of his decrees were appealed from, and those afterwards confirmed by the House of Lords."

"What conduced most to

A learned Judge, upon being asked: a barrister's success?" is said to have replied, "That barristers succeed by many methods; some by great talents, some by high connexions, some by a miracle, but the majority by commencing without a shilling."

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Sir Edward Coke said "That the king cannot change any part of the common law nor create any offence by his proclamation which was not an offence before, without parliament."

F. E. H.

NOTEWORTHY CHANGES IN STATUTE LAW.-Accidents do happen, and the practice of enacting legislation which is not to be in force until proclaimed by the Lieutenant-Governor of the particular Province, rather invites accidents. In the highly excellent review of the Noteworthy Changes in the Statute Law, reported by Mr. Shannon's Committee of the Canadian Bar Association, and printed as an article. in the February Number of the REVIEW, he refers to "The Ontario Sale of Securities Act, 1924" and "The Broker's Registration Act, 1924," each an Ontario Statute, as if each were in force. Not only Mr. Shannon himself, but the members of his Committee, and all the

Ontario members of the Association, who heard or read or should have read the report, overlooked the fact that neither of these Statutes comes into force until proclaimed, and that no proclamation with respect to either has yet been made. Mr. F. D. Hogg, of Ottawa, calls attention to the error, and Mr. Shannon will doubtless feel obliged to Mr. Hogg for so doing, when he learns of the incident.

G. F. H.

SALVAGING THE STATE.-Pope said of an English statesman of his day that he (we quote from memory):

"Like Cato gave his little Senate laws,

And sat attentive to his own applause."

We think the first line rather neatly described what the new VicePresident of the United States threatened to do to the upper chamber of Congress, when he assumed the Chairmanship of that august body on the 4th of March. Whether this official gesture will result in a similar achievement to that recorded in the concluding line of our quotation depends upon how far Charles Gates Dawes will really and finally succeed in what so valiant a reformer as Theodore Roosevelt failed to do. But if Mr. Dawes is unable to so administer the governance of the Senate that its business will not be controlled by a cabal or a clique, then it will not be because of his weakness of purpose, nor, indeed, for lack of pressing his purpose with all the alarums of war.

President Harding once said of him: "Dawes is the only public speaker I know who can keep right on talking with both feet in the air at the same time." He is afraid of neither the man in buckram Precedent has heretofore condemned the VicePresident of the United States to comport himself in the Senate with masterly inactivity-now nous avons changé tout cela!

nor the real die-hard.

A new reading of the American lex parliamenti will enable the presiding officer of the Senate to preside in theory and in fact. It will indeed be a great thing if the Senate of the United States is enabled to put on the dignity and rectitude of conduct which should belong to it as potentially the most important organ of government on this planet.

C. M.

ZONING AND ARCHAIC PROPERTY LAW.-The recent presentation to the New Jersey legislature of a joint resolution for the amendment of the State constitution, authorizing the passage of a law to establish building zones in large centres of population, is an instructive

reminder that the common law rules relating to real property must be adjusted as occasion arises to the complexities of modern urban life. Legislation attempting to sanction zoning has been invalidated by the courts, on the ground that it is an unconstitutional proceeding to deny a property owner any use of his property allowed him by the letter and polity of the common law.

The advocates of State constitutional amendment are further confronted by the argument that nothing short of an amendment of the Federal constitution in that behalf will be effective. To this argument the answer is made that a zoning system is part of the necessary exercise of a community's "police power "-and thus once more we have the constitutional deus ex machina invoked to bring order out of chaos in the drama of civil life.

The difficulty has become most acute in a certain section of the City of Newark, which is an exclusive residential locality. When the opulent residents of this quarter of the city learned that a building corporation proposed to erect a twenty-family apartment-house right in their midst, they protested that such a structure would result in the depreciation in value of their fine properties, and that its erection should be prohibited. In the litigation that has ensued over this right to zone, a most interesting mass of evidence has been given. which maintains to a surprising degree the justice of the claim for relief. An engineer of the Water Department of the city saw a difficulty in supplying the district with an adequate water supply, if the apartment house were erected. A Fire Chief envisaged total destruction of all the residences by fire, in such a case. A Police Captain feared the possibilities of the impugned structure for immoral purposes, and the consequent damage to the impeccable reputations of those already living there. The Health Department put up an officer to show the danger of inadequate sewage, if this additional strain were imposed on the existing system. To cap the climax a Tax Board official deprecated the right to erect the proposed building because it would indubitably have the effect of shrinking the handsome amount of taxes at present exacted and recovered from the property owners of the district. In view of all this, we certainly think that the "police power" has a place for the sole of its foot in this interesting controversy.

C. M.

THE LEMIEUX ACT DECISION.-To the constitutional lawyer the chief interest of the Privy Council judgment pronouncing the Lemieux

16-C.B.R.-VOL. III

Act to be invalid lies in the very restricted interpretation which their Lordships now give to the "peace, order and good government” clause in section 91 of the B. N. A. Act. Our old friend Russell v. The Queen' emerges from Lord Haldane's scrutiny with a somewhat damaged reputation. We are now told that it was nothing more than a decision upon certain very exceptional facts, and can only be supported on the assumption that "the evil of intemperance at that time amounted in Canada to . . . a menace to the national life of Canada so serious and pressing that the National Parliament was called on to intervene to protect the nation from disaster. An epidemic of pestilence might conceivably have been regarded as analogous." The explanation is hardly convincing, and it might have been better for their Lordships frankly to have dissented from Russell v. The Queen, which is now in effect overruled. If the state of things in Canada when the Scott Act was passed was really equivalent to a pestilence, then a system of local option would seem to have been a somewhat timid remedy.

It now appears from the judgment that the "peace, order, and good government" clause can only be invoked by the Dominion in what may be called cases of emergency to which the ordinary distribution of powers made by ss. 91 and 92 does not apply. The mere fact that a particular measure is of national importance or for the general benefit of Canada does not make the Dominion Parliament competent, if the specific subject matter happens to fall within the enumeration of s. 92. The Fort Frances Case tells us that the overriding power of the general clause may be employed in time of war, and Lord Haldane further suggests that it may perhaps prove useful during a pestilence. Apart from such emergencies it would seem that the celebrated phrase is a weapon which is likely to grow rusty from disuse.

H. A. S.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE

"Observantior aequi

"Fit populus, nec ferre negat, cum viderit ipsum auctorem parere sibi."-Claudianus.

"The people become more observant of justice, and do not refuse to submit to the laws when they see them obeyed by their enactor." Centuries have passed since these words were written, and they have

many times been repeated in form or in substance. Lawyers should naturally be leaders in impressing upon others the outstanding thought that confidence in the administration of justice is essential to the public welfare, and any incident which tends to a lessening of that confidence is to be deplored.

With this thought in mind, it is impossible to pass by without comment the recent public discussion in the press of the judgment of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of Ontario in the Jarvis and Smith cases. One did not need to be closely in touch to realize that these appeals, in view of their very great public importance, had been the subject of even unusual care and thought by the eminent judges whose duty it was to dispose of them, and it must be a matter of profound regret that their judgment should have been made the subject of serious adverse criticism by the one who is peculiarly charged with the administration of justice in that province. And when his lead was promptly followed by the learned Chief Justice whose judgment was the subject of the appeals, the result can hardly be described as edifying.

The bolt has been shot, and the judges themselves must perforce keep silence.

More good than harm would probably result from anything like a revival of the discussion, but let it be known that both the lawyers. and the laymen of Canada have confidence in their judges, and lawyers should first, last, and always do all in their power to ensure a continuance of that confidence.

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W. M. G.

ANOTHER ATTACK UPON MARS.-At the moment of writing news comes from Geneva that President Coolidge's proposal for a second Disarmament Conference at Washington does not please the Continental powers although it has the cordial support of Great Britain. Those European States which adhere to the League of Nations, but at the same time maintain large armies, declare that they need security such as was provided by the Geneva protocol before they throw down their arms. Lacking any hope of America furnishing any quota. of such security they fear her magnificent idealism where her own interests are not imperilled. Such being the case they very reasonably demand that the League's plans for world pacification be given a trial before facing the issue of disarmament. Take the case of France. to start with, persuade her people that the United States is ready to ratify the tripartite agreement made at the Paris Conference and they would unhesitatingly endorse President Coolidge's proposal. Failing