s gone
before; and even when they endeavor not to do so, as in the case of
that Massachusetts statute above referred to, their authors' lack of
education in the science of legislation may unintentionally cause a
revolution in the law. And even when a statute does not do this, no
lawyer can be certain what it means until, years or decades afterward,
it has received recognition from an authoritative court. That is why
much complaint has been made of lawyers; they are said not to know
their business, not to be able to tell what the law is. The head of
a great railroad has recently complained that he was only anxious to
obey the law, but had great difficulty in finding out what the law
was. Any good lawyer with common sense knows the common law and usage
of the people; but no one could tell at the time of its passage what,
for instance, the Sherman Act, enacted twenty-three years ago, meant;
the twenty-three years have elapsed; the anti-trust law has been
before the courts a thousand times, and the best lawyers in the
country do not to-day know what it means; and the highest tribunal
in the land is so uncertain on the subject that it has ordered the
Standard Oil case reargued.

This is not to say that one must not recognize the meaning and the
need of law-making by statute; of law made by the people themselves
to suit present conditions. "There should be a law about it," is the
popular phrase--commonly there _is_ a law about it, and the best of
all law, because tested by time and experience; only, the people
do not realize this, and their power and practice of immediate
legislation is not only the great event in our modern science of
government, but it is also the greatest change in the rules and
conditions of our _living_, and our _doing_, and our _having_. Not
only our office-holders, but we ourselves, are born, labor, inherit,
possess, marry, devise, and combine, under a perpetual plebiscitum,
referendum, and recall. I can only hope that I have made some
suggestions to my readers which will awaken their interest to the
importance of the subject.

INDEX

Abbot of Lilleshall case,
Abduction, statute against, A.D. 1452, (_see Kidnapping_).
Acton Burnel (_see Statute Merchant_).
Actors forbidden from swearing on the stage.
Administration of estates, unfair laws in American States.
Administrative law (_see Boards and Commissions_),
still exists in Germany;
forbidden by Magna Charta;
did not exist in Engl