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Hokitika Guardian, 20 September 1924, Page 2

“Tm: Justices <f the Supreme Court, of tlie Federal Courts, and of the highest State Courts, whom the highest dignitaries of the King’s Courts met to welcome at Westminster, may as justly as their hosts claim the Palace of William Rufus as their spiritual home.” says the ''limes.” “Air Hughes in their name recorded the claim, and the common mires try of the laws and the lawyers of England and of America. 'I lie great men who moulded the Common Law on one side of Westminster Had and the system of Ivpiity. on the other, from Cake to Mansfield and from Nottingham to I Inrdwieko, he reminded ns with pride, ‘belong to us as well as to you.’ and he pointed out with that •fena-ity’ the leaders of the American Revolution ‘dung to the trad.ti »’>s *1 English law.’ There has been no more powerful element —extrpt the English Dibit* in forming the characters of the two peoples on the same fundamental lines, ft is natural and right that the guardians and the practitioners of the jurisprudence based upon these traditions should ‘feel deeply stirred as we sit together at the fireside in the old homestead.’ and there is a special litncss in the gift that the American lawyers bring their Rritish brethren - the stalin' of Sir William Tilackstne. the historian and exponent of (ho Common Law. for Rurke tells u-, that nearly as maiiv copies ol his ('oiirnieiitarios were sold in America as in Kngland on the ap.poai nin eof the hook. 'I he law is perhaps not universally associated in the public mi ml with the prc-crvatimi df freedom; nevertheless, tlial olliee is its essential attribute.” says the “Aloiuiiijr Post." ‘'Time and again in this country Parliament lias is.me into collision with l.atv, and the l.aw has vindicated the rights of the subject. From this (omitr,v America inherited, trial b\ jury, wlii<h Air Hughes regards in l only as a safeguard of justice, hut as a groat educative education. He claimed, ton. as ] art of the American inheritance. the works of the great English jurists, such as Cuke. Hale. Holt, Mansfield, Nottingham, Ilanlwdike, Eldon, and ilie rest of that majestic company. But in the last resort, it is not (lit law, nor the wiilten document, lioi precedent, nor even the Cnii-litutinu of the United States, u; an w hich tin impartial adniiiiistration of justice depends. bni. to (|ic>te Air Hughes once more, it is dependent upon ‘the s; irit of the Common Law,’ which, lie said, ‘is incarnated in learned. < uiiscientiuns and leal less Judges.’ Like every ollici 1 111111 ;i(i institution, the institution of the law is eventually redmed to terms o! personality ; and in default <f ‘.learned conscientious, and fearless Judges.’ the w hob l edifice would crumble, and upon its ruins anarchy v.ould enter in and take pu-,session of the State.”

Mil li Yu i, son 11 Aicitis discusses in 1 lie la ml in "|);iil,v News" the ini] (irtant ] l i.'>!■ ■m nf t!n> I'nt liro til lln* Dominions, wlin. uliilo forming pni't of lho Empire, yet insist on going t! t-ir 0..11 iudc|cn--110111 utiv, os s - iiialf "nations." “Tin- Itoliihiy niontlis arc no time fin a s.v! liing investigation into any ] roliloin an (implex anil al-truse as t!io 1 ■i'latioiis!ii]is of tha Biiti.xh Empire," says .Mr Harris. "It is just as wc'l. all tho same t! lal .Mr .1. 11. 'I lioinas is calling a tanlPri in.- on the subject in

tin,' autumn, for one thing is cortain. that tilings cannot roinain where tin-y arc. Whoiv thoy a-c imLcd. ini 0110 <j 11 it • knows, anil where tliov soon "ill ■I .' i!' in 10 drift lotiliiiuos is a |iroMoin still uioi'o iihsi iro. ( ini' iiior for a inn-

the past month or two. Or rather g l ack first a little la ilew to Canada' demand for her own di j 1 nual ic re| n '■''id at i'll at Washington. That was

I ui:d:i lien I ally now departure that do-cad" or two a."o would have boon II i. in oivahlo. Hal in r.iiuciplc it is a a i •<■; *m 1 li-hod Let to-day. Ilioilgll fo one reii'.oi. and aiiollior the lirst aj pointmenl to tlie post has yet to h un do. Hut i cm? di w n to more recen events. It is only a in tilth or so sine the Government issued a White Pape embodying at times aim "-t aci imouion

lOlT(''J llllt‘lf t' Ill'tWlvn OtlllMll ;iHi \Vliitf!i:i!l nvcr the n.tili iitiiiu of 11 1 Tiviitv of Ilis:iuno. (’iiimilii uns mi i.iviloil to spud ii si'l'ni’iltc re; I'osi'litn tivc l i imiko | one.- with tlu- Tmk.s n whs wlicii tin l ) i>;iiwith (li'Miiiiii; wm lit'tiofinti’il. T!

"as treasured n >. :tml when i( came to sit'll ini' and i-si t ily i in'. Canada r-:i il l it was r.n luxiness cl' hers. Tliat mused si-:ni‘ stir both ;it Whitehall mid West mil. stt'r, and clf.nts t:> smooth the matter over I era me feverish. F.xa'th. lio.v they ended is .still somethin;' cf i mystery, for Ministers were .so lavish of soothing n c -:nran( cs in the Mouse of Commons that no one "as quite sine that roekhottom "as ever reached. At all events, matters were so arranged that so far as Canada was comenied the ratilieation < f the Treaty eonhl go forward. Tint then there was the Irish Free State to reckon with. Its .■"■«: , iil. tea, had ta d e ohlivned. and for weeks the I’lime .Minister had t.o keep explain, icg periodically that he mold not move because of Duhlin. Duhlin, it may he observed, had meanwhile taken the earliest opportunity of acini' in practice "hat Canada had done only in theory, and has alieady appointed its own Minister at Washington. Duhlin further annoumed. on the eve of the present Allied conversations in London, that they did not lonrern her and she was not e unmitted by their conclusions. Canada took the opposite line, time m:>.e, as at Lausanne, she found lierhelf. excluded, though she had actually appointed and aicredited a delepale, Senator Belcoiut. The Senator, having been shut out one day, was let in the next alter hasty discussions vet:i; ] 1 resulted in the establishment of a rota ot Dominion ropioseiitativos, one id whom sits each time as fall delegate "bile the others are admitted to look on. That arrangement is accepted lor the moment, lint no one can ■ coal'd it. as anything hut a makeshift. Finally, as a most essential fact in the case, coiiie the arguments adduced by •lie OmiTiimoit. an.l „til| linin' einplintically by Lord Jfalfonr in the House of Lords, about the Dominions in relation to the Treaty of Mutual Assistance. We can leave the rights and wrongs of the treaty on one sid • in this connection. What matters is the constitutional reasoning based on it. I lie treaty, in its present tentative form, operates by < ontineiits. Xo country. that is to say. is called on to take

military measures in a continent, other than its own. That, says Lord Balfour. cuts (lean across the fabric of the British F.inpire. which extends to every continent, and can acknowledge no such limitation. On that it may ho observed that the limitation is not compulsoiy. ]f Canada, for example. ehn.se to assist Great Britain in defending seme 'European State against attack, there would he nothing to pievent her. But d.erd Ba'four's main argument is not that. He contends that Britain cannot hind herself to intervene in a European quarrel, because that would, morally at any rate, involve the Dominions, who do not desire to he involved. That is really the crux of the whole problem. How far are the Dominions, recognised as separate selfgoverning entities, holding their own

seats in the League of Nations, anil at liherty to vote against Client Britain nr against one another there, necessarily involved in the international notion of (Irent Britain or of olio another:' Tn Bill) they were not oonsidered to lie so himnil. When tlre triple part between Britain, Frame, anil America was signed (not rati lied) a special proviso was inserted to the effort tiiat the Dominions wore not hound by (treat Britain’s .signature. But the moral obligation may lie said to remain.”