The Green Bag 350
ment. That is the glory of our citizenship. That is the glory of our jurisprudence which we lawyers hold dear, dearer than tongue can tell, those principles of which Choate, Webster,
Binney, Gibson, Sergeant, Dexter, Story, Kent and Marshall are the great luminaries, whose figures stretch in majestic procession before us—dead, but still alive, ruling our spirits from their funeral urns.
Reviews of Books
BRYCE’S AMERICAN COMMON-WEALTH
instances to the demand for the popular initiative and ‘referendum, he indulges
in no pessimistic reflections, considering The American Commonwealth. By James Bryce. New edition, completely revised throughout. with additional chapters. V. l, The National Govern ments; The State Governments. V. 2, The Party System; Public Opinion; Illustrations and Reflec tions; Social Institutions. Macmillan Co., New York. V. 1, p. xv, 679+62 (appendix); v. 2, pp. vii, 933+5 (appendix)+22 (index). (84.)
it is too early to draw deductions re garding the success or failure of this movement. On the whole, the state legislatures are less open to moral cen sure than they were in 1888. And “the
forces working for good seem stronger R. Bryce's "American Common wealth" deservedly enjoys the reputation of being the best account of
our institutions in existence. Written by one of the foremost living publicists and lawyers, a writer as dispassionate as he is able, it is crowded full of skilfully generalized information and candid yet friendly criticism of the shortcomings of American democracy. In its new revised edition, brought down to date,
it more than ever before impresses the reader with its intellectually ripe and stimulating qualities. In 1888, when the first edition ap peared, Mr. Bryce, while he described in detail the weaknesses of the American commonwealth, was led to entertain a hopeful view of the future of popular
today than they have been for the last
three generations." One must not be misled by this hope
fulness, however, to suppose that the author is not fully aware of the defi
ciencies noted in the original edition. He adheres to his position that it is al most impossible to elect a great man
President, that the best men do not enter public life, and that the influence
of the bar has declined with the rise of the commercial and financial classes. He finds us still ignoring differences of
capacity between man and man, adher ing to the Puritanical belief in original sin underlying our constitutional arrange ments, and underrating the difliculties of government pacities of the and man overrating of commonthe sense. ca~
government in this country. Twenty two years later, he finds no reason for
He finds the members of legislatures,
retracting this opinion.
He sees no
gence and capacity substantially higher
deterioration in the character of Ameri can legislatures, noting what appears to be a slight improvement in some of the western states. While the distrust of legislatures is such as to lead in some
than that of the public at large. That is a serious charge, when we bear in mind the worthlessness of the opinions emanat
on the whole, not of a grade of intelli
ing from the untrained mind of the average citizen, and truly, as he says,
