Guilds and Guild-Laws. A law of this kind considered from a moral standpoint shows the growth more of weak sentimentality than of sound reason and knowledge of the needs of social reform in this age, not to speak of the complex system of administering the law, and the in creased opportunity for abuse of authority by corruption. Conservatism of opinion should be felt here. If a person on trial is guilty enough in the unbiassed, unprejudiced minds of twelve of his peers, backed by the conviction of the judge who is to pronounce his sentence, and surrounded by all of the safeguards which are thrown about every man on trial, whether guilty or not, then he should suffer the pen alty imposed by an outraged society as found by a judge of sound sense and abil ity, and no weak sentimentality should be allowed to interfere.
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Even the reformers in penological ethics concede that prison discipline should be strict and wholesome, so as to bring home to the prisoner the full force of his position with reference to the society he has out raged. But is not the power to make this same prison discipline wholesome and formable weakened by the knowledge which the prisoner is sure to have that he will meet with leniency more as a refractory school boy than as a convict, or that he is subject to the same parole system as the boys and girls in the State Reform Schools? We do not wish to manifest a spirit of opposition to merited reforms in administra tive law. That there may be room for re forms in this direction we concede. But we' submit that a reform in this direction should not be guided or controlled in any way by fanaticism or sentimentalism.
GUILDS AND GUILD-LAWS. A Contribution to the History of the Laws on Trades, Mercantile, and Social Unions. By Gustave Ravene
OUR experience, as well as the unani mous testimony of history, tells us that men live and always have lived in a social state. Wherever we turn we see man as the member of a community of fellow-creatures, in whatever manner their unions may be ef fected, — whether by the ties of blood, or by herding together for the purposes of mutual assistance, or by the formation of great na tional associations. But at the same time we notice another social phenomenon. Not content with the natural formation of society and the legal guarantees of the State, men carry their social instincts farther, and form .themselves into peculiar associations exist ing within the community and the State.
Such associations are the guilds of the Middle Ages. The word guild is a purely Germanic word. The Gothic gild, old High German gelt, kelt, Anglo-Saxon gield, gyld, Norse gildi, all had one meaning, — that of retribution. It is related to the idea of sacrifice, offering; and we see this in the Anglo-Saxon translation of the book of Genesis. Gield means sacri fice,— brynegield, burnt offering; luiedengield, sacrifice to an idol. The heathen sacri fices were accompanied by drinking-bouts, and the Norse word gildi expresses this cir cumstance. This etymological connection of guild with sacrifice is historically justi fied; it is the only correct one, and should
