The Canadian Bar Review

THE CANADIAN BAR REVIEW THE CANADIAN BAR REVIEW is the organ of the Canadian Bar Association, and it is felt that its pages should be open to free and fair discussion of all matters of interest to the legal profession in Canada. The Editor, however, wishes it to be understood that opinions expressed in signed articles are those of the individual writers only, and that the REVIEW does not assume any responsibility for them. IVSpecial articles must be typed before being sent to the Editor, Charles Morse, K.G., Room 707 Blackburn Building, Sparks Street, Ottawa. Notes of Cases must be sent to Mr. Sidney E. Smith, Dalhousie Law School, Halifax, -N.S. TOPICS OF THE MONTH. MR . ROwELL AT WASHINGTON--The Honourable Newton W. Rowell, K.C., President of the Canadian Bar Association, was guest of honour and principal speaker at the annual dinner of the American Bar Association held in Washington, D .C., on the 15th instant . The press refers to his speech as one of remarkable farce and brilliance. We quote from the Washington correspondent of the Ottawa Citizen : His speech indeed was of outstanding interest even on a programme which during the week had included the President of the United States, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Lord Reading, former Viceroy of India,- and eminent members of the American Bar. Mr. Rowell spoke both as a lawyer and as close student of international problems. His speech particularly revealed his deep interest in the great subject of world peace. A FRIEND OF THE ASSOCIATION PASSES.-Members of the Canadian Bar Association who attended this year's meeting at Calgary will hear with deep regret of the death of Mrs. A. M . Naismith which occurred on the 6th instant. Mrs. Naismith was one of the most effective and indefatigable workers on the Ladies' Committee. Her suite in the Hotel Palliser was open for the entertainment of the visiting ladies throughout the meeting, and she very largely contri- buted to the distinguished success that marked the social side of the programme. We extend our sincere sympathy to her husband, who is a well-known member of the Calgary Bar. 536 The Canadian Bar Review. [No. 8 JUDICIAL APPOINTMENT.-Mr. Patrick Kerwin, K.C., of Guelph, has been appointed a judge of the High Court Division of the Sup- reme Court of Ontario. Mr. Kerwin was born in Sarnia, and was educated at the Sarnia Collegiate Institute, the University of Tor- onto and Osgoode Hall Law School . After admission to the Bar of Ontario he entered upon the practice of his profession in association with the Honourable Hugh Guthrie, K.C., in Guelph . He was created a King's Counsel in the year 1927. SUPERINTENDENT OF BANKRUPTCY.-Mr. William J. Reilley, for- merly Registrar in Bankruptcy at Osgoode Hall, has been appointed Dominion Superintendent of Bankruptcy, an office created by recent legislation of the Dominion Parliament. Mr. Reilley is a lawyer by profession, having been in active practice at one time in Stettler, Alberta, and later in Kemptville, Ontario. ECONOMIC RECOVERY.--While one is prepared to accept the counsel of professors of the "dismal science" that an upturn in the stock markets is no sure and certain guarantee that the world is at last rounding the corner behind which prosperity has been hiding during the past three years, yet it is satisfactory evidence that the psychological element of fear, which plays so large a part in the visitations of adversity, is relaxing its grip . The fact that people, howsoever wisely or unwisely, are buying shares again must have its reaction on the minds of those who still have money to buy the basic commodities of trade and commerce. Indeed, there are already indications that confidence is being restored in respect of the pur- chase of these commodities. Individual business men are not wait- ing for the World Economic Conference to evolve economic methods by which the whole planet will be refreshed before they do their bit to enable the communities in which they live to snap out of the numb- ness of depression . Of course everyone wishes well for the conference referred to, but there are conferences and conferences. An economic conference between a group of nations bound together both by organic and sentimental ties may succeed in achieving prac- tical results while a similar conference between nations not so knit ted together may utterly fail of attainment. Hence it is well for the individual not to await the dawn of the economic federation of the' world before attempting to improve things as they are. Get., 1932] Topics of the Month. 537 GRAHAM WALLAS .-Professor Graham Wallas passed away re- cently at the age of seventy-four years. He was for a long period Professor of Political Science in the London School of Economics. In the eighties of last century he was prominently associated with Lord and Lady Passfield in the Fabian Society, and was responsible for what was probably the most constructive thought in the Fabian Essays of 1889. In his Human Nature in Politics, his criticism of prevailing methods of political reasonirrg finds its clearest embodi- ment ; one cannot fail to find in him there the evangelist of the new political ideas which have gained so many disciples in England and America. To his mind the control of political forces primarily de- pends upon a recognition of the common factors of human nature. The politician must remember that there is more disagreement than concord in the views of government among intelligent men to-day; and that quantitative rather than qualitative words and methods are needed in reforming the science of politics. Nineteenth century thinkers were too apt to `intellectualise' impulse in politics. While the origin of a political party may be due to a deliberate intellectual process, where "a party has once come into existence its fortunes depend upon facts of human nature of which deliberate thought is only one. It is primarily a name . From the beginning of its existence and activity new associations are, however, being created which tend to take the place, in association, of the original meaning of the name. No one in America when he uses the terms Republican or Democrat thinks of their dictionary meaning." JUDICIAL TRIBULATIONs.-Judges, of course, suffer many trial's beyond those which confront them in their daily business in the Courts. Possibly their extrajudicial tribulations are sent to remind them that they are still human beings and that elevation to the Bench is. not a form of apotheosis . We were interested to read in a recent number of one of our English contemporaries that judge Cluer, of the Whitechapel County Court, finds the telephone a grievous thorn in the flesh to him . It seems that he has been assigned the same number as a butcher who knows no early-closing by-law, and the learned judge is frequently aroused from his slum- bers by calls that denote that his neighbours are 'more carnivorous than vegetarian in their diet. Judge Cluer's case certainly serves to show that it is quite possible to suffer vicariously from the fleshly lusts that war against the soul. 538 The Canadian Bar Review. [No. 8 So WISDOM SPOKE IN 1925 .-In the course of a series of lectures delivered at Columbia University some seven years ago by Pro- fessor Alfred Zimmern, of Oxford, he spoke the following words, which subsequent events have proved to be words of wisdom indeed : Previous to the Great War most modern peoples did not realize the extent to which they had given hostages to fortune-or shall I say hostages to "normalcy"-by the development of the industrial process and the vast increase of international trade. They assumed that trade would inevitably continue on the familiar lines; in Great Britain, in particular, a continuance of these normal conditions and the maintenance of the pre-war economic equilibrium was the unspoken assumption behind the programme of all political parties. The war revealed to us in a flash that there are political forces which cut across the economic process and make havoc of its delicate mechanism : and it has proved to us also that in these circumstances it is the rich hostage who suffers more than the poor hostage. The result has been to bring about a condition of permanent economic insecurity, particularly in the manu- facturing countries. SOLICITOR'S COSTS REDUCED IN ENGLAND.-Since the year 1919 solicitors in England have been entitled to charge a 331/3 per cent. addition to their profit costs. At the annual meeting of the Law Society in July, it was announced that the Council of the Society had unanimously resolved to accept a suggestion made by the Lord Chancellor that the percentage should be reduced to 25 per cent. in the case of costs of litigation and to 20 per cent. in non-contentious work. Speaking of this reduction, The Solicitor's Journal, in a recent number, said : The addition of 331/a per cent. was not merely a war-time provision to meet the extra expense which the circumstances of the time imposed on solicitors as well as on others, but was, in fact, a long overdue increase in the scale of charges some of which had been fixed so long ago as 1882. The overhead expenses of solicitors have been mounting higher and 'higher, and even before the war an upward revision of the scale was called for and could have been abundantly justified. We can only hope that the public will recognise and appreciate the sacrifice which has been made as a contribution to the general movement towards economy.

Load more