grew largely out of its real or supposed bearing | Constitution had conferred on the executive de-
upon the tariff legislation for Porto Rico. The
part of the opinion which excited popular and po-
litical interest was really obiter. What was actually
held was that when the petitioner was tried by a
military tribunal in Porto Rico, such tribunal had
jurisdiction to try, convict and sentence him, as
the treaty which ceded the island to the United
States, although signed, had not become effective
as to private rights, because the exchange of rati-
fications was not completed until some time there-
after. The petitioner had been convicted for
murder and was sentenced to death. Such sen-
tence was thereafter commuted by the president of
the United States to imprisonment for life in the
Minnesota State Prison, at Stillwater, Minn. The
proceeding before Judge Lochren was upon writ of
habeas corpus for his discharge, and it was held
that the application for discharge must be denied,
because, in any view, the military tribunal had
jurisdiction.

partment of the United States power to acquire
foreign territory by treaty. There is evidence that
very grave doubts were then entertained concern-
ing the existence of this power. But that there
was then a settled opinion in the executive and
legislative branches of the government that this
power did not exist cannot be admitted without at
the same time imputing to those who negotiated
and ratified the treaty, and passed the laws neces-
sary to carry it into execution, a deliberate and
known violation of their oaths to support the Con-
stitution; and, whatever doubts may then have
existed, the question must now be taken to have
been settled. Four distinct acquisitions of foreign
territory have been made in as many different ad-
ministrations. Six States formed of such territory
are now in the Union. Every branch of this gov-
ernment, during a period of fifty years, has par-
ticipated in these transactions. To question their
validity is now in vain. As said by Mr. Chief
Justice Marshall in Insurance Co. v. Canter (1 Pet.
542, 7 L. Ed. 255): The Constitution confers
absolutely on the government of the Union the
powers of making war and of making treaties.
Consequently that government possesses the
power of acquiring territory, either by conquest or
treaty (see Sere v. Pitot, 6 Cranch, 336, 3 L. Ed.
And, I add, it also possesses the power of
governing it, when acquired, not by resorting to
supposititious powers nowhere found described in
the Constitution, but expressly granted in the
authority to make all needful rules and regulations
respecting the territory of the United States.
* * * I construe this clause, therefore, as if it
had read, congress shall have power to make all
needful rules and regulations respecting those
tracts of country, out of the limits of the United
States, which the United States have acquired, or
may hereafter acquire, by cessions, as well of
jurisdiction as of the soil, so far as the soil may
be the property of the party making the cession, at
the time of making it. * * ** If, then, this
clause does contain a power to legislate respecting
the territory, what are the limits of that power?
To this I answer that, in common with all the
other legislative powers of congress, it finds limits
in the express prohibitions on congress not to do
certain things; that, in the exercise of the legis-
lative power, congress cannot pass an ex post facto
law or bill of attainder; and so in respect to each
of the other prohibitions contained in the Consti-

tution."

The reasoning of the opinion upon the constitutional question discussed is, however, cogent and worthy of serious attention. Judge Lochren took the ground that as to the newly acquired territory of the United States the Federal Constitution applies ex proprio vigore, and becomes the supreme! law of the land. His discussion relates specially to the Bill of Rights of the Constitution. The pur-240).' port of the reasoning is that congress may not legislate as to the government of new territory except within the limitations of such Bill of Rights.:

In all consideration of this question the famous Dred Scott case (19 How. 393) necessarily cuts a considerable figure. Whatever may be said in criticism of the form of the sweeping generalizations against the power of colonization contained in the opinion of Chief Justice Taney in that case, the following language from the opinion of Mr. Justice Curtis, who dissented from the majority on the status of the negro, is temperate in spirit and

scope:

"But it is also insisted that provisions of the Constitution respecting territory belonging to the United States do not apply to territory acquired by treaty from a foreign nation. This objection must rest upon the position that the Constitution did not authorize the Federal government to acquire foreign territory, and, consequently, has made no provisions for its government when acquired, or that, though the acquisition of foreign territory was contemplated by the Constitution, its provisions concerning the admission of new States, and the making of all needful rules and regulations respecting territory belonging to the United States, were not designed to be applicable to territory acquired from foreign nations. It is undoubtedly true that, at the date of the treaty of 1803 between the United States and France for the cession of Louisiana, it was made a question whether the

The following cases, decided by the same tribunal, may be cited as in harmony with the principles therein laid down: Murphy v. Ramsey (114) U. S. 15, 44, 45, and cases cited); Ex parte Bollman (4 Cranch, 75); Reynolds v. United States (98 U. S. 145, 154); Callan v. Wilson (127 U. S. 540, 550); Thompson v. Utah (170 U. S. 343, 346); Spring

A VILLAGE PATRIOT.

LO, THE POOR INDIAN.

HE footway from

Bushy Park (ro royal ampton Wick through IN the year 1785 an Indian murdered a Mr. Evans

upon-Thames had been for many years shut up
from the public. An honest shoemaker, Timothy
Bennett, of the former place, "unwilling (it was
his favorite expression) to leave the world worse
than he found it," consulted an attorney upon the
practicability of recovering this road for the public
good, and the probable expense of a legal process"
for that purpose. "I do not mean to cobble the
job," said Timothy, "for I have seven hundred
pounds, and I should be willing to give up the
awl, that great folks might not keep the upper
leather wrongfully." The lawyer informed him
that no such sum would be necessary to try the
right; then said the worthy shoemaker, "As sure
as soles are soles, I'll stick to them to the last,"
and Lord Halifax, the then ranger of Bushy Park,
was immediately served with the regular notice of
action; upon which his lordship sent for Timothy,
and on his entering the lodge his lordship said,
with some warmth: "And who are you that has
the assurance to meddle with this affair?" My
name, my lord, is Timothy Bennett, shoemaker of
Hamptonwick. I remember, an't please your
lordship, to have seen, when I was a young man
sitting at work, the people cheerfully pass by my
shop to Kingston market; but now, my lord, they
are forced to go round about, through a hot, sandy

at Pittsburg. When, after a confinement of
several months, his trial was to be brought on,
the chiefs of his nation (the Delaware) were in-
vited to be present, as well as to speak in behalf of
the accused, if they chose. These chiefs, however,
instead of going as wished for, sent to the civil
officers of that place the following laconic answer:
Brethren! you inform us that N. N., who mur-
dered one of your men at Pittsburg, is shortly to
be tried by the laws of your country, at which trial
you request that some of us may be present.
Brethren! knowing N. N. to have been always a
very bad man, we do not wish to see him. We
therefore advise you to try him by your laws, and
to hang him, so that he may never return to us
again."
LEON NOEL.

66

road, ready to faint beneath their burdens, and I am unwilling to leave the world worse than I found it. This, my lord, I humbly represent is the

reason why I have taken this work in hand." "Begone," replied his lordship; "you are an impertinent fellow." However, upon mature reflection, his lordship, convinced of the equity of the claim, began to compute the shame of a defeat by a shoemaker, desisted from his oposition notwithstanding the opinion of the crown lawyers, and reopened the road. Honest Timothy died about two years after, in the seventy-seventh year of his age, and was followed to the grave by all the populace of his native village. Percy Anecdotes, 1820. LEON NOEL.

"TWIXT DOCTOR AND HANGMAN.

A

66

HIGHWAYMAN named Bolland, confined in Newgate, sent for a solicitor to know how he could defer his trial, and was answered, "By getting an apothecary to make affidavit of his illness." This was accordingly done in the following manner: The deponent verily believes that if the said James Bolland is obliged to take his trial at the ensuing sessions he will be in imminent danger of his life." To which the learned judge on the bench answered "that he verily believed so, too!" The trial was ordered to proceed immediately.

LEON NOEL.

A TONSORIAL FINE.

WHEN Lord Mansfield one day took his seat as lord chief justice of England, a man was brought into court to receive judgment for an

W

assault, of which he had been convicted. He wore
remarkably large whiskers and was known to be
very proud of them. His affidavit stated that he
was unable to pay any pecuniary fine, and the
court was unwilling to imprison him. On this
being intimated to Mr. Dunning, the counsel for
the prosecution, he instantly replied: "Then, if it
please your lordship, we will consent to mulet him

of his mustachoes, and humbly pray your lordship
that he may be shaved."
LEON NOEL.

Legal Notes.

Judge Charles T. Saxton, of the New York Court of Claims, has felt obliged on account of family affairs to decline the United States judgeship in Porto Rico, recently offered to him. Judge Saxton would have carried fine abilities and peculiar fitness to his task.

The president of the Illinois State Bar Association favors the judicial robe. "It is fitting," says he, "that those who administer justice for the people should surround their office with such attributes as may dignify it, such circumstances as may at all times call the attention of the beholder to the high calling in which they are engaged -- the highest known to man that of doing equal and exact justice between man and man. From the days of Solomon the robe has been the vestment of the judge. As well may the army of this republic march without its banners as to deny to its courts the robe of office. The flag does not fight, the robe does not pronounce decisions, but both appeal, and in like manner, to the sentiment of the

people. The flag expresses the militant patriotism of the republic; the robe says to the observer: At this shrine justice is enthroned, and justice will be done though the heavens fall.'"

In recognition of the gift from Lord Salisbury, the English premier, of twenty-three volumes of the report of the English commission on the Venezuelan boundary dispute, the Law Association of Philadelphia has adopted the following resolution:

“Resolved, That the Law Association of Philadelphia, in accepting the very valuable gift by the Marquis of Salisbury of documents relating to the Venezuelan arbitration, desire to express their obligation therefor, and their high appreciation of the courtesy thus shown to the association and the bar of Philadelphia."

These reports were received through Francis Rawle, who was enabled to secure them by the efforts of Hon. Charles Russell, son of the lord chief justice of England, Lord Russell of Killowen.

The reports were accompanied by the following

note:

"Foreign Office, January 3, 1900." In Hicks v. British-American Assurance Co., New York Court of Appeals, April, 1900, an owner of property went to an agent of an insurance company for insurance on December 30, 1893, and after the usual negotiation the agent said: “You are insured from noon on December 30, 1893, to noon of December 30, 1894." Two days later, and before the policy was delivered, the buildings insured were burned, and the agent refused to deliver the policy, whereupon, without giving the company formal notice of the loss and making and serving due proofs of loss, the owner's wife, to whom he had assigned his claims, brought an action against the insurance company, not on the contract for the loss, but for a breach of contract for not delivering the policy, and she recovered. The judgment was affirmed in the Appellate Division, but the Court of Appeals reversed it. Parker, Ch. J., in the opinion said: Here there was a contract of insurance, the verbal terms were sufficient to create it, and both parties are bound by it. So the insured was obliged to follow the terms and conditions of the policy, which by statute is the standard policy. Notice of loss and proofs of loss are conditions precedent to recovery, and as they were not given here a recovery for the loss cannot be sustained. The possession of the policy was not

essential to the bringing of the action. In any event the insured is bound by the terms of the policy.

English Botes.

It is noticeable, says the St. James's Gazette, that by the promotion of Sir Richard Webster five out of the six ordinary members of the Court of Appeal are Cambridge men, the exception being Lord Justice Williams, who was at Christ Church, Oxford. Cambridge has now a decided predominance on the bench, whereas six or seven years ago Balliol alone claimed (including Lord Hobhouse) seven of its sons as members of the judicial

bench.

The list of birthday honors includes peerages of the United Kingdom for Lord Morris, the master of the rolls, and the Lord chief justice of Ireland. Sir Frederick Milner, M. P., and Lord Justice FitzGibbon are added to the Privy Council. The latter is already a member of the Irish Privy CounAmong the new knights are Dr. Berry,

cil.

"The Marquis of Salisbury presents his compliments to Mr. Russell and has pleasure in for-speaker of the Cape legislative assembly; Mr. Homewood Crawford, solicitor to the city corporation, and Mr. O'Dowd, for some years deputy judge advocate-general.

warding to him for presentation to the Philadelphia Law Association copies of the British case, counter-case and argument in the recent arbitration between Great Britain and Venezuela, together with the appendices and maps and the records of the proceedings before the Tribunal of Arbitration at Paris.

Sir Richard Webster, who has been raised to the peerage on his appointment as master of the rolls, I will take the title of Lord Alverstone, of the Isle of Wight. In view of his abstemious habits, it is suggested that he should take the title of Lord Freshwater. Speaking at the London Lincolnshire Society dinner last night, Sir Richard remarked that perhaps his most appropriate title would be Lord Pump Court. He has occupied chambers in that court throughout his career.

The Netherlands government, says Reuter, has issued invitations for the third time to the meeting at The Hague of a conference for the codification of international law as affecting private individuals. The conference will be opened on the 29th inst. by an address from M. de Beaufort, the Netherlands minister for foreign affairs. All the European States except Great Britain, Turkey, Greece and Servia will be represented for the discussion of the various laws regulating marriage, divorce, conjugal property, the position of married persons and their children, guardianships, and the law of inheritance.

At Bloemfontein the law courts are confined to one small room, says the Law Times. The staff of judges consists of the chief justice, Melius de Villiers, who has been selected by England as arbitrator more than once, and two judges, Herzog and Stuart. The offices of barrister and solicitor are combined under the name of advocate. The state attorney, whose position bears no blance to our attorney-general, is the head of the

resem

state legal department, and, until the outbreak of❘ (see Digest of Illinois Reports): 1. “Two revolvers the war, was Mr. J. de Villiers, a distinguished student from the Inns of Court. The amount of business is extremely small. On circuit the judges travel in a very primitive way by a Cape cart or a spider.

in the trunk of a grocer who went into the country to buy butter. Held, that but one revolver was reasonably necessary." 2. A boy in La Harpe, Ill., was charged with cruelty to animals in tying a string to the leg of a turtle. His lawyer contended that the turtle was not an animal, but "a reptile of the snake species." The court agreed with him, and the defendant was, discharged. - Exchange.