LEGAL ADVICE TO FARMERS. 17 



LEGAL ADVICE TO FARMERS. 



BY JUDGE W. S. TENNANT. 

 [An address before the East Saginaw Farmers' Institute.] 



Many of you have doubtless seen copies of the work entitled "Every Man 

 his Own Lawyer," which pretends to give all legal information required for the 

 inexperienced, as well as all legal forms for use in business. These and like 

 books may be useful in their way, but experience teaches that it is better for 

 the farmer in cases of difficulty or doubt in business matters to take the advice 

 of some good lawyer, who may by proper advice save him the expense of litiga- 

 tion. For example, witness the records of our courts in suits brought to 

 recover upon the promissory notes of farmers who have been swindled into 

 signing their names to papers which they deemed harmless at the time, but 

 which proved to be a fraud perpetrated upon them by experienced swindlers. 

 Buy no "patent rights " or interest in patents for farming implements without 

 advice from your lawyer. Always keep in mind the old maxim, " An ounce of 

 prevention is worth a pound of cure." 



As to when you should go to law, perhaps the best advice I can give you is 

 that given by Jerrold to those about to marry, " Dou't !" 



I say, don't go to law if you can help it, but if you are forced into law to 

 protect your legal rights, then get the best lawyer you can find and leave the 

 case entirely in his hands. But a lawyer will often advise you to keep out of 

 litigation, for it is the business of a good lawyer to prevent lawsuits by advising 

 some fair or honorable way of settlement of the matters in dispute. 



It is a maxim of time-honored antiquity that " He who is his own lawyer hath 

 a fool for a client." And so I advise you, farmers, in all important business 

 matters consult your lawyer, for the $5 paid for legal advice may save you the 

 loss of a thousand in property, or the expenses of a protracted lawsuit. 



A certain smattering of law every man engaged in business soon acquires, 

 for law as well defined is but "the application of the best business principles 

 to business." 



Common sense is the foundation of the common law. That is, it is what the 

 experience of 300 years and more among intelligent men has proved to be the 

 wisest laws and rules for the government of humanity. To this extent custom 

 makes the law. We have in this State what is known as the common law, 

 which Coke in his quaint language defines as " that which hath been the 

 custom, time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary." 



It is "custom crystalized into law." In other words it is those rules of 

 conduct which by the unanimous consent of mankind are given the force of 

 law without the formality of legislative enactment. We are also governed in 

 this State by our constitutions and statutes. State and Federal. 



In our republican form of government we have three distinct departments, 

 each of them separate and having nothing to do with the other, viz : the Execu- 

 tive, the Legislative and the Judicial. The Legislative department is the sov- 

 ereign power of this country. In creating the Legislative Department and 

 conferring upon it the power to make the laws, the people have conferred upon 

 it full and complete power to make laws at its discretion, subject only to such 

 restrictions and limitations as are imposed by the constitution of the State or 



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