X LIMITATION OF STATE FUNCTIONS 153 



to law " in the estimation of aggrieved parties, and so 

 induce a larger number than before to seek their aid 

 against oppression and wrong ; but they will never make 

 any radical reform, or attempt to do what every intelligent 

 suitor knows might be done. Our interests are directly 

 opposed to theirs, and it is mere madness to expect any 

 thorough simplification of the laAv from lawyers. Such a 

 reform requires the common sense of minds untrammelled 

 by legal technicalities or legal interests. The people must 

 be shown that such a reform is possible — nay, easy — and 

 they wdll then demand that this matter shall be taken 

 altogether out of the hands of lawyers. It is in the hope of 

 showing how one great branch of this much-needed reform 

 may be made, that the present writer ventures to 

 attack a j)roblem generally considered far beyond the reach 

 of laymen. 



A first step, and a very important one, towards rendering 

 cheap and speedy justice possible for every man is, so to 

 simplify the law of property as to free the courts from a 

 large proportion (perhaps one-half, perhaps much more 

 than one-half) of the cases which now occupy them. This 

 would not only render it far easier to dispose promptly of 

 the much simpler cases — w^hich, however, are those which 

 are often of more real importance to the parties affected 

 — but it would allow of the whole method of procedure 

 being altered to suit those simpler cases which would then 

 form the bulk of the business of the courts. Now, this 

 great diminution of cases can be effected without denying 

 redress for any grievance, or a remedy for any wrong, by 

 simply putting out of court a host of matters which ought 

 never to have been taken cognizance of by the law. Here, 

 as in so many other instances, it will be found that reform 

 must begin by a " limitation of State functions ; " and 

 that it is because Governments have undertaken to do 

 much that is unnecessary and even injurious, that they are 

 not able to fulfil one of their first and plainest duties — 

 that of giving free, speedy, and substantial justice to the 

 weakest and most indigent, as well as to the most powerful 

 and most wealthy, of their subjects. 



