248 



The Ideal State 



joy of home life, and to the well-being and happiness 

 of woman herself. 



It may not be inappropriate at this stage to devote 

 a little time to the study of our legal system. No doubt 

 on the whole at the present time justice is secured, 

 although the system is by no means perfect. Our 

 judges endeavour honestly to administer the law, but 

 yet miscarriages do occur, and it is not always possible 

 for our Lord Justices to free their minds from prejudice 

 they may have acquired through an environment of 

 wealth and luxury. And therefore we have no hesitation 

 in saying that in the Ideal State where wealth shall have 

 no sway, and the judge no salary beyond the reward 

 of dispensing justice wisely and well, and thereby in- 

 creasing the sum of human happiness, we look forward 

 to a time when all men shall be so imbued with the 

 spirit of love and self-sacrifice that judgment seats will 

 be as vacant as our prisons. 



This being admitted, we are now free to consider the 

 methods of legal administration. We have no hesitation 

 in saying that it is devised not in the interests of the 

 body of the people, but entirely in order to fill the 

 pockets of the members of the Bar. The Bar, and not 

 the Bench, controls the great legal instrument. Being a 

 Scotsman, I know more of the Scots procedure than the 

 English, and therefore I shall presume that an action has 

 been raised against me in the Scots courts. I am a poor 

 man ; my total capital is two thousand pounds. A 

 rich man raises an action against me for fifteen hundred. 

 Now it may seem an absurd thing to say, but it is abso- 

 lutely true, the best thing that can possibly happen as 

 far as I am concerned is that I should lose my case, pay 

 the fifteen hundred pounds, and a further sum to the 

 lawyers, which no doubt makes a large inroad on what 

 remains, and start the world afresh with the pittance 

 remaining. And why is this so ? Because in all proba- 



