Law and Custom in the British Commonwealth

REVIEWS prominent and the question of separate essences could not arise; whether this doctrine (also found elsewhere in the period) once . accepted, anyone would be likely thereafter to retreat on the crudely anthropomorphic and irrational opinion of the De Doctrina; (4) Whether it is not a striking fact that De Doctrina's heretical views of the nature of the Second Person and what one can only call its blasphemous attack on the very existence. of the Third Person (as w'ell as its opinions on the mortality of the soul -and on polygamy ) ·are closely paralleled in other writings of the 1650's; (5) Whether the account of the process of creation given in Paradise Lost does not represent a distinct advance upon-an elaboration of-the account given in the Christian Doctrine; (6) Whether finally, it is not a fact that we know absolutely nothing of Milton's plans for the publication of the De Doctrina (which ac~ually remained unpublished for a cen.tury and a half after his death) and hence of how far, and when, he wished it to be regarded as embodying his :final opinion; whereas we know that he himself published Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained as the works to which his whole rnature effort in poetry had been bent. As well as squaring with the physical state of the manuscript a hypothesis that would become more than a hypothesis must be able to return some satisfactory answer to these-and perhaps to many other such questions. LAW AND CUSTOM INTI-IE BRITISH COMMONWEALTH1 E. c. s. WADE Professor Kennedy is well known among teachers of law for the work which he has accomplished in the Honour School of Law in his own university, where he has, we believe, succeeded in establishing as broad a basis for legal education as is to be found in any law sc.hool in the Empire. He is known as a firm believer in the "study of law amid the intellectual clash of University faculties." We watch with special interest the growth of a graduate law school at Toronto under his guidance and inspira1The Law and Custom of the South African Constitution, by W. P.M. Kennedy and H. J. Schlosberg, Oxford University Press. Essays in ConstitutionalLaw, by W. P.M. Kennedy, Oxford University Press. 139 THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY tion.2 But he is even better known as a writer on constitutional·topics and lately as an adviser of the Dominion government upon the thorny problems of constitutional amendment. As an author; from studies in Tudor· history, law, and administration he has advanced, by way of disquisitions on ecclesiasticai doctri'ne, to· the position he now occupies as the leading authority upon the constitutional law and history of the Dominion of Canada. To this he has lately added the accomplishment of an authoritative work of generous dimensions on the law and custom of the South African constitution. In this task he has been aided by a colleague from the Union-Mr. H. J. Schlosberg, the author of The King's Republics and several works upon South African law. The present review is chiefly concerned with this latest work. Ii: was· a happy thought which inspired the joint authorship of The Law and Custom .of the South African Constitution. . The combination of a Professor of Law from the sister Dominion, with its longer tradition of self-government, and a Union lawyer with an established reputation as ·a text-bo~k writer, has produced a volume which fulfils a definite· requirement in legal literature. In addition to a full and critical exposition of the organs·of the Unionts · constitution and provincial administration, the book gives a concise account of the early constitutional history of the four provinces, as well as of the events which culminated in the National Convention and the subsequent enactment of the South Africa Act by the Parliament o'f the United Kingdom. The secrecy which surrounded the deliberations of the Convention presented the authors-with·a considerable obstacle, ~ut they have as successfully as could be expected penetrated the veil. which· hid those epoch-making deliberations. · The parts dealing with the government of the...