rests wholly with the legislature and not with the courts. We should be surprised if any lawyer or student professing the slightest knowledge of American constitutional law would seriously assert that the legislature could not change that doctrine without amending or tinkering our constitutions. It is, however, fit and proper to add that many lawyers and laymen are convinced that to abolish the existing rules indiscriminately in every case where the relation of master and servant may exist would be a mistake from the standpoint of public policy and practical justice, and that such a radical measure would do more harm than good. Certainly that is the judgment of competent observers of the operation of the British statute. A change in the law which would be wise if confined to large factories and hazardous employments, to labor in connection with dangerous machinery, to service on railroads, in large electrical works, etc., etc., might be extremely unwise, unjust and oppressive if applied, for example, to the small farmer, the artisan, the mechanic, or the householder. A rule concededly wise and just in the one case might be the extreme of folly and oppression in the other. An accident on a farm caused by the negligence or drunkenness of a farm hand might, under some of the proposed reforms or innovations, bankrupt the most prudent farmer for causes quite beyond his control; and a similar disaster might easily overtake the small artisan, mechanic, or householder, and sweep away the savings of years. It is, of course, no answer to say that the farmer, the artisan, the householder employing men or women can insure. Why should this form of taxation be levied upon slender earnings, which are frequently insufficient to make both ends meet? Why should the farmer or artisan of limited means be compelled to pay tribute to private insurance companies so often engaged in combinations to extort the highest possible premiums? Let every master be responsible for his own negligence, but let the line be drawn short of making every master--every employer of another--the insurer of the safety of his servant to the extent of rendering the master liable for injuries resulting from no fault of his own but from the carelessness and negligence of the servant himself or of a fellow-servant.