THE MAN OF LAST RESORT Or, The Clients Of Randolph Mason By Melville Davisson Post G. P. Putnam's Sons New York And London 1897 PREFACE IN this _fin-de-sîècle_ time, society has grown liberal, it is said, and yet he who thrusts a lever under sage customs, or he who points out the vice of institutions long established, may deem himself happy if he be permitted to strip against the duellist rather than the mob. Even if one come new into the courts of the _literati_ with a cloak dyed a different hue from his fellows, he will scarcely have passed the doorway ere the taunting challenge, “Do you fight, my lord?” The author, in a previous volume entitled _The Strange Schemes of Randolph Mason_, pointed out certain defects in the criminal law, and demonstrated how the skilful rogue could commit not a few of the higher crimes in such a manner as to render the law powerless to punish him. The suggestion was, it seems, considered startling and the volume has provoked large discussion. A few gentlemen of no inconsiderable legal learning, and certain others to be classified as moral reformers, contended that the book must be dangerous because it explained with great detail how one could murder or steal and escape punishment. If the laws were to be improved, they said, “would it not be more wisely done by influencing a few political leaders?” While such a criticism does not come from any considerable number of authorities, it has been honestly made and is entitled to consideration. The vice of it lies, it seems to me, in a failure to grasp the actual nature of our institutions. It is a maxim of our system that the law making power of the state rests in the first instance with the people of the state. This power, for the purpose of convenience, is delegated to certain selected persons who meet together in order to put into effect the will of the people.