r agent in carrying on the business of his
principal, his master, or the person with whom he deals; the statute
even forbids a gratuity intentionally given directly from the one to
the other. It is hard to see how the last clause of the law can be
held constitutional, any more than the laws forbidding department
stores, although such commissions may be forbidden to be given
"unbeknownst."

Weights and measures are standardized by the Federal government, and
to these standards the States in practice all conform, but the legal
weight of a bushel or other measure of articles varies widely in the
different States, and the State Commissioners on Uniformity of Law
have tried in vain to get the matter generally regulated. At one time
the weight of a barrel of potatoes in New York City was fourteen
pounds more than it was in Hoboken, across the river. In Massachusetts
the weight of a barrel of onions was increased two pounds to
conform with the uniform law recommended to all the States by the
commissioners; but a representative in the State Legislature coming
from a locality of onion farms lost his seat in consequence, which
inspired such terror in other members of the State Legislature that
the uniform law was promptly repealed, the weight of the barrel of
onions put back at the former figure, and this over the veto of the
governor. It is needless to say that the whole value and object of the
whole movement for uniformity is to have actual uniformity. That is to
say, unless the lawyer or citizen reading the statute can be sure that
it is uniform with the laws of all other States without taking the
trouble to consult them, the reform has no value. But it has proved
almost hopeless to get this through the brain of the average
legislator. The uniform law upon bills and notes, indeed, already
mentioned, is treated with more respect; because, as has been said
above, they regard that as a matter of business, and they have some
respect for the expert knowledge of business affairs possessed by
business men.

The licensing of trades might be made a very valuable line of
legislation to prevent the fleecing of the ultimate consumer by the
middleman. Our ancestors were of the opinion that the middleman, the
regrator, was the source of all evils, and they were also of the
opinion that any combination whatever to control the price of an
article of food, or other human necessity, or to resell it elsewhere
than at its actual market and at