the proper time, was a conspiracy
highly criminal and prejudicial to the English people; in both of
which matters they were, in the writer's opinion, perfectly right, and
far more wise than our modern delusion that "business"--that is to
say, the making of a little more profit from the larger number of
people--justifies everything. Now, at the time of the coal famine of
1903, Massachusetts passed a statute licensing dealers in coal; the
law for the municipal coal-yard having been declared unconstitutional.
The object of this statute was not to derive revenue or to restrict
trade, but to regulate profits; and in particular to prevent
the retail coal-dealers from combining to fix the price of coal
themselves. Yet in spite of this legislation, the ice-dealers of
Massachusetts only this year (1910) assembled in convention in Boston
upon a call, widely advertised in the newspapers, that they were
holding the assembly for that precise purpose, that is to say, to
fix and control the price and the output of ice. They were, indeed,
"malefactors of great wealth"; at least we may guess the latter, and
the animus of a more intelligent precedent may some day hopefully be
directed to such definite evils, of which our ancestors were well
aware, rather than blindly running amuck at all. The coal-dealers in
Boston, by the way, made the same argument that is always made, and
was made at Athens in the grain combination of the third century
B.C.--to wit, that they put up the prices in order to prevent other
people buying all the coal and speculating in it; but notwithstanding
that showing of their altruistic motives, the secretary of state
revoked the license of the coal company in question. The statute
also forbade the charging extortionate prices, which, again, was a
perfectly proper subject of legislation under the common law; but,
unfortunately, was carelessly drawn, so that it resulted in a somewhat
cloudy court opinion.

For the matter of uniform legislation the reader must be referred
in general to reports of the National Commission. Their greatest
achievement has been the code of the law of bills and notes just
mentioned. Besides this they have just adopted a code on the law of
sales, and they have recommended brief and uniform formalities as well
as forms for the execution and acknowledgment of deeds and wills, and
have very considerably improved the procedure in matters of divorce.

The best modern legislation concerning trade