led code of laws, but merely a few
treaties and a few orders from the Department of State. He had not only to
judge cases between Americans, but also cases between Americans and
citizens of other nationalities, including the Chinese themselves. He had
to establish rulings on the most complicated matters of coastwise
commerce, in a land where coastwise commerce is involved with perplexing
local customs and superstitions. Above all, he had, from the start, to
fight a well-organized, well-entrenched band of shady characters who had
run their course for so long without anything in the nature of a public
opinion to hold them in check that they resented his advent as an
encroachment on their vested right to do as they chose. The last and most
perplexing of his problems was that in rooting out these evils he was in
danger at every turn of arraying against him the citizens of other
nationalities and even of arousing the active enmity of the courts and the
officials of other nations, most of whom had been content to let Shanghai
jog along in its easy-going, sordid way.

It is to Judge Wilfley's everlasting credit that, with a full knowledge of
the difficulties and dangers before him, he went straight to the heart of
the problem. Seeing that certain American lawyers had long stood between
the old consular courts and anything which could be called justice, he
set to work first to solve the problem of the lawyers. His campaign for a
higher standard on the Coast has not been without its humorous moments.
Mr. Bassett, his shrewd young district attorney, preceded him to Shanghai
to "look the ground over." The little group of American lawyers at
Shanghai made haste to get acquainted with him. One of the ablest among
them invited him, casually and informally, to dinner. When Bassett arrived
at the dinner he found himself, to his astonishment, confronted with
thirty or forty "leading citizens," including all the American lawyers and
several men of questionable business character whom he rather expected to
be prosecuting a little later on.

After the coffee and cigars, the host rose, and in a neat little speech
called on Bassett to tell the company something about Judge Wilfley and
what work he meant to do in Shanghai. It was a difficult situation. A
slow-witted man might have found himself in a fix. But Bassett, if I may
credit the account which reached me, was equal to the situation. He rose,
and looked around the table from face to fac