Edmunds, Albert J.

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MISCELLANEOUS. 443MR. BONNEY ON UNIFORMITY IN JUDICIAL PRACTICE.The Hon. Charles Carroll Bonney contributes to the present number of theAmerican Laiu Kevieza (Vol. XXXVI., No. 3, pp. 401 et seq.) an article on " AUniform Judicial Practice" from which, on account of its far-reaching importance,we extract the following sentences ; Mr. Bonney says that " one of the most seri-ous obstacles to a satisfactory administration of justice throughout the UnitedStates, has always been the multiform modes of proceeding which prevail in thevarious courts. . . . But while the national government enormously increases thedifficulties of the administration of justice in actions at law, by providing that allproceedings in the Federal courts in such actions shall conform to the like proceed-ings in the State courts, the practice and pleadings in cases in equity in the Fed-eral courts have been left to the control of the Supreme Court of the United Statesthrough a set of rules prescribing the procedure in each case."Now, Mr. Bonney proposes "to substitute the admirable system of pleadingand practice which prevails in the national courts in equity for the vexatious andcostly procedure of the common law courts, in actions at law. The ease withwhich the change could be effected should encourage a speedy attempt to realise it.It is only necessary, in the first instance, for Congress to enact a short statute pro-viding that, from and after the date of its passage and approval, all civil suits, ac-tions and proceedings, including all actions at common law, may, and after the ex-piration of one year from said date, shall be conducted according to the forms ofpleading and practice in equity in the courts of the United States, as such rulesnow exist or may hereafter be established or modified by the Supreme Court of thenation. For a year the proposed change of procedure would be optional, and afterthat compulsory, in the Federal courts, and would depend solely upon its meritsfor adoption in the several States."In his concluding remarks, Mr. Bonney says : "If it shall ever come to passthat a uniform judicial practice shall prevail throughout the Union, in the State aswell as the Federal Courts, it will be a matter of surprise that it required so longto effect a reform productive of immense benefits to all concerned, and free fromany disadvantages worthy to be named."LITERARY ACTIVITY IN CEYLON.We are in receipt of three works of mediaeval Buddhist literature, edited inCeylon. The first is the Anuruddha-cataka, by Anuruddha Maha Thero, of Anu-radhapura, the ancient capital of Ceylon, who lived in the twelfth Christian cen-tury. The book is edited by the Thero Silakkhandho of Ceylon, and published bythe Buddhist Text Society at Calcutta in 1899.The second work is the famous Jinalamkara, a twelfth-century poem on Bud-dha, written by Buddharakkhito, Chief Elder (i. e. , Maha Thero) of Ceylon. It isnow translated from Pali into Singhalese by W. Dipankaro and B. Dhammapalo,pupils of the Elder Silakkhandho just mentioned. This publication appeared atGalle, 1900.The third work is the Vidagdha Mukha Mandana, a Sanskrit poem of aboutthe seventh century, by (^ri Dharmadaso of Kanauj, the once famous literary cityin the valley of the Ganges. It was written during the Buddhist period of India,when the Chinese pilgrim Yuan Chwang visited the land. It is now translated into444 THE OPEN COURT.Singhalese by the Elder Silakkhandho, and published at Colombo, 1902. It is in-teresting to the student of all things Hindu on account of some passages in it beingin certain dialects which are mentioned in Buddhist literature and are akin to Pali.The publication of these books speaks well for the zeal and earnestness ofthese learned monks, the more so as we do not doubt that the enterprise involves apecuniary sacrifice. Albert J. Edmunds.BOOK REVIEWS AND NOTES.The Udana, or the Solemn Utterances of the Buddha. Translated from thePali by Major-Gefieral D. M. Strong, C. B. London : Luzac & Co. 1902.Pages, viii, 128. Price, 6 shillings net.The Uddna, or collection of utterances of Buddha, can now be had in Eng-lish form. The work forms a part of the Khuddaka-Nikaya in the Pali Tipitaka,and consists of a number of short rhythmic utterances " breathed forth " by Bud-dha when his heart was full of religious or moral reflections. The book also tellsus when, where, and how Buddha came to utter those solemn stanzas. Like theDhammafada, it is a very short text. The translator. General D. M. Strong,gives in the Introduction a summary statement of Buddhist doctrines to help un-initiated readers to understand the text.The following is a specimen of the "solemn utterances" of Buddha so vigor-ously translated by General Strong ;" To the giver merit is increased.When the senses are controlled, anger arises not.The Wise forsake evil.By the destruction of desire, sin, and infatuationA man attains to Nirvana." T. S.The Faith of an Agnostic; Or First Essays in Rationalism. By George For-ester . London : Watts & Co. 1902. Pages, 278. Price, 5 shillings.Taking as his motto the dedication prefixed by Daudet to his celebrated ro-mance: "To my sons when they are twenty years old," Mr. Forester would faindedicate these first essays on rationalism to his children ' ' when they are old enoughto think,—nay, to all children who are old enough to think." He thus extends hisgift to children in thought as well as to children in years,— " to those grown chil-dren of whom there are so many in the world."After some thirty years of thought and half a century of life, the author findshe has " little faith left save that faith which ' lives in honest doubt.' " The guid-ance of his reason has brought him inexorably to the agnostic position, which posi-tion is not, he maintains, a merely negative position, but which is merely the ar-dent and profound conviction that thought and reason must be free, that inquirymust be fearless, and that all false teaching must be prejudicial to the best inter-ests of mankind, which condemns all compromising with the truth.Our readers are already well acquainted, from the numerous discussions whichhave been carried on in our columns, with the main tenets of the agnostic position,and we have only to say that these tenets have found in Mr. Forester an able andenthusiastic expounder. His is a book that can hardly be read by " children inyears," to say the best of it, as it requires a knowledge of general literature andcritical and scientific inquiry which can hardly be expected of one that has not

Literary Activity in Ceylon.

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Literary Activity in Ceylon.

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