JOHN MARSHALL- IN DIPLOMACY AND LAW By Lord Craigmyle
The Supreme Court of the United States, as the interpreter of the Constitution of 1787, has often saved the Republic. The true founder of the Court was Chief Justice Marshall, who presided over it from 1801 to 1835, and once for all asserted its independence of President and Congress, parties and the Press. Lord Craigmyle's little book on John Marshall in Diplomacy and Law (Scribner, 7s. 6d.) is an affectionate tribute to this remarkable man and shows, by examples which the layman can understand, what fundamental deci- sions the Chief Justice was called upon to take. The Court, he ruled in various well-known cases, could prevent any State from impeding FederaLpoliey, could hold a State to its contracts (though it did not do so in the later case of the Southern States, which repudiated their pre-Civil War loans) and could annul an Act of Congress which was unconstitu- tional. Reformers in a hurry have chafed, to put it mildly, at Supreme Court decisions,- but the existence of this tribunal has made for steady progress and general confidence in the law. Lord -Craigmyle'a account of Marshall's negotiations in Paris in 1797 shows that he could hold this own with Talley- rand. But a loosely worded paragraph would suggest to the uninformed reader that Bonaparte had something to do with the matter. -The young general was otherwise occupied at that time, and -the responsibility for the dispute with America lay with the Directory, as of course the author knows.'
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