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The Green Bag

In summing up the subject of nonextradition of political criminals, M. Oppenheim, author of a recent twovolume work on International Law, says:— "It is due to the stern attitude of Great Britain, Switzerland, Belgium, France and the United States that the prin ciple has conquered the world. These countries, in which individual liberty is the very basis of all political life, and constitutional government a political dogma of the nation, watched with abhorrence the methods of government

of many other states between 1815 and 1860. These governments were more or less absolute and despotic, repressing by force every endeavor of their subjects to obtain individual liberty and a share in the government. Thousands of the most worthy citizens and truest patriots had to leave their country for fear of punishment for political crimes. Great Britain and the other free coun tries felt in honor bound not to sur render such exiled patriots to the perse cution of their governments, but to grant them an asylum."

University of Nebraska.

Whimsical Wills By John De Morgan IT is difficult to understand why a whimsical spirit should influence the minds of men and women at that fateful time when they have to decide what shall become of their goods and chattels after they have no further use for them. The records of the surro gates' courts abound with instances of whimsical conditions contained in wills and codicils. Very often the real intention of a will does not appear on the surface. Be quests are sometimes made to deserving charities which elevate the character of the testator, but those who knew him best realized that the bequest was made solely to annoy some one who had reason to expect remembrance. It is far from pleasant to think of any honest-minded human being performing, in the pres ence of death, an act of spite or malice, the carrying out of which can only take place after he has shuffled off the mortal coil and is no longer able to know what

is going on among those he has left behind. We frequently hear of a son or daugh ter being "cut off with a shilling," which is better known in a figurative than in a literal sense. The expression had its origin in the old Roman Law, which held that the omission of a man's nat ural heir from a will was an accident, and the neglected one was restored to heirship, hence the custom of mention ing the smallest coin as the sum of the inheritance of the son or other expec tant heir. A few years ago a studious and scholarly man passed from the scene of his triumphs leaving a large estate be hind. A nephew was his nearest rela tive and he had been brought up to believe himself the heir. When the will was opened it was found that the bulk of the testator's property had been sunk in annuities, but there was still a con siderable balance left. The testator left