Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 14.pdf/134

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A Legal View of the Schley Inquiry. Courts of inquiry are as well adapted to their purpose in principle and practice, es pecially now in the United States, as any human institution adapted to practical ends. But one reason why they stand so high is that they are advisory rather than executive.

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and the Commanders-in-Chief of our army and navy, have of course long recognized the need of the information which courts of in quiry are intended to furnish. The art of government is of longer life than any form of government. Its familiar

JUDGE-ADVOCATE GENERAL LEMLEY.

Advice, clear and steady as it may be, may be qualified and may temper its truth with both justice and mercy, even when nothing but punishment in some form, direct or indirect, can be the course of the executive officer to whom such advice is given at his own re quest and order. The Commanders-in-Chief of the army and navy of the British Empire,

knowledge and practical experience of the hourly passions and habits of all classes of men are deeper than any written law. A scholar may know the law, but a ruler must know men. He who would direct the storm must ride the whirlwind. The soldier's range of power is happily narrower than that of the statesman, but within the military field a