10
UNIVERSITY COURIER.
stitution. Here the constitution is the law fundamental, is paramount to legislative power, and all legislation must harmonize with that instrument. To see that repugnant laws are not put into execution is a legitimate function of the judicial department of government, to whose determination, the very theories of our national existence must acquiesce.
One of the most difficult tasks for the judiciary, is to correctly understand and interpret the precise meaning of words in a statute. Simplicity and precision should be among the chief aims of the lawgiver, where "ignorance of law excuses nobody." When doubt and ambiguity abound, rules of interpretation should be constructed in soundest wisdom. Common sense, good faith and a conscientious desire to reach a true construction, should be the guiding star of the expositor. The liberty of the citizen armoured by the protecting agis of the law, based upon the solid rock of justice, vouchesafes a security, the highest, best and truest, within human power to afford.
To secure the greatest good to the whole people, should be the prime effort and object of that power entrusted with the duty of enacting statutes. If individual freedom must be abridged to reach that end, the voice of complaint should not be heard.
But legislatures and courts, if acting wisely and in harmony with the purposes of their being, will guard well the citadel of personal liberty against every unwarranted assault or encroachment. When personal freedom is to be restrained, the highest considerations of public safety should be the governing principle and motive.
No specious pretext born of bigotry or fanciful imaginings, should be permitted to conceive and shape legislation. On the contrary, the lawgiver should have length of vision, breadth of intellect, pride of state, knowledge of the strength and weakness of human nature, profound comprehension of natural law, and be actuated by the purest and loftiest instincts of patriotism and justice. And in the construction and interpretation of the law, the same high aims, wisdom, prudence and patriotic endeavor, should be possessed and felt by the judiciary.
And be it remembered that "it is not constitutions that make liberty. Liberty is not secured by a certain number of words written on parchment. The parchment with its ink upon it may be eaten by the worms; it may be torn to shreds by any daring hand; but if an independent judiciary shall pronounce the solemn expressions of its true spirit, as the law of the nation or state, the living words of their judicial interpretation shall be perpetuated."
Unworthily bestowed, the exalted authority of the judge may cripple or dwarf the spirit of the law, defile the pure fountain of justice, divert the stream of jurisprudence, causing unrest, disrespect of authority, and creating evils of greater magnitude than those intended by the lawmaker to be averted or redressed.
I have spoken of the necessity of intellectual attainments and development in both the making and interpretation of the laws. As the world and time advance, we recognize the need of a deeper culture, severer mental training and sounder powers of reasoning, among those who so largely deal with life, and liberty, and property.
But were I called upon to dispense, in any degree, with more intellectual adorment, I think solace could
be found in a purer morality and better development of that part of human nature which we call the conscience. It has been said by a distinguished writer that "intellect without conscience is the abstract idea of the power of evil." Intellect may suggest and devise, but the heart through its nobler powers, must at last, on every field of duty, furnish the rich harvest of laudable achievement.
Dishonesty, low cunning and artful intrigues on the part of counselor and advocate are reprehensible always ; and for the judge guilty of deceit, artifice, falsehood, there is no apology. To the man upon the bench does the practitioner look for example. Like a beacon light he should stand on the eminence of learning and of truth. His untarnished character, his rare knowledge, his goodness of heart and purity of purpose, should stimulate the profession to greater resolves and inspire loftier results of heart and brain.
Between bench and bar there should be the utmost can dor. Neither, with safety to a proper administration of justice, can break faith with the other. The pathway of one should be the plain course of the other. The powers of both should be directed towards the accomplishment of the same end. To administer the law in its integrity and promote the right belongs alike to each. A concurrence of purpose and effort are peculiarly desirable and essential. The elevation of bench and bar means the elevation of the people themselves. Their degeneration forebodes public and private evil.
When the legislator judge and lawer shall become fully imbued with the true purposes of their exalted stations, when to their devotion to principles is brought enlightened reason and matured wisdom, when chicanery and fraud are driven from the legislative and judicial temples, there will come up a voice of popular rejoicing, "waiting justice" will no longer slumber, faith in popular government will take deeper root and organized society will march forward in renewed strength and splendor!
THE AMERICAN CITIZEN.
By E. C. LITTLE, MODERN LITERATURE DEPARTMENT.
America is the home of the Anglo-Saxon people. No Red Sea ever divided before them. No smitten rock ever availed to cool their parched lips. No mystical flame ever danced on their altars awaiting the return of half-fabled Montezuma. But none the less have they borne round half the circle of the sphere that magical talisman, their Anglo-Saxon citizenship.
As Oswald, the Northumbrian King, banquetted in his castle hall a starving multitude stood at his gates. He sent them the food from his table, broke in pieces the silver dish on which he was served and divided it among them. Bishop Aidan seized the royal hand and blessed it. "May this hand" said he "never grow old." Oswald marched away to battle, defeat and death. They cut his body in pieces and impaled it—but the hand that the holy father had blessed still remained white and pure. Centuries ago a greater than the priest blessed our fathers with the instinct of freedom and they marched forth to found a nation that should teach the world that the earth was made not for Kings, but for men. This and the vicissitudes and dangers of a career which has touched every habitable spot on this mighty globe, midst