Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-06-03
srmPIIFICATIoN OF THE Law.

| blMfl@AE tSAlAON OL I'M In We
Greater changes took place in a
few years in the laws of Jurisprudence
of Justinian, " says Montesquieu, ethan
in the three hundred years Of the
French monarchy Immediately proceed
ing my time; and those changes were
so incessant and SO trihing that the in
constancy of the Emperor can only be
explained by having recourse to the
secret history of Procopius, where he
is charged with having sold equally his
judgments and his laws" Where a
large share of the frailties and wicked
ness of man are embodied in the laws
of nation, and in their administra-
ton by the courts and executive de-
partments, the calamity is much more
serious than is generally supposed.
Thousands, and probably millions, of
good men resisted that general
Generalization, and evil course
of events which ended in the
downfall of the Roman empire.
Good men were powerless to inaugurate
and maintain any permanent reform in
the laws and government of the nation,
so great was the preponderanee of mar
row sel6shness, factions, and unpatri-
otto aspirations, which deliberately sac
1 -,Eool Al ,,1o-o.4. ,f Al - - -.
grandize the few. Laws were multi
piled in Rome as they have been
in the United States in the last
thirty years, but vastly more in the
last decade, by legislators and jurists
of the Procopus stamp, who sell any.
thing and everything that ambition or
corruption wishes to purchase. No
matter if the market should call for the
Acknowledgement of one class of citi-
zens and the enfranchisemcut of per-
sons greatly their inferior for partisan
purposes, the demand is promptly met,
| and a crime without a name IN this
country is perpetrated.
Unless a higher standard of moral
ity In the community as a whole be es-
tablished, it viii be found impossible to
simplify the laws and judicial pro-
ceedings of this very restless and
changeable republic. With rapid
increase of population and wonderful
activity, our development is in the d.
rection of new complications, new
statutes, involved and conflicting con-
situations, monopolies, and endless tax
alton for the benefit of Unsuitable greed
and incurable extravaganza. There
are not few who quietly assume that
this obvious and undeniable selfshness
Will itself cure all the evils complained
of. More absurd reasoning can hardly
be imagined. Love of power and love
of money grows on what nourisheth
them. To pamper vice is not the way
to Danish it from the bosom Of society.
The Code Napoleon supplanted the
monachal law of France, but was in
turn subjected to many changes, so
that French writer applies to modern
French law what he says Eusebius ap-
piled to the Roman Law, ''That the
commentaries alone on the French law
would have loaded many camels."
Every new code or change appears to
demand a score of amendments, So
called, to remedy its defects. Nor is
the Prussian Code an exception to this
rule. Large volumes of additions and
explanations have been added since its
PRONUNCIATION. Kent says: 1.-THE ne
cessity for change in a code |
lies in the nature of things, |
of our mind and of our language.
No case can provide for all specific |
cases, or be so constructed as to close
all further inquiry" This is undoubt- |
eddy correct view of the subject; but
it is no justification of any excess Of
egislation-overdoing the thing to
public injury, if not to the discredit
of the legal profession
The extreme uncertainty of law
deprives it of any just claim to be re-
garded as science. 1t never was
science, and never can be until its ele-
ments are better understood, and their
natural powers and functions more
respected,
Thinko of explanation slaves develop
ing the profound principles of
law in the United States
Would not harvest of figs from a
patch of thistles be more probable?
Our laws are almost sure to be deteri=
grated, and quite as much to the dam
age of all colored people and their
white leaders and political advisers, as
to any others. Providence is no re-
specter Of persons; and every depar-
ture from purity is duly punished.
Sound and thorough legal education
must come and fairly work out the
problem of all needful legal reforms on
true scientific principles. Society can
never enjoy the rich fruits of science
of any kind without thorough devotion
to its cultivation.
To simplify legislation, laws and all
legal proceedings is a great work, a
work of time, of deep morality and of
a love of science which few possess.
Natures laws are Interchangeable, and
most instructive, if we study them
Alright. 1t is only as man approx
mates the wisdom and conserv alton
which govern the universe that he sue
ceeds as law-maker. If this be true,
then we have no use for either dema-
gogues or pettifogging law exposition,
and every State should advance TO a
higher standard of intelligence and dig
nity. The human brain and conscience
either grow better, or grow worse, as
vitality passes from one generation to
another. Is the life blood of our ma