Los Angeles daily herald., 1886-06-26
THE nrs1Ne SENTIMENT.

The wonderful rapidity with which the
idea recently expressed by the san
Francisco "Chronicle" that the four
riparian Justices of the Supreme Court
should resign and make room on the
bench for men more in sympathy with
the ideas of the people and the necessi-
ties of the State, is something wonderful
in the history of the growth of scnti-
ments. Never before in the whole
history of California has there been the
growth of 50 strong and powerful senti-
ment in SO surprisingly short a time.
One week ago to-day the "Chronicle"
made the demand, and it has already
received the endorsement and re-itera-
ton of all the great San Francisco dailies
and large portion of the interior press.
Every day sees some old reliable paper
taking up the demand and falling into
the line.
This demand is limited to no party,
and to no faction. II is universal, and
all people OF Whatever shade OF opinion
unite therein without the slightest re-
servation. The four riparian Justices are
Democrats, but this demand for their re-
sirnations is leveled at them not rs De-
moerats but Ms riparianists, and the great
democratic journals, the "Alta," "Ex-
aminer" and "Call," stand foremost in
the expression of the sentiment that the
places now occupied by these men shall
be vacated and filed by men who are
not bound down by an old, inapplicable
doctrine that has the establishment of
long usage in a land of entirely different
natural conditions and capacities.
This demand is not in contravention
with the spirit of the law, but is strictly
in eonsonance with that sturdy spirit
of right tempered by common sense which
has made the entire body of the English
Common Law. That law is the growth
of surrounding conditions and necessities
lust as the English yew tree is the growth
of the English soil and surrounding
atmospheric conditions. In giving form
and force to the Common Law, from out
the formless void OF the barbaric order
of affairs in which their institutions were
planted, English Judges with that strict
adherence to reason and common sense
which is the most admirable trait of the
English character, always took into con-
sideration the surrounding conditions
and necessities of tho English people.
They always had in view what was
needed for the welfare of the English
people and Commonwealth, and never
hesitated to make precedent when they
found none which could be applied to
the necessities of the case in hand. With
an arid climate in England the doctrine
of riparian rights could have never found
a Judgement in the body of the English
common Law. Sturdy common sense
and desire for common veal would never
have permitted it.
Now the demand here in California is
for judiciary which viii construe law
as did their great predecessors in Eng
land-those men whose just, impartial
and reasoable decisions have erected that
imperishable fabric which is among the
plories of English civilization. The de-
mand is for Judges who can arise to an
intellectual height whore they moy sur
vey the needs and necessities of the State
and give law which will meet all those
needs and necessities and provide for the
common veal 1t is demand for Judges
who can make precedents when the de-
velopment of a great State demands
them. 1t is Il demand for Judges who
can enter into the spirit which created
the Common Law and which conducted
the stream of Justice in channels where
it was OF value to civilization instead Of
a detriment.
1t is easy to see that the spirit OF the
Common Law does not sanction its appli-