Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1888-05-17
CHIEF JUSTICE FULLER.
HIS SPEECH AT THE BANQUET TO LORD
CnIERInGE IN CIIIl,AGn IN 1882

| TOAST, "1ne common Law. MI L ull6l
said:
If it be true, as Lord Hale said, that
the origin of the common law was
as undiScoverable as that of the Nile, il
is also true that, like that ancient river
as it rolled down the ages it bore upon
its bosom those fructifying germs that
blossomed into justice on every shore
touched by its fertilizing waters. If ge-
ographieaI research has disclosed the
fountains of the one,, the progress of
Jurisprudence has revealed the sources
of the other, in the history of what has
been assumed to be first principles. If
it took its beginning from the demand
for vengeance, the people finally found
in it a realization of the words of the
Arabian Emir, and saw their avenger
stand in the latter day upon the earth.
Whatever old strands have been worn
out, whatever new strands have been
added, the golden cord of the common
law, like the Kings yarn, has always
run through the cable, by their hold on
which the institutions of all the English
speaking people have outridden the
tempeSts that assailed them.
Nothing more significantly illustrates
the tenacitv of the AnglO-Saxon mind
for its own, and its prejudice against
what was foreign. than the fact that the
common law in its development clung
to its Saxon original in spite of every
influence to the contrary. 1t borrowed
but little, if anything, from the institu-
tions of other countries, or from the wri
tings of philosophers, and if Norman
subtlety involved the administration in
intricate maZes, Saxon common sense
furnished the clue through the labyrinth.
Ever seeking to narrow the domain of
arbitrary will and to enlarge that of
reason, while, in withdrawing cases from
the dangerous power of discretion it
necessarily adhered to fixed rules, it yet
was always found elastic in the promo
tion of justice by the application of old
precedents to changed circumstances
and the evolution of new principles to
meet new cases.
Instead of yielding TO the civil law, it
assimilated it as far as beneficial by
adapting its rules to the circumstances
and habits of the people. Commercial
law itself was but the outgrowth of
principles recognized by the common
law. That was the rock from which the
waves gushed forth at the stroke Of the
"Great Lord Mansfield"
However the trial by jury under the
ancient Constitution of England may
differ from that form of trial in the
modern sense of the word, it is one of
the chief glories of the common law
that, notwithstanding the influenee of
foreign laws and customs and language,
it maintained that great principle of
Saxon polity, the trial of facts by the
country, always regarded as the firmest
bulwark of freedom, and not simply i'm
portant in securing justice, but in teach
ing responsibility.
The grand declaratory statutes, the
Magma Charta, the Petition of Right,
the Habeas Corpus act, of course, could
not nor did not create or bestow the alb
Solute rights of individuals, the rights
of personal security, the right to ac-
quire and enjoy property, to protect
which governments were instituted
men. They but repelled and
guarded against encroachments upon
them.
And while our Federal and State con-
stitutions perpetuated the words of
these enactments, these rights antedate
those instruments, and are held and de-
clared to be natural, inherent and mali
enable. Part and parcel of the common
aw, their effectual existence is depend
ent upon that of civil liberty, with the
spirit of which the common law is per-
meated.
''Within spirit lives; mind infused
Through every member of that mighty mass,
Pervades SustanS and actuates the whole
And from the time when the declara- !
lion of the Judge itself was law to the
time when he declared the law as pre-
existing, the system owes its wonderful
,omprehensiveness and practical wisdom
20 the acuteness, the learning, the integ |
'ity and the sturdy common sense of the
Judges and lawyers who built it.
How delightful that we are permitted
% greet on this occasion the head of the
English common law, the head of that
bench which has transmitted to 'us the
wisdom of a thousand years" and to in
Tite him, in the words of Milton, adj
lressed to the Lord Chief Justice Coke:
To-day deep thoughts resolve with us to drench
n mirth, that after no repenting draws.
He finds here communities young in
-ears, but seeking to emulate their eld-
RS in wisdom, and as in material ad-
so in laws and letters, to
ollow, if possible, with equal steps-at
east with no long interval.
When Illinois was admitted into the
Union, Lord Peterborough had just re-
ired and Abbott been appointed Chief
Justice; Elden was on the woolsack;
was Chief Justice of the Su-
,reme Court of the United States; and
Kent and Story and Webster were achiev-
ng their exalted regulations. When,
lot score of years later, Chicago, then
,ut village of few hundred inhabi-
ants, was Incorporated as city, Lord
held the great seal, while
Iord Denman presided over the Kings
Bench, supported, in addition to Little
lale and Patteson and Williams, by Sir
rohn Taylor Coleridge, whose long and
judicial career exhibited, to use
he language of Sir Fitzroy Kelly, "a
right example of the display of all
hose attributes which best become a
udge in the discharge of his many du-
les" Applause and whose son, distin-
,uished by the exercise of the same high
judicial conduct which has rendered so
many of his predecessors illustrious, it
ives us so much pleasure to welcome
lere tonight. Applause.
In the comparatively brief time that
las elapsed, Illinois has acquired pop
Ilation of millions, and Chicago, six
hundred thousand, the State, the city,
nd the great West beyond, possessing
bench and bar to whom the names and
abors of Coke and Holt and Mansfield,
# Somers and Hardwick and Eldon, of
Grskine and Romilly and Follett, of FL
and Tenterden and Denman
nd Camnbell and Cockburn and Cole