The University daily. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 18??-????, 1895-06-13


infer that the same quietlIs must still
the turbulent sea of hupaan affairs.
History sustains this inference and de
clares that under no system have the
right Of the individual been respected,
liberty secure and progress constant,
except under government springing
from the people based upon fixed and
certain laws. kingdoms, empires
and pseudo-republics have enjoyed
temporary prosperity and secured the
rights of classes but the permanency
of their prosperity and the degree Of
their security have alWafs been pro-
portional to their recognition of this
principle, which declares that the peo-
pie are the fountain Of authority, and
that law is the means Of enforcing the
popular will. Athens under Pericles
was the transcendent glory Of. ancient
>history, as she is the wonder and adj
mfration Of modern. Her civilization
was. rich and luxuriantf but it was
reared upon the ruined fdftunes of the
lower orders of society, find brief are
the annals of her glorti and tragic
its close. Gibbon says that THE
second century was the llost prosper
GUS in the worl9s htstort ~ But that
prosperity went down To the grave
with the Antonines onll to be resur-
rected by the magic touch of the new
civilization of the west. II The multi
piled epitaphs of dead millions on the.
pages of history all beaf witness that
llaW is both a cause an(scondition of
advancing civilization 8 English
prosperity says HalIlm, :" is the
most beautiful phenomenon in the
history of therace,a andthat " this is
due to the,spirit of the English law"
But springing from tb ssame source
is another phenomenon at more beau
! tiful than mere physictlI prosperity,
the liberties, of the people. The eter-
nal principles set out i'll the English
constitution will stand as monument;
to the genius of English Law, when
London Bridge and Westminster
Hall have crumbled to decay. +
TheNrace, then, it appears, has thus
far won\its achievements by virtue Of.
it's laws and the logic OF, history leads
us to conclude that under the reign of
law it might reach its appointed des-
tiny. III H.. ~5H
The influence of layf upon human
progress can not>be PROPERLY considered
apart from the fhhuenceof the lawyer. En-
Law applied to human r lations is the
instrumeRtality and utilization is
( til the result of that application, but
back of both stands the lawyer as their
efficient and intelligent cause. In
the reforms that have dethroned
susurpers and establisheh5the rights: of
the, people the lawyers shaye played a
distinguished and hfnbrable part.
They have given the optimistic trend
to modery history, MagEla Charta, The
Bill of Rights, and the#Declaration of
Independence, the three documents
/
/ which have emancipated the Anglo
Saxon race. areNthe exclusive work of
lawyers. Strike out of. tne history of
the past seven, centuries this trinity
of liberty, withits infiupnce upon man
| kind, and the picture left is dark and
forbidding. AS we contemplate it we
see kings rising againstfkings in pur-.
suit of unholy Ambitions nd Wading>
to tottering thrones through the
slaughter of the enslaved masses. We
hear the Pope from thesbanks of the,
Tiber, numbering forth. his dread an
athemas, which the ighdrance of the
age executed with superstitous zeal.
We behold protestant fanatieism per-
scouting its catholic nefghbor, and on
the. other hand we see catholic big
| try stalking forth in tha darkness to
the massacre of professionals on st Bar
tholomew's night !; antY as we look on
down the dark vista Of HISTORY thus
robbed of it's light! theHnast lends nei-
ther enthusiasm to the. present nor
hope to the future. III
In the evolution of fkeh institutions
the lawyer has been a MIDST potent fac
tor, He discovered tkasr underlying
principles and taught them to the peo-
pie. He it was who di$flosed to man
his own true. dignity BIZ teaching him
that he had rights to tH respected as
well as duties to perftfm The en-
forcement of this priilhiple, of man
possessing rights by virtue of his be-.
ing man, swept await the: curse of
religious intolerance. saWith all due
respect for the churehmen,- vet the
fact remains that in the struggle for
liberty the lawyer $llh the clergy
stand in marked contrast. The cler-
gy manufactured dogMh rather than
n cnovnrnd rine;r1ae II frT1l, ~, I.