The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-11-18


 courts when the law is assailed on the
 ground that it finds no constitutional
 support, we say it falls within the po-
 lice power of the State. There is no
 excuse for our being uninformed respec-
 ting the scope and purpose ol the police power. It has been pointed out, defined
 and limited by some of the greatest jurlsts of the land. In Yates (v.) Will
 waukee, 10 Wallace, 497, the Supreme Court of the United States held that a
 legislative body, by it's ipse dixit, can not declare that to be crime which is not so in fact The same court in Loan Association (v,) Topeka, 20 Wallace, 6E5. declares for the first time in the judici- d al history of the world that there is no such thing in the theory of our govern ments, State and National, as unlimited power in any of their branches That law which is contrary to natural jus tlce is void, although there is no con stitutional limitation upon the Legisla- ture respecting it.
 | It is generally assumed that the I,egis
 lature. unless restrained by the Con- stltutlon, is as omnipotent as the Brit lsh Parliament. Indeed it is said that | property of A to B without a hearing ana without compensation, there is no | no power in the courts of England to declare such a law void. Happily for the people of America, the duties and powers of every branch of the govern
 ment are defined and limited by a written constitution The language em- ployed by that sturdy jurist, the late NIT. Justice Miller, in Loan Associa ton " Topeka, supra, should be considered as new Magma Charta of the people. He said, Tt must be conceded that there are such rights in every free gov- ernment beyond the control of the state government which recognized no such rlghts, which held the lives, the liberty and the property of it's citizens subject at all times, to the absolute disposi- ton and unlimited control of even the most democratic depository of power, Is after all but despotism. It is true it is despotism of the many of the ma 1ority, if we choose to call it so, but 1t is none the less despotism It may well be doubted if a man is to hold all that he is accustomed to call his own, all in which he has placed his happi- ness, and the security of which is essen- tial to that happiness, under the un- limited dominion of others, whether 1t is rot wiser that this power should be ex- ercised by one man than by many.
 The theory of our government, state and national, is opposed to the deposit of unlimited power anywhere. The ex- ecutive, legislative and the judicial branches of these governments are all of limited and defined powers. There are limitations on such power which grow out of the essential nature of all free governmentss Implied reservations of individual rights, without which the social compact could not exist, and which are respected by all governments entitled to the name" In re Jacobs, 8 N. r., the court declares that the police power, however broad and extensive, is not above the Constitution; when it (the Constitution speaks it's voice must be needed. It forms the supreme law the guide for the conduct of legisa- lures, judges and private persons, and so far as it imposes restrictions, the po- lice power must be exercised in subor- dination thereto In the Town of Lake View V. Rose Hill Cemetery Company 70 H. 791, the court say that "the po- lice power of the state is co-extensive with self protection, and is not unjustly termed a law of overruling necessity" which by the way IS a very apt deflni- tion: "that the legislative department may determine when the exigency ex- ists calling into exercise this power, but what are the subjects of It's exercise is purely a judicial question"
 The people of this state, ill their sov ereign capacity have embodied in the Constitution principles which, by di- rect implication, deprive the legislature of the power to enact penal statute which gives to the informer the right to institute proceedings under it or to share in it's ultimate results, The Con- stituton declares that all prosecutions shall be carried on in the name and by the authority of the people of the state of Illinois, and conclude against the 1 peace and dignity of the same It also | declares that the governor shall have power to grant reprieves, communications and pardons after convictions for all of i lenses. When suit is instituted for the recovery of penalty, not even the king, who could, before the action was | brought, grant the pardon which would l be bar to all the world, can after suit | is commenced, remit anything but his | own part of the penalty, for by com the suit, says Blackstone, 'the informer has made the public action his own private action. And it is not in the l power of the crown, or anything but to release the informef' $ interest,"" Parliament could repeal the law and the penalty would fall with its repeal"
 The Jaw authorizes private informer to institute the suit in the name of the people, and the mere institution there- 1f in such manner makes the public the private suit of the par ", and also deprives the governor of ais constitutional prerogative, and it is therefore void.
 Legislation can never make men pa- riotic or religious. The English parlia- nent has often attempted to make men eligious, but all efforts In that direction lave been signal failures. Every man owes the land of his birth and the flag l # his country, so long as the flag is the ,mblm of just laws, impartially ad- ninistered. Every man would risk his fife to defend the majesty of the law which throws the shield of protection yer his home and family.
 lis home-felt pleasure prompts the