The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-06-27

By Hon. John w. Griggs, ILL. D., At
 torney General of the United States. Music.
 Award of Prizes.
 Benediction.
 MIR. GRIGGS' GRAFTON. The attorney general spoke in part as ! follows: Let us review the course of jurispru- | dence especially in America, and see whether that department of human gov ernment has kept pace with the general
 progress of civilized s6ciety. Invention
 and discovery have revolutionized the
 means of internal communication, and
 made the uttermost parts of the earth like neighboring reg ions. New forces
 and novel processes have been adapted
 to the use of mankind in every branch
 of industrial, commercial and social life,
 adding immensely to their wealth and convenience. But it has been said by
 an eminent student of the history and
 philosophy of law that legislation has
 failed to keep pace with this material
 progress and with the increase of &C.,
 cumulated wealth. If by this is meant
 that our jurisprudence has proved in-
 adequate as a system of legal mandate
 and judicial procedure to provide pro-
 tection and redress in reasonable meas
 ure for all the new and expanded rela-
 tions of property, of business, and of
 civil status that have developed, then
 the statement may well be challenged.
 "If on the other hand it is only meant to assert that those ancient prin- ciples of jurisprudence which supply the
 basis of our system-the English com
 mon law-molded by the progress of de- yelopnent from century to century and from time to time enlarged, restrained and variously modified by statutory en- actment have remained substantially the rule of civil conduct, supplying the standard of justice by which the novel methods and vast transactions of our day are to be judged, without yielding to the universal demand for change and experiment, then the statement may be received as a testimonial to the wisdom, the stability and inherent adaptablity of English law; for one of the most re- markable characteristics of the common law is its easy, and natural adaptation. through it's administration by the bar and the courts to relations and circum- stances that are novel and without eX- act precedent If no precedent is forth coming there is always the more sub- stantial guide of ancient principle to| point the way to a decision that shall stand thereafter as a ruling precedent.
 Substantially, our system of juris- prudence remains unaltered from that which our fathers obeyed and admins tered when the nineteenth century first dawned With forty-fve state legisla- lures annually or biennially engaged inI enacting, amending, supplementing, and revising and constantly issuing vast volumes of new statutes, it is remark able how little alteration has been made in the substantial system of English law which we inherited from the mother and will still reamins stead fast system of justice, the foundation of our civil rights and liberties. Changes, indeed, there have been, some for the better, some, perhaps, for the worse. | Most of them have been in procedure rather than in the matter of substance or principle. There has been a vast ac- celeration of legal process, from sum- mons to execution. but is in keeping with the more rapid business require mentS of the times The refinements and complications of practice, both in law and chancery courts, which former y prolonged to unreasonable lengths the pursuit of justice and made it more prudent for many to bear the ills they had than to fly to others that they knew not of, have given way to more iirect, more simple and expeditions of procedure, whereby justice las been made not only more certain put more speedy, thus increasing general confidence in the courts and adding inn to the respect and authority in- 'pired, by system of just and equal avs efficiently administered"
 In his closing part MT. Grggs drew he following picture of the good law ger:
 For your eXemplar let me commend he ideal of the good lawyer-I do not ay the great but the good lawyer--an deal that has been realized in the life if every substantial city and courthouse own, especially in the older neighbor- loods; a man of kindly and benignant disposition, friendly alike with his we'll o-do and his poorer fellow townsmen acquainted with their habits and indi- 'idual history, and with a pretty ac- urate notion of their opinions and prej- ldices, as well as of their ways and neans; genial and socable, yet dignified nd self-contained; of staid and com- ortable appearance; in manner alert; in onversation always moderate and re- pectful; shreWd in his observations; wise. but with perennial humor and Dve of pleasantly; as citizen always oncerned and active in the interests of is town, his state and his country; not , n agitator, nor perpetual fault-finder, l or giving out the intimation that he is etter or wiser than others, but ready to onfer, to adjust, to agree, to get the ; est possible if not the utmost that is To him the people turn in ,cal emergencies for guidance and ounsel on their public affairs, even par onor and wisdom; so free from all ause of offense that there is no tongue ) lay a word against his pure integrity; % dignified and respectable to tempt too genial and generous to revoke envy or jealousy; revered by is brethren of the bar; helpful and T indly to the young; in manner suave nd polite, with a fine courtliness of the \ d tlavnr-What Clarendon described in T. 1hn Hampden as "a flowing courtesy \ ,wardS all rnpO,p successful of rOurSn