Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1901-04-12

| ali JHelI dIupliIuuS III llllS country.
| In the evolution of law, then, in this
and the mother land, courts have come
to be tribunals established for the
public administration of justice, and
composed of one or more judges who
sit for that purpose at fixed times and
| places, attended by the proper officers"
Since the establishment of Par
lament in England and the
period when courts there took
on something of their present
character, as always in our own
history, the three great distinctive
functions of government, the legisla-
tive, executive and judicial, have been
recognized by the laws. With us they
now are imbedded not only in the ma
| tional charter but also in all our local
constitutions and so constitute import :
ant divisions marked out by the SOW
ereign authority for the exercise OF
governmental power. The agents for
this are the public officers elected or
dDDUlultu W JlltSt uiltIClI lltDdIJ
ments. Hence, when they are duly Sc
lected, government ceases to be a mere
| ly abstract entity, existing on paper
| only. 1t then takes concrete form as
an organized, and within it's proper
sphere, a controlling force in and over
the community where it has been es-
tablished.
With regard to the judiciary, how
ever, proposition familiar to lawyers
may be noticed in passing. The per-
sons selected as judges for the various
courts of the commonwealth are not
simply by that fact the courts them
selves. While in their individual capa
city as judges, apart from the work of
holding court, other duties may be
cast upon them, STILL it is only when az
the appointed time and place they sit
for the administration of justice, that a
court in fact is constituted. Then the
judge or judges composing that tribu-
nal become in legal sense a court
authorized to WELD the Judicial power
not of an officer merely, but, as the
case may be of a commonwealth in the
American Union, or of the Nation it
self. in the light of this statement,
something of the lofty character and
intrinsic dignity of such tribunals can
be seen. Aperson who for the time be-
ing constitutes the court may be far
from an ideal man for his position; bad
influences may have contributed to put
him in it yet once there, in discharg
of judicial duty, he becomes the repre-
sentative of sovereign authority-of
the people themselves, in their highest
political capacity as the creators of
civil government. Nor is this all. AS
already stated, every judge acts under
the sanction of an OATH which in Ohio,
and generally | presume, specifically
requires him ':to administer justice
without respect to persons" To any
right thinking person, also, the balan-
cling of the scales of justice, in disputes
DGI"CCu man anu VIII val WIN
it deep and abiding sense of response
bility that must profoundly appeal to
the honor and conscience.
Indeed, the only true motto Of the
judge in his labors in court should be
Fiat justitia ruat coelum
This of course has reference to JUS
tice in the Civil sense, that is, to true
administration of the law as it at the
time exists. Yet the judge, like the
cultivated lawyer" ought to be able
"to perceive that the law in it's great
living and essential principles may be
and often is, as a distinguished legal
author states, something more than
the command of the sovereign or of a
legislative body-is something deeper
than these; that it has innermost and
invisible springs in the realms of an
elevated morality, hard by the throne
of God"
But a court is not complete in all its
appointments unless attended by its
proper officers. These, in the common
understanding are a Marshal, Sheriff
Bailiff or Constable-presentt to execut
the orders and commands of the bench.
Yet what such officials are called to do
includes but small part of the work
which it falls upon courts to perform
Another class of officers, not ordinarily
thought of as such, is of much greater
consequence in legal proceedings. Far
the larger portion of the business
which comes before judicial tribuna'
is brought there by attorneys and coun-
sellors at law; and they, III the ian
guage of the Supreme Court of the Un
tied States, ARE officers of the courti
admitted as such upon evidence
of their possessing sufficient legal
learning and fair private character
and as this authority further says
"they hold their office during good be.
havior." Like the judge, also, the law
yer must take an oath of office. This
requires that he demean himself hon