Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-01-30

however, to expect such an Innovation AZ
present. The law progresses by evolution
not by revolution.
! For many years members of the nress
have sought legislation to provide that
| plaintiffs in actions of libel shall, giys
| security for costs. In California tho
plaintiff is required to give bond in the
sum of $500. In the province of Quebec
II the defendant shows by affidavit that
the plaintiff has no property sufficient 10
pay the costs, that there is good defence
| upon the merits and that the statements
! comp lained of were published in good
| faith or that the grounds of the action
| are trivial and frivolous. the court in It's
discretion may order the plaintiff to give
security for costs. In the bill of 1901 7
| recommended and inserted this proys-
ion. emitting the element of want of
properly by the plaintiff I notice that
the bill of this winter onlits the section
After more careful consideration, | am
| satisfied that it is unwise to ask for such
| special legislation. Physicians have for
long time felt that they We're entitled to
| such protection. We are all liable to
| groundless suits instituted by irresponsi-
| BILE plaintiffs. 1t is difficult to see WHY
any profession should be singled out for
| such special protection.
| The courts should be open to rich and
| poor alike, and in the language of our
| Constitution justice should be admins
! tered freely and without sale No suitor
| should be denied a hearing in the halls
! of justice because of the misfortune of
| poverty or want of friends to make his
| cause tnelf own. ~ may be- and is true.
| that you often suffer from groundless
suits instituted by irresponsible liti-
giants encouraged by counsel that forget
in their zeal for their clients, some of the
principles of the golden rule-but such is
the lot of man and such will be his lot
until the wicked cease from troubling
and the weary are at rest" There is
enough in the law to be remedied with
out asking for special privileges denied to
others.
How much to ask for at time is ad-
dressed to your sound discretion. What
ever you ask is an innovation upon the
time-honored principles of the common
law. You should remember that gentle
men of my profession are slow to change
what has come down to us loaded with
the learning of the centuries. We love to
make haste slowly. In politics and So
cial economics more progressive even
than journalists, we hesitate to remove
the ancient landmarks of the law lest the
bounds be lost between right and wrong
But the common law is not petrifaction
Much of it lives in sentiment and tradi-
ton. Much OF it is mouldy with rever-
entail superstition We affix seals to SOL
emn instruments because the mobiles that
fiattered Elizabeth were unable to read
or write. One judge sits upon the law
side of the court to permit the bringing
of an action and turns in his chair as n
chancellor in equity to enjoin the prose-
cution of the same suit because centuries
ago the king found it profitable to sell his
favors to his subjects when the funds in
his treasury were Iowa. We write our
deeds of real estate in words of learned
length and laundering sound unmindful
of the fact that every conveyance is a
reminder of the quarrels between a much
married king and stubborn church. Our
procedure is loaded with barbarous Latin
and worse French because Saxon and
Dane and Norman Frank warred in the
courts in mongrel tongue. We rob the
widow of her just share of land given UP
to the growth of wood, because in the
feudal days the oldest son took the ma
nor-houSe as the vaSSal of his king. No
probate court can sell the farm to support
the widow in her declining years and If
childleSS, two-t thirds must go to a distant
relative who has never seen her slave
from morn to night to earn that farm
all because such was the fashion of the
common law centuries before mother and
wife shared in the glories of the progress
OF the world. Such is the power of super,
suton that in very truth Mans inhd-
mainly to man makes countless thous-
ands mourn. Surrounded as we are with
a procedure rich in history. you cannot
expect the legal profession to forget their
idols in moment. 1t may be that we
conservatism too blind for the public
veal. 1t is said of a distinguished legal
friend of mine that he never retires at
night without making on Bonded knee
obeSance to the common law l must
confess that in my heart of hearts | SYM
pathize with him. The public is The
gamer because of our conservatism. No
law is 50 unsatisfactory as the written
statute. NNo calamity could come upon
business greater than to compress into
code of compact sentences the wisdom
of the ages. Counsel before Sir Mathew
Hale said OF the statute of frauds Every
line is worth a subsidy" ''Yes% replied
the learned justice. every line has cost
a subsidy" But the common law is not
too sacred to yield to the necessities of
advancing civilization. 1t is its pride and
glory that it's primary conceptions are
sufficiently elastic to cover the changing
conditions of society. 1t is not code but
nhi1OSOnbV In the hands nf a wiSa and
learned court, its rules carefully and spar
ingly modified by legislation, it will be in
the future as in the past the light of lib
erty for a people seeking truth and JUS
tlce for rich and poor. 1t grows unevenly.
IT has expanded until the law of libel is
left in the dim twilight of the days when
men cried out against the oppression of
the King. You make no war upon the
philosophy of the law when you ask its
guardians to harmonic it's contradictions
and so vouchsafe to you the freedom of
the press for which your fathers fought.
Gentlemen of the press. demand that
the people breathe the breath of life into
the Constitution. Insist. in season and
out of season. that the Temple of Justice
shall open it's doors to the eternal truth.
The future has for you responsibilities
grave and momentous. The world has
gone daft in the maddening race for
wealth. There is tendency to forget
that
Frank is but the guineas stamp,
The mans gowd for a that
There are too many rich idlers blocking
the way. But human progress moves in
waves with a never-ending gain in their
ceascless roll. God moves in a mystic
rious way His wonders to perform" You
are one of His agencies in the enforce
ment of his immutable laws. Your hands
should be strengthened. not shackled. The
people need never fear that liberty of
the press will sink to license. The hour
cometh when popular government Will
cry out for your courage-and the cry
will find you at the pass. The time is
near at hand when the bench, the bar and
the press will again be the defence of the
public veal. With fearless, untram-
meled, unbought and unpurchaseable
press, with trial by jury preserved in all
its primeval simplicity with a bar trained
to defend the right and attack the wrong.
with an upright court declaring but never
making law, the blessings of liberty will
be the inheritance of our children, our
children's children and countless genera
tons yet unborn.
Following Mr.. Heath's address How
ard Owen read bright and entertain
ing essay on "The Ups and Downs of Il
Newspaper Man" which was thorough
" enjoyed by all.
Following this came the poem by
Frank II. Colley which was a fitting
close to a thoroughly enjoyable and
meeting Of the associa-