Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1904-01-21
LAWS

In all civilized countries laws accum- |
ulate, like rubbish in an attic, until !
there is not only much that is useless
and cumbersome, but absolutely nox-
ious. After vast mass of statutory
trash has been heaped up in the law Ii
braries of nation the effect upon jur-
isprudence is to render it incomprehens-
ible and unwh olesome, and in order to
render equitable decisions wise and just
judges must often divest their minds of
all judicial lore and decide the issue by
The old rules of common sense.
Legislative bodies, we believe, should
occasionally have housecleanings, when
all the useless statutory lumber should
be brought out of the dusty chambers
where they have become foul with the
cobwebs of obsoleteness, and reduced
| to wholesome ashes.
! 1t was only after the old, plague
stricken city of London had been utter
[ ly eaten up by fire that it became tit for
human habitation. The streets were
l dIltIWdIuS WlQcuCo SIA dAe5 AeNANN
and disease breeding novels replaced by
comfortable dwellings. 1t is an old ad-
age that no town or city amounts to
much until it has had a few first-class
fires, and the same line of argument ap-
plies to our laws they should be re-
pealed by the wholesale every now and
then and replaced by fresh ones.
We have hundreds of commentators
and thousands of judicial decisions, each
viewing the vast complexity of legisla-
tive enactments and contradictory judi
cial opinions in different lights, SO that
an energetic and skillful attorney can
find authority for any position he may
assume This goes on until the tangled
skein of jurisprudence becomes so knot
ted and confused as to be inextricable.
There is more uniformity and lucid
ness in the laws of England than those
of perhaps any other nation, because OF
the labors of great commentators, like
Blackstone, reluctance to enact many
new statutes, and a disposition to re-
peal laws that have outlived their use
fulness. But even the laws of England
are cumtered with much that is super
huous and ridiculous.
In the United States there is a perfect
mania for the manufacture of laws.
Nearly every individual citizen has a
pet measure that he wants to have en-
acted intoiaw, and he generally SIC
ceeds, if sufficiently persistent. Thus 1t
happens that there comes to be vast
and complex mass of worse than use
less legal enactments which have been
the outgrowth of all sorts Of selfish OBJ
jects, according to time, place, exigen-
cies and caprices, and with no purpose
to form consistent and systematic
code.
| For this reason a commission compos-
ed of eminent judges should be appoint
by the governors of the several states,
and by the President of the United
States, at intervals of every ten or
twenty years, to make a thorough ex-
animation of state and national laws,
and recommend the repeal of such as
have become obsolete or inconsistent
with the times What is wise and ju-
dicious legislation under some circum-
stances and conditions would be absurd
and pernicious under others. As these
circumstances and conditions change,
the laws should be changed to fit them,
and, in that way wholesome. rational
and easily understood code could be es-
tablished and maintained. Napoleon
performed this service for France.
| Lord Brougham, in concluding his
famous speech on law reform, said:
"You saw the greatest warrior of the
age-conquerer of Italy-humbler of
Germany terror of the North-saw
him account all his matchless victories
! poor compared with the triGmphs you
are now in condition to win-saw him
contemn the fickelness of fortune, while
in despite of her, he could pronounce
his memorable boast 81 shall go down
to posterity with the code my hand!"
You haye vanqulshed him IN the field;
strive now to rival him in the sacred
arts of peace Outstrip him as a law
giyer whom in arms you o7ercamel
The lustre OF the regency will be
eclipesd by the more solid and enduring
splendor of the reign. 1t was the boast
of Augustus-it formed part of the
| glare in which the perfidies of his earl
ier years were lost-that he found Rome
of brick and left it of marble. But
how much nobler will be the sovereign's
boast when he shall have it to say that
he found law dear and left it cheap;
found it a sealed book, left it living
letter; found it patrimony of the rich,
left it the inheritance of the poor; found
it the two-edged sword of craft and ap
prehension, left it the staff of honesty
and the shield of innocence. Spirit.