The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1917-01-25

cOmmunlty-called the judicial
branch of the government; or who
see that existing laws are en-
forced, the latter being the admin
istrative or executive branch.
The popular form of govern
ment known as democracy, as it
is understood in France and the
United States, although Numerous
times essayed by the ancient Ro-
mans without success, as witness
!. the story of Coriolanus as por-
ootrayed by Shakespeare, is really a
/ very modern product and can be
said in truth to date from the time
of the revolt of the United States
in 1774. In England the same
revolution had been consummated
gradually, throughout period of
ten centuries, beginning first with
the limitation by the powerful
mobiles of the absolute and arbi-
trary power of the sovereign, in
such measures as the Magma
Charta, 1915. which is the bulwark
Of the liberty of the subject in all
Englisn-speaking countries, includ-
ing the United States, where
British law is in force. This great
sharter provided that no man
should be imprisoned contrary to
Jaw. This was followed by the
Eabeas Corpus Act, which pro-
vided an effectual means for the
subject to release himself from
custody, in case be should be i'm
prisoned contrary to law and also
provided him with a means of
Furnishing all those who should
thus unconstitutionally misuse
him. Finally the Bill of Rights,
in 1859, did away completely with
the doctrine of the Divine Right of
kings, by undertaking to definitely
| title the line of succession to the
Throne and by prescribing that the
royal supplies should be limited to
one year only. This provision
alone removed one of the Kings
strongest weapons, for until it was
passed he could simply refuse to
convene Parliament and the peo-
pie were powerless to compel him
to do so.
Finally the burgeois or middle
class people, the arbitrary power
of the sovereign having been cur
tailed, broke down the Feudal sys-
tenn, the bulwark of the power of
the mobiles in England and France
during the Middle Ages, and thus
in reducing the arbitrary power of
the mobiles over them, gradually
increased their own voice in the
councils of the nation, until to-day
we are witnessing in England such
a complete triumph of the truly
democratic form of government
that we are confronted with the
passing of the British House of
Lords, the last stronghold of the
privileged, hereditary. noble class.
Whereas in England the substi-
tuition of constitutional monarchy
for an unlimited monarch was a
gradual process, extending over
centuries, in France it was the re-
suit of a few brief but bloody
years. True, there had been peri
odical uprisings of the lower
classes against the tyranny of the
House of Bourbon and the heredi-
tary aristocracy of France, but
these had always been successfully
put down. During the latter half
of the eighteenth century, how
ever, the abject misery of the peO-
pie, consequent on the arrogance,
greed and ruthlessness of the
privileged classes, coupled with
the licentiousness and extravaganza
of the court life under Louis the
Sixteenth, became so intolerable
that the people we're driven by
force of self-preservation to pre-
cipitate the bloodiest revolution in
history, which revolution finally
overturned the kingship and
through a sea of blood established
the French Republic. All the available
literature on this dark period of French
history evidences the fact that the people
believed that all men were born free and
equal; that there should be no privileged
class, but that all should be subject to the
same laws; and that the people themselves,
for whom the laws were made, should not
only be consulted in the making of these
| louc b,,t that thew themselves should