the powers granted such officers by the early English statutes, yet their powers and duties have been so enlarged and so fully defined by statutes of the various states that they are in effect wholly statutory." The authority of a justice of the peace in the United States may be said to be limited, as it is in England and Canada1o to that which is expressly conferred by, or is necessarily implied from some statute. In the United States as in England and Canada they have both criminal and civil jurisdiction. The appointment is generally elective in the United States, and the commencement (24 Cyc., p. 411) and the duration of the term of office are fixed by the constitutions of the various states, or by statutes made in pursuance of constitutional authority. OTTAWA, CANADA. 8 R. V. Bennett, 1 Ont. R. 455; R. V. Bush, 15 Ont. R. 398. 24 Cyc. 404. A. J. MCGILLIVRAY. 10 R. V. Carter, 5 Ont. R. 567; Cullen v. Trimble, L. R. 7 Q. B. 416. TODAY AND YESTERDAY. There was once an old man with a thin face, a long nose and a satirical smile. He overturned kingdoms with a sarcasm and by his reasoning established democracies. Today we call him a philosopher; yesterday they called him "that beast Voltaire." Of course, as today we have reached the utmost height of enlightened reason, our verdict must stand. He is a philosopher and entitled to the utmost attention. When he began to reason, his first position was "Come let us define our terms." No one will dispute that the term "today" is agreed upon. It means the present instant. Today is the accomplished fact and as it ends tonight we look forward with bright hopes toward tomorrow, desiring to accomplish more then than we have accomplished today. As we enter upon tomorrow can we learn anything from yesterday? But what do we mean by yesterday? The term is defined for us by the highest authority. I refer to this authority with the utmost confidence, for it is approved by the just voice of all of us, and is, therefore, conclusive. I refuse to take any definition from the Priests of Isis, from Mohammed, from Confucius or from Buddha, for we, in the supreme court of civilization, have reversed their judg ments. This authority to which I appeal for a definition is so well known to all of you that I do not need to give you the citation, and there it is said, "A thousand years are in His sight as but one day." As lawyers we know, or ought to know, the statutory method of calculating time which has been ordained by the infinite wisdom of the legislature of the State of Missouri. You exclude the first day and include the last. Therefore, excluding the first one thousand years and including the last one thousand years we arrive at the just conclusion that yesterday means some two thousand years or more ago. What I want to discuss is whether we of this today are at all different in feelings and temperament from the people of that yesterday. And the fact that we are not at all different is well proven, because the same motives actuated men in that yesterday which influence us in this today; the same laws were passed then to control vice such as we pass today to regulate the vicious, and the operation of our motives and our laws today are the same as the operation of the motives and the laws of yesterday. This I hope to establish by a few instances and no very long discussion. If I do establish it, I want to ask in what we have been wrong; by what error are we men of today led to make the same mistakes that the men of yesterday made? I speak with the utmost humility and I doubt whether I ought to speak at all, for I belong to that body of men whose opinions have been today and yesterday treated with the utmost scorn and contempt. Today the many-tongued voice of the printed word cries aloud against the lawyer and demands that the justice of all causes be determined by the judgment of all the people without the interposition of any hired reasoner. But of course this judgment is to be determined by those who use the printed words to influence the judgment of the people. This is said today by the printed word. Yesterday spoke Caligula, Emperor of Rome, whose name has been handed down through twenty centuries as the synonym of depravity, saying: "By Hercules I shall put it out of their power to answer any questions in law otherwise than by referring to me."" Yesterday we had one master. Today we have many. But all of us, even we lowly lawyers, want the light. Some wanted it yesterday, others want it today. We all remem 1 Suetonius Lives of the Caesars. Title Caligula, Sec. 34. ber old Diogenes, the philosopher of yesterday, who lived in a tub and occupied his time by contemplating the wickedness of mankind. As Diogenes sat upon the ground, Alexander, the conqueror of the world, standing beside the tub, asked whether he could do anything for him. "Yes," said the cynic, "stand from between me and the sun." That was yesterday. Today another demands a place in the sun. The demand is the same. I wonder if the motives are different. Do not insist that the men of today are different from the men of yesterday, or remark that it is extraordinary how the sweep of civilization has changed the nature of man. Why, even the animals of today act just as did the animals of yesterday. Today we hear handed down in song and story the virtues of the Missouri mule. His bray resounds through continents and we are led to believe that no such intelligent and hard-working animal ever lived in the days of yesterday. Alas, even this most estimable descendant of a jackass must droop his ears and depress his tail, for Plutarch relates (Life of Marcus Cato Bohns, pocket edition, p. 103, l. c., paragraph 5): "When the Athenian people built the Parthenon they set free the mules which had done the hardest work in drawing the stones up to the Acropolis and let them graze where they pleased unmolested. It is said that one of them came of its own accord to where the works were going on and used to walk up to the Acropolis with the beasts who were drawing up their loads as if to encourage them and show them the way. This mule was by a decree of the people of Athens maintained at the public expense for the rest of its life." Strange, is it not, that the mules of yesterday were not so different from the mules of today and yet that the men of today are so much the same as the men of yesterday? "What's that," you say, "we are different, we build better machines, we do things more quickly, we move with more neatness and dispatch, we are more efficient." Granted; but I wonder whether to be more efficient in material things is to be more advanced. Does it lead us any nearer to that happy time of which the poet spoke: "When the war drums throb no longer We have praised efficiency and today we see efficiency rolling down the broad highway drunk and bloodied, with her boon companions, death and destruction, upon either arm. What is it all about? What are we doing it for today? Can any one tell us? Today we don't know. Yesterday they knew. Remember that story of King Pyrrhus, a King of the older yesterday? Pyrrhus was ruler of the Kingdom of Epirus in Greece. He had a full treasury and a good army. Using his money and his army he conquered the most of Greece and then began to enlarge his army and enrich his treasury, evidently preparing for another expedition. It happened that he had an old counsellor, a wise man, for even in those days there were some wise men. One day as Pyrrhus was walking down the main street of his capital he met the counsellor who said to him: "Why, hullo, King. I understand you have licked the most of Greece." "Yes, sir; I have," replied Pyrrhus. "Now, ain't that fine," said the counsellor, "and what are we going to do next?" "Well," said Pyrrhus, "I thought I would just step over and clean up Rome and Italy." "That's great," cried the counsellor, "and then?" "Why, then," returned Pyrrhus, "I will take Asia Minor and Egypt. That will give me the whole of the known world and then I can come back to this little Kingdom of Epirus and sit down and take my ease and comfort." "Say! Listen, King," replied the counsellor, "can't you do that now? What are you going through all these motions for?'"2 I am sure some of the same motives move the men of today that did the men of yesterday. It is hard to make people believe that yesterday men lived and fought and loved and died on the shores of the Mediterranean much as they 2 Plutarch Lives. Title Pyrrhus. |