“ THE DIABOLISM OF THE LABORATORY.”

Hokitika Guardian, 28 August 1923, Page 4

“ THE DIABOLISM OF THE LABORATORY.”

a notable plea for a new RESPECT FOR LAW'. "'l'lie essential privilege of law is to defend the canon of its equality—namely that nil must have equal treatment by the law, as the brontl inevitable resultant right of free citizenship.”—Lord Shaw of Pumferndine. "When every citizen can truly feel .nnt the law cun be appealed to as bis ■rieiid. then strength and healing, come mo the body politic, and the function if law, even on the every-day level of individual disputes and of differences between man and man. add to the guiltily sense of independence which is .he essential of progress. ‘Rut whatever men, decent men, not rebels or criminals, cower beneath die law, being afraid of its inequality, saying to themselves ‘the world :s not my friend, not the world’s law.’ then they become tin* starved apollic•ori(_.s of society and are iempied to meanness and evil ways. And that s ,; - :-ietv is nittcii where one citizen ns against another can overpower hint or undermine him by law wielded with an uneven hand. Only the blind, the cruel or the unjust in heart can wink L ..c eye at this e.nnnnwnbk* ettr.se. "Take that tiling which we call a man's right. He ought to he able to vindicate it against all the world. But title imperious and resounding prohibiting is laid upon him: lie cannot take the law into hi- own band. And well lie knows if lit* thinks or bis own right and of himself alone, and begins to exert i-t* it with that sok* idea, then oollisious will take place, he will encounter surprises and mishaps, and ho will come to gliel. “AYhat has happened to him? He lias forgotten that the correlative >1 right is duty. Sic utoro tuo m alicmun non lnedas. Rut the law dees imt forget it. That law. however, which lie tlarc not take into Ids own hand r.s a master lie can appeal to with the submissive mind. •‘(•’nr justice exist-; that atl.-loto reconciler of right with duty. As deep and elementary a, the distinction *n philosophy between the ego and m*:tCgn, is lilt* broad plain fact that there arc others in the world besides the appellant who also hare tights, and that tin* interdependence of rights and their poke and balance with duties is secured by the arbitrament of a. third principle, namely, justice itself. flustico, conserving tbe rights of all and commanding the duties of all, issues its decree that right and duty must 1 1 well together in the pence of mutuality, fn tins mutuality of rights and of duties both can lie evolved into that harmony wherein law is vindicated force restrained, progress possible : and so peace among men becomes Hit; everyday achievement of social life. TREY THAT I.'SE THE SWORD PERISH BY THE SWORD. “Reason and force since the world began hare been in grips. When the

former has prevailed the majesty of the law has boon justified. When IV latter has prevailed civilisation has been lowered, the achievements of mankind have been destroyed, and law ll.xcli lias fallen from its high estate, dethroned, hrnlali-ed am! then trampled iiiuh'i'loot. "In eveiy range of law. I rout the humblest to the highest, tlii- operates. The rejection of tlu* domination “f force, the taking of law into his own hand, applic- not to individual- alone and (II th<* higher tango to cla-scs of -orieiv. but it ;*;q-lics 1 1 U higher ; all

nation- .-u.no; or Iti.u. wlm in tin eolli-ion H-t c. on for, e and la w prcl'c , dunuii.il leu ami !* >*■■.. I . , u;* lo : j mbernb'c end ; they t'*at me '•''* | sword peri -h h*. t '*.■ -uo,d. j "l.a'v rcaelies tip to i hi-, higlict i* r,*l ! ami a- the years go forward, will .l< jso with a greater and greatci maj' -t; (if comitiaild ; and i > 11 ,*. still to* >e jit. into that highest tan_v of adiiirnu j f‘*ree a- a solvent of disputes, up holding the way ol reason, and a-kinr the rid of great lawyer- (is its mini ter-. "litil. minir-teis of i. a-on. best it yran-'dve-. I'm- tla- other -id,*, lit. j brutality of I "Tee ha- but the .:tla*i ] day been tally reinforeed. j "A new feat is at the liearl ol manj kind at this hour. It i- ion netted wit It the adt a non of science. Novel j -iiic* 1 tic'* woi'bl began had lope, bru- ! talilv rud anarchy such an op port uI nily. War, v. ith all it- sacrilie,*. has not been too dear if it opens the eyes i i mankind to the appalling gravity oi I conijutting tn the wor-hip cd lorco and of lun her defying the governance ol j ica-on. A new era opens to t'umkiud. j "If you conceive of inlernatiuntil law !as binding all nations, then internaJ tional law - T speak it with *"i row but j c-'iivict ton i lll ■ • i tin i ional la tv is in ruins, i*t n•• under immoral or : ott- | moral control, can. wo l.tiotv, undo. | and lias undone, tin* human,--t conrouition.- of the t.gcs. And a dostruction j can now t;.;* accomplished in the 1 course of minutes which will over tlirotv tin* acliict lUiictits of mankind built ti;i in tin* coil! -o i f t cut ttrics. Tlie earth is affrighted. "Men. unless reason and the aibitliimeni of justice he reasserted on the earth, will hide beneath the grouml on which the ruins of human happiness have been overthrown. Do you think this picture over-drawn? V,ell. listen to tlii-. "It lias come to tlii-. [ln* coliiii; C as old a- history, between tight and wrong; the solutions as old ns ld-lury, between tnatetial advnmcntenl eedloiislv pitisued and ideal progress legally achieved- there still temniti su-c.dfed remedies—praetkes which are as erne! a.s the darkest recced- of uncivilised humanitv. disclosed in the adjustment of human ali'airs by force instead "1 (,v law. All thece things are helore our mind now, hut they Imre as.-uot-ed a darker colour. The glory ot our estate is shrouded by fear. The weaknesses of our remedies are pitiful to see. The cry of aggrieved mankind is unavailing forever utiles- a new tnelli d. a new range of law he reached under which an ordeilv humanity shall bo tree, vommlfitl of rigFt anrl of duty ami s-übmissive to justice after reasoned appeal. •• ‘Bride, pomp find circumstance of glorious tv at' have disappeared info a chemical cauldron. C htvalry and military glory, there seems no room for them under the sun. They have tied, and in their place is 101 l only the diaholi-m of the laboratory.