The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is ii corporated the West Coast Times. SATURDAY, SEPT. 20th., 1921.

Hokitika Guardian, 20 September 1924, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is ii corporated the West Coast Times. SATURDAY, SEPT. 20th., 1921.

111.-: MAJESTY OF ’lilt: LAW. It was a solemn, inspiring, mil mo, in.

scene when, i i.le; lile llimisaiid-y.ai old lo.if i.i West wii stcc Hall, llm l.n< ( nail'elti r and llis Majesty’;'. Judges all arrayed in their stately re. es, t-■ eei.llv w el'nmed It Kngland llm dis

lingn'socd jilages anil lawyers Iron America and Canada. ’’’l lie history n Kngiai.d and of all our coheirs in th <ivilisalian it lias bee,.turn and In: niirtiiiid ;e litres at West minster,'' any the ‘'Times”; ‘'the great Hall and tli gieat Abbey have been the | lines n its making, the wii nc.ss. s < I its growth Few of all tlm <■ vci'.js which West min star Hall has hehi'ld are mole iuipres .sive to the thoughtful mind, and lew lerhajs; nui'e | regnant with tlm :!<•; linics < I that civilisation, than tli .stately fiimtiou on this i.c; a.sion. w lie the l.iril (hnn ellor i.l F.iigland am tlm President of the C anadian Bar A

si.. i:i t ion. ill the name ol tin- pio'c -.i-'ii of the law as jraiiis. ,1 in the .Mi.llicr ( .iiliitry, and in the ft real Dominion, rr .ivc.l and welcomed their t .>1 leagues from th.- United States. When the la 'y,...s oi tin- l’uito.l States. Canada, and England meet in London, visit Westminster Hall, w alk tin* St rand, and dine in the Temple they cannot el nose lint lie national representatives reassembled at the source from which their chief strength was drawn,” says the ’‘Observer.” ‘'Without the venturesome heart and the strong arm the English-speaking nice would not to-day !e s, reading in Ann-run, Alika. and Australasia. Hut with these alone we could not a i omit for the great new communities—America the greatest which are playing and ate to play a part of growing influento on the side of civilisation ami have ideas and experience of their own to bring in increasing measure to the world's stock. Along with stoutness ami vigour of enterprise went a (owcop.tioii of society which we may, with historital fitness, centre in Westminster Hall. Here, if anywhere, Americans, Canadians and Englishmen meet on common ground with an equal right. In enumerating possessions that lire common to the United States, the Dominiens and Uritain. we are prone to put language lisrt. It is the inc.st apparent element in their hroad community. We are not sure tba’t it is to I;• uele. ted as the most reliable. The inheritance of a common literature and the common

share ill eontomporaiy literatiiie are inealeiilalde assets. Blit we must giant that in everyday usage the ready intelligibility of the spoken and written word sometimes undies its own work. It may tend to obscure differences that .should be expelled, appreciated and acknowledged. The acknowledgment and the toleration of differences is the beginning of friendship. The chance word and the maladroit phrase are guaranteed a circulation wide and swift, and a very sensitive re:option. It is not the common tongue which alone or principally determines community of outlook. 'I hat wliii h. in main issues, holds the English-speaking communities together is also that which brings hosts and guests together in London. The inheritance ol English law is the iiiheritain e

d a moral attitude ] redisposing thought and fooliii" oven in our own despite. From it ileseenil a method of thinking, a method of aoeietv, and a

method of polities. The grain that drew in Westminster Hall is now sown n live ioiitinents. It has nourished mil become ilivc-tsifieil in transplantation. The American tradition is rich n legal achievements of its own and n the personality of famous jurists ind advocates. Law is planted in the cry midst of the American i(immunity, nd miller its shade it has worked and ived. But however, the varying course f histoiv may have differentiated the 'raetiee of the heritors, their unity n this respect, judged externally, is ar more conspicuous and impressive

than their diversity. There is the same belief in law itself. There is the same unshakable and instinctive conviction that reason ami consent are the first and last safeguards of civilisation. There is the same determination to spread peace and liberty through the wider operation of law. This conception of law and its spiead is the greatest gift which the English-speaking race can claim to have made to the' world. There is no greater marvel in the atlas than the extent of the territories over which the princple of order, feupded, through law, upon free-.

tloin, has already been given effeetive supremacy. The world will move on from elmos or hack to chaos accordingly its that .principle is given a wider and wider international acceptance, and physical forte is subordinated more and more strictly to the .service of law. This is the i rineiple to which the Eng-lish-speaking peoples have committed their whole future.”