remembrance of their ancient fame and the classic ruins which serve only to recall their once national grandeur. Let us pass on from ancient to modern times. We have to-day nations whose institutions were founded by and now sustained by these military classes. Standing at the head of such nations is the Russian Empire, a nation whose intercourse with the outside world is limited, and who, considering the great number of its inhabitants and the vastness of its domain, is the most exclusive country among civilized people. Russia is essentially a military government, and from our knowledge of the domestic condition of its people we can best form a judgment of a civilization founded upon such influences. Possessing the immense area of eight and a half million of square miles of territory, equal to one-sixth of the land surface of the world, and having within her borders upwards of one hundred millions of inhabitants; with a fertile soil adapted to the growth of nearly all of the staple products of the world, and possessing immense mineral wealth, we might expect to find this powerful nation exercising a potent influence in all quarters of the earth-but, to the contrary, she occupies comparatively an isolated position, and adds but little to the world's progress, and her civilization is a blot upon the enlightenment of the nineteenth century. Her people do not now nor have they ever taken the lead in the scientific, mechanical or social advancement of the human race. The fate of this strong nation, completely dominated by the military classes of society, has ever been to follow, and that, too, very slowly and at immense distances behind the other nations which compose the family of civilized countries of the world.

It is said, and is doubtless true, that the condition of Russia and the backward state of her civilization is due to the fact that the form of government has always been a centralized despotism-but that is only stating the effect and not the cause of such condition. The real cause of such a civilization is attributable to the one fact more than all others besides, that the policy of the nation has always permitted the military classes alone to control and manage the government. Such a state of

society never fails to create a despotism, where the greatest oppression of the masses occurs, and where the least national happiness and contentment exists.

If we turn now and read the history of those periods and of those nations where the government has been controlled by the priests and the religious portion of society, we find very much the same condition, but produced by different causes and different influences. It is a remarkable fact, that whenever the priesthood of a nation has controlled its public policy, we find a minimum of progress is made in the advancement of civiliza tion; and still more remarkable is the fact, that wherever the priests of any religious sects have become the statesmen who rule a nation, more intolerance is found, severer punishments inflicted, and less liberty is enjoyed by the people, than when the power of government has been entrusted to the lay portion of society.

Mr. Buckle has truly said, in his interesting work upon the civilization in England, that those countries which have been ruled by the priests, or by men because of their religious zeal, have, with rare exception, always retarded civilization, and have done scarcely anything to advance the progress of mankind. This is, as he states, owing to the special training and habit of thought of those who form that element of society, and whenever they became, as a class, the representative men, and exclusively govern a State, progress is usually retarded; and, stranger still, those who, by profession, teach makind to ask and expect mercy of the Almighty, and, also, promulgate the doctrine of forgiveness as the hope of salvation, are more stern and less merciful than any other class of society in the rule of their fellow-man.

These assertions are fully verified by history. They are not unjust to a class of men who, as individuals, are entitled to our profound esteem, and who, by their personal virtues, have usually furnished most exemplary lives to the rest of their fellow-citizens, but as a class have never succeeded as rulers in producing a civilization which has been progressive or ameliorating to society.

To illustrate the truth of these statements, we need go no further back in history than previous to and during the days of the Inquisition in Spain. The annals of that country while she was priest-ridden present dark and bloody chapters-cruel and inhuman punishments of her citizens, whose only crime was non-conformity to the established religion of the State-a stern and oppressive government-while the populace remained in abject ignorance and absolute stagnation in national progress. To a less degree, but very much the same state of society, existed in France when the influence of the Church was supreme, and the country dominated by the priesthood. The terrible catastrophes which have befallen that fair land were the outgrowth of religious persecution, sanctioned by her ecclesiastical rulers, which culminated in the horrors of the massacre of Saint Bartholomew, and, finally, resulted in the loss of her Protestant population, who were compelled to take refuge in distant lands. These are the most striking instances of the effect upon the civilization of a country when the policy of the goverment is entrusted to and controlled solely by men who follow religion as a profession. In both of the countries mentioned, the religious rulers were of the Church of Rome; but instances of the evils inflicted upon society are not alone confined to those cases where the controlling religion has been of the Romish Church; for whenever we read in history of any people whose statesmen and rulers were of, or influenced mainly by, the priesthood of whatever persuasion, we find very much the same state of society.

Even England, which of all countries in Europe was the less priest-ridden, presents notable instances of cruelty and oppression perpetrated under the lead of her religious statesmen. First, the Popish statesmen encouraging the persecution of the Protestant subject, then the Protestant statesmen causing the Romish subject in return to be oppressed; then the Established Church of England persecuting the Puritan, and the Puritan in return persecuting the members of the Established Church; and thus each government in turn oppressed the citizen, owing to the fact that during that unhappy period the controlling

influence in the State was almost entirely in the hands of men who were deeply imbued with religions creeds, and who in their zeal, as has always been the case, take away the liberties of a people in the name of the dominant sect, and, as they conceive, for the salvation of those whom they oppress.

We come next to consider what influence upon society, and to what extent, have the members of the legal profession as a class effected the progress of enlightened civilization.

Lord Bacon says, it is very laudable and proper in all who belong to a fraternity, or who form a distinct class in society, to take pride in their calling; and, as lawyers, all members of the bar naturally feel a pride in their profession. It is, therefore, interesting and gratifying to direct our attention to the benificent influence that the legal profession has had upon society when they have controlled the policy of the government. The mental training of gentlemen who are bred to the bar develops most those faculties which enlarge the noblest sentiments and impulses of the human heart. To the men of this profession, society is more indebted than to any other class of citizens for the growth of those institutions and principles of government which have within the last two centuries made Constitutional Government a reality, and free institutions the birthright of the various nations of the Western Hemisphere. But before this period, even as far back as the most ancient times, is to be seen the influence of those who addressed themselves to the study of the law. The people of Sparta were for cen turies distinguished for their national truth, which were the teachings of the code established by Lycurgus, their great lawmaker. We might, in this connection, again refer to the RoThe name of that once powerful Empire recalls much in the annals of history to excite our admiration for a people attaining such a high degree of civilization in the midst of barbaric darkness. The glory of her arms and conquests make up much of what is most interesting in the history of the world. The civilization which produced her temples and works of art has perished; the effect of her conquests are unfelt by any of the many countries once subject to her sway. The Roman

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people themselves have passed away, and the land, once the home of that sturdy race, finds no identity in the enervated Italians who now occupy that historic peninsular; but across the dark and silent centuries which separate us from those distant ages comes the light from her great lawyers.

The genius of Gaius, Ulpian, Papinian, Paulus, and Trilonian was not duly beneficial to their era, but live to-day with all the force they possessed two thousand years ago. In speaking of the works of these great students of the law as compiled in the Pandects, Mr. James Brice, Professor of Law at Oxford University and author of the American Commonwealth, says: "It is the volume which we now call the Digests or Pandects, and which is by far the most precious monument of the legal genius of the Romans; and, indeed, whether we regard the intrinsic merit of its substance or the prodigious influence it has exerted and still exerts, the most remarkable law book that the world has seen."

The civil law forms the basis of the greater part of the present judicial system of France, Germany, Austria, Italy and the other enlightened nations of Continental Europe, and likewise in the Republics of South America. And thus, while it appears that all else from Ancient Rome lives only in history, the influence of her jurists is still a potent and active force in the administration of the affairs of mankind in the greater part of the civilized world.

Now let us see what has been the influence of the lawyer as as a class upon society in England and in our own country, where the common law is the basis of the judicial system of both countries. We will not go back to remote periods, where it is so much more difficult to trace the effect of any special class of society upon the body politic, but shall confine these observations to the history of England in the seventeenth century. From the year 1640 to 1688 is perhaps the most notable period of English history-notable for the most complete and effectual revolutions which have ever occurred in that country. Both originated from the oppression of cruel and stupid kings. The first revolution soon fell under the control of the military