The Lawyer's Position in Society. tees represent it to a slight degree only, and they are so distinct one from another, that they cannot be expected with any degree of certainty to prepare wise and comprehen sive schemes of legislation (even accuracy in wording important bills seems sometimes beyond their powers). Again the committees are not made up of men of the same training as those who com pose the British cabinet of experts, but in clude and are sometimes almost entirely composed of new legislators. Under these conditions it is all the more necessary that every member have the best training possi ble; and but one class, the legal profession, furnishes even an approximate preparation. When we consider the circumstances in which we are placed, the man best able to legislate is, in the vast majority of cases, the lawyer, not because he is conversant with all the details of business in its various ramifica tions, but because he has a larger knowledge of laws as they exist, a keener insight into the fundamental nature of laws, and is better able to devise measures harmonizing with principles established by custom or express enactment. He has had this training in his profession, and no other profession, trade, or calling can furnish the same preparation. In legislative bodies there will always be advocates of various local measures that are demanded by larger or smaller sections of the country. What are known to-day as the measures of the Silverites, the ProtectionistManufacturers, the Free Raw Material Manu facturers, the Prohibitionists and the Popu lists, will always be represented, in one form or another in the legislature. Measures good and bad will always be advocated. One-sided selfish interests will always be urged. The manufacturer of the North, fearing competition, will demand pro tection, even at the expense of his brother, the agriculturist of the South. The woolen manufacturer of the East cries for free wool though it means ruin to the wool grower of the West. It is right, it is necessary that
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such conflicting interests be represented. The legislation for a 'country of such im mense extent and such varied resources and needs must take into consideration all class es and all sections. But• above all these clashing interests there must be some con trolling and directing principles; some pow er that will further a harmonious and vigor ous development of national life, and that power, that principle can only be found in that body devoted to the study of the fundamental principles of legislation, the lives of whose members are spent in the interpretation of the will and heart of the nation as expressed in its common and statute law, and the fundamental law, the Constitution. But the lawyer's work does not end in the legislative chamber; he has a still larger field of usefulness, and a still more import ant position in the whole structure of society. The laws which have been enacted must be applied, after their true meaning has been ascertained. I am .quite aware that the de mand that the laws be interpreted and their meaning carefully ascertained has been at tacked as a piece of unnecessary subtility and a part of that conspiracy in which law yers are supposed to be engaged to make the administration of justice costly and so out of reach of the poor, and to give the rich opportunities to evade the demands of right. Let us turn to our sister science theology, and see how it is there. We find almost the same protest made against any profound study of interpretation. The protest is made by almost the same class as that which ob jects to extensive study of legal principles, and we find among theologians men disput ing more violently about proof texts and passages of scripture than ever lawyers wrangled over a point in law. Each man feels that there is no difficulty in the passage, he sees clearly its meaning, — to him it is a perfectly lucid statement. Yet these inter pretations are sometimes diametrically op posed.
