of Indians.

The few statutes we find upon this matter tend to still further extend
and liberalize religious rights. Almost universally now a man is not
forbidden from testifying or being a witness by reason of his belief
or disbelief, even when he is an atheist. The latter law is not,
however, quite universal. He must, in some States, believe at least in
the existence of God, or of a future state of reward or punishment.
Mormons, at one time, claimed the right to practise polygamy as a
part of their religion guaranteed to them by the Constitution; the
contention did not prevail; on the contrary the Mormon States were
made to submit to an enabling act under which they bound themselves to
adopt State constitutions providing for all time against polygamous
practices. Such a treaty is not, of course, binding upon a sovereign
State unless Mormonism be deemed inconsistent with a republican form
of government; so that Utah, for instance, has probably the right to
re-establish Mormonism to-morrow so far as the Federal Constitution
is concerned. Whether it would be permitted by a strenuous president
having public sentiment at his back may indeed be questioned. In
like manner, Christian Science practitioners have invoked the
constitutional right of religious belief against the common law
requiring that those offering themselves to practise medicine should
be reasonably skilled in their trade. Legislation permitting Christian
Scientists to practise freely has been attempted in nearly all the
States, but has not, so far as I am informed, succeeded in any,
although a good many States have adopted statutes extending the right
to osteopaths. Under the common law of England, re-established in
Massachusetts by a famous decision[1] twenty years ago, a person
holding himself out as a surgeon or medical practitioner, who is
absolutely uninstructed and ignorant, is guilty even of criminal
negligence, and responsible for the death of his patient, even to the
point of manslaughter.

[Footnote 1: Commonwealth _v_. Pierce, 138 Mass. 165.]

XVI

LEGISLATION CONCERNING PERSONAL AND RACIAL RIGHTS

This is, of course, a matter of which books might be, and indeed have
been, written; our general essay on popular legislation can do no more
than summarize past law-making and the present trend of legislatures,
much as some history of the people of England might broadly state the
economic facts and laws of the Corn-law period in England.