r; what Mr. Nordhoff wished to impress
upon his readers is the part played by a Constitution in fixing that
recognition in a strong and enduring form. The quotation I have in
mind, however, from one of the highest of legal authorities, has no
reference to the United States Constitution or to any Constitution. It
deals with the essential principles of law and of government. It is
from a book by the late James C. Carter, who was beyond challenge the
leader of the bar of New York, and was also one of the foremost
leaders in movements for civic improvement. The book bears the title
"Law: its Origin, Growth and Function," and consists of a course of
lectures prepared for delivery to the law school of Harvard University
seventeen years ago; which, it is to be noted, was before the movement
for National Prohibition had got under way. Mr. Carter was not arguing
for any specific object, but was impressing upon the young men general
truths that had the sanction of ages of experience, and were the
embodiment of the wisest thought of generations. Let us hear a few of
these truths as he laid them down:

Nothing is more attractive to the benevolent vanity of men than the
notion that they can effect great improvement in society by the
simple process of forbidding all wrong conduct, or conduct which
they think is wrong, by law, and of enjoining all good conduct by
the same means. (p. 221 )

The principal danger lies in the attempt often made to convert into
crimes acts regarded by large numbers, perhaps a majority, as
innocent --that is to practise what is, in fact, tyranny. While all
are ready to agree that tyranny is a very mischievous thing, there
is not a right understanding equally general of what tyranny is.
Some think that tyranny is a fault only of despots, and cannot be
committed under a republican form of government; they think that
the maxim that the majority must govern justifies the majority in
governing as it pleases, and requires the minority to acquiesce
with cheerfulness in legislation of any character, as if what is
called self-government were a scheme by which different parts of
the community may alternately enjoy the privilege of tyrannizing
over each other. (p. 246)

Speaking in particular of the evil effects of that particular "species
of criminal legislation to which sumptuary laws belong," Mr. Carter,
after dwelling upon the subject in detail, says:

An especially perni