ent. With such a procedure I can
see no more stability of right, no more security for justice, than
under any unlimited, absolute government.

How unstable popular sentiment may be at times may be seen in the
classic example of the citizens of Rome applauding Marius and Sulla in
turn with equal fervor, and in the lesser and very recent example of
the voters of the city of Seattle, who elected a mayor, then soon
recalled him, and but little later re-elected him by a larger majority
than before. Constitutions to be of any value as bulwarks of liberty
should not be immediately changeable with the popular sentiment of the
day, but slowly and only after long reflection and discussion. They
should contain only the results of long thought and long experience.

Legislation is ever active, ever moving this way and that way, ever
experimenting, enacting new statutes and amending and repealing old
ones, now imposing fetters on individual liberty, now striking them
off and perhaps imposing others. Even in England and America, where
personal liberty of action is most prized, time was when statutes were
enacted almost putting people and business in strait-jackets. In
English Norfolk as late as Henry VIII's time no one was to "dye, shear
or calender" cloth except in the town of Norwich; and no one in the
northern counties was to make "worsted coverlets" except in the city
of York. In the reign of Elizabeth a statute was passed forbidding the
eating of meat on Wednesday and Saturdays and this not on the score of
health or religion but avowedly to increase the price of fish.
Statutes fixing the weight and price of loaves of bread and the size
and price of a glass of ale were not formally repealed till 1824. The
famous Statute of Laborers forbade laboring men to ask or receive more
than a prescribed low sum for their labor and also forbade their
moving about seeking employment. The statutes against forestalling,
regrating, and engrossing were not formally repealed until 1844. In
early times in New England also, statutory attempts were made to fix
the price of various commodities and the wages of various kinds of
workmen. Men were fined for accepting higher than the prescribed
wages. The Sunday laws in some places forbade walking about on Sunday
except "reverently to go to and return from meeting." Everywhere was
the ever present tendency of the legislative power to invade and
direct every function of society,--social, religious, politic