One does not have to become an Anglo-Maniac to feel a just pride in the stability and perfection of an institution, such as the English judiciary, for all who make law a rule of life, can but revere the approximation of an ideal where its reign is supreme. In the consideration of this antiquated and condemned institution, known as “Judicial Recall,” space has forbidden that we should do more than merely touch upon the centuries as mile-stones, in hurrying through the ages. From the facts of history presented, however, it seems strange that in the evolution of the race, amid the cultivated ideals of our twentieth century civilization, so many of our states would seemingly refuse to profit by the mistakes in the Leges Barbarorum of the dark ages; that they would apparently turn aside from the sad picture of the early struggle for law and—defying the axiom that we can but “judge the future by the past of man”—indulge the vain hope of utilizing the popular recall of judges as a panacea for all the social evils of modern times. The patriot fathers, profiting by the accumulated wisdom of the past, builded an edifice in this free land of ours, bottomed upon the solid foundation of constitutional principles, sufficiently enduring to withstand the most tempestuous seas of partisan politics, because they profited by the record which history recorded of the stranded wrecks of states upon the shores of time. Our fathers and their children have occupied this temple for over a century and we should have a care how we undermine the walls or remove the high priest of our liberties, with rough hands, from the sacred altar. Many a hearth-stone in this and future ages will need the protection guaranteed by the fundamental principle of government, which perpetuates the independence of the judicial department and the statesmen of the present age, without thinking of the permanence of their work, are making right and wrong for succeeding ages and by tampering with the institutions that time has approved, they may incur the everlasting condemnation of the citizens of succeeding commonwealths. FOOTNOTES: [1] Speaking upon the antiquity of courts and judges, John, in his “Babylonian and Assyrian Laws,” says: “Partly because specific reference to judges and legal processes are not necessarily to be expected in historical inscriptions, and partly because we do not really know which are the earliest monuments of the human race, it is impossible to decide when law-courts first came into existence. It is generally admitted, however, that the stele of Manistusu is one of the earliest known monuments. There we read of Galzu, a judge. There also we find many of the officials, who later acted as judges upon occasion. Hence it may fairly be said that judges were to be found in ancient Babylonia from time immemorial. They must have decided what was right when there was no written law to which to appeal.” “Babylonian and Assyrian Laws,” c. v. p. 80. [2] Exodus, c. 18, 26.