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This is seen most clearly in the field of law. In the time of the Legalists the first steps had been taken in the codification of the criminal law. They clearly intended these laws to serve equally for all classes of the people. This code consisted of two volumes of the chief laws for grave cases, one of mixed laws for the less serious cases, and six volumes on the imposition of penalties.

Sae I wad hae ye ken that I hand a' your gleg-tongued advocates, that sell their knowledge for pieces of silver and your worldly-wise judges, that will gie three days of hearing in presence to a debate about the peeling of an ingan, and no ae half-hour to the gospel testimony as legalists and formalists, countenancing by sentences, and quirks, and cunning terms of law, the late begun courses of national defections union, toleration, patronages, and Yerastian prelatic oaths.

The dogmas of scientists, politicians, legalists and physicians are as intolerant and engender as much strife as those of theologians. We are glad to believe however, that the dogmatic spirit in all lines of study is fast disappearing from our American colleges, and from the professions. Again, the majority of the professors in the State universities are avowedly Christian.

The authority of the Supreme Court must not, therefore, be permitted to control the Congress or the Executive, but have only such influence as the force of its reasoning may discover. It is believed that this part of the message, which gave scandal to legalists, was supplied by Taney, the Attorney-General.

President Buchanan, in his message, following the advice of his attorney-general, Jeremiah S. Black of Pennsylvania, both of them honest and patriotic men, but legalists rather than statesmen argued that Secession was wholly against the Constitution, but its forcible repression was equally against the Constitution.

It must be remembered, too, that just as the theologians supported their views by an appeal to what were considered historic facts in the origin of property, so, too, the legalists depended for the material of their judgment on circumstances which the common opinion of the time admitted as authentic.

The Legalists recognized, therefore, only the ruler and next to him, as the really active and responsible man, the chancellor; under these there were to be only the common people, consisting of the richer and poorer peasants; the people's duty was to live and work for the ruler, and to carry out without question whatever orders they received. They were not to discuss or think, but to obey.

Sae I wad hae ye ken that I hand a' your gleg-tongued advocates, that sell their knowledge for pieces of silver and your worldly-wise judges, that will gie three days of hearing in presence to a debate about the peeling of an ingan, and no ae half-hour to the gospel testimony as legalists and formalists, countenancing by sentences, and quirks, and cunning terms of law, the late begun courses of national defections union, toleration, patronages, and Yerastian prelatic oaths.

Harsh words are only one step removed from harsh measures. The legalists were in a majority in the general court, and they resolved to retaliate for the treatment Mr. Wilson had received at the hands of his congregation.

Every external authority, the whole trend of public opinion, the teaching of the Christian Fathers, the example of religious bodies, the inherited views that had come down to the later legalists from the digests of the imperial era, the basis of social order, all deflected the scale against the predominance of any view of land tenure or holding which made it an absolute and unrestricted possession.