Show MINISTER PHELPS ON THE LAW OF THE LAX JO A LUCID LECTURE ON THE inviolability OF HUMAN RIGHTS SALT LAKE CITY february fitti 1887 editor deseret news A friend of mine handed banded me a apy copy of the shepton mallet journal an english paper so that I 1 could learn what was taking place in and around the place of my birth after absorbing of interest to me about houie home I 1 toting an account of a lecture or address delivered by mt M phelps the american minister to the court of st james before the edinburgh philosophical institution on oba november on the law of the lan 1 I and I 1 can assure you 1 was very much interested inta rested in the clear and beautiful way he spoke ou on the subject and u the plain and forcible manner in which he lays down the principles and rules chica should govern the making and the administration oatlie law thinking that the address was well worth preserving in our records and thail it would be read with interest by thousands of americans Amori calig and especially by the latter day saints 1 I 1 hope that you will be able to find room to print it entire in the NEWS and as the rules and principles laid down by mr phelps are in striking contrast with the policy and conduct of this government towards the people of utah a review of HIS address by you and the application of the views of mr air phelps by OW his is government towards the people ol 01 utah biah would show such a contrast to the policy pursued at present and for the last fifty years that it would cause reasonable people who are acquainted with our past history to stop ponder and aad hesitate before committing themselves to the continuance ti nuance of such barbaric treatment and would result a revulsion of feeling as to demand that the rights of the people of utah should be respected as much as any other people I 1 am sot not informed as to the views and feelings of mr phelps or his actions vi ift public life toward the people of utah and therefore prefer to tg give him credit for being sincere in his bis statements and that they were vere prompted by a heart that is honest and that like the founders of this republic Ra public he would be willing i ag to consecrate his life uis his fortune and I 1 his sacred honor to the perpetuation of those principles so that all could enjoy them unpopular earmous included the impress impression iou forced itself upon me however that he was wag favoring the the scheme of the grand old mau man in his efforts for poor ireland and was but echoing the sentiments expressed by vice president hendricks some time ago on the same qu question estioc at al ibaugh bhough I 1 must confess confes 13 that the minster was far Al superior to the vace president both in IB tine feeling and expression so that it was nat so 80 offen sive bave to our cousins over the water I 1 must close and aad in doing so I 1 fervently hope that the great and grand old man mr glodstone gla astone ds tone way may be the means in the hands of providence of successfully brov providing ding the way for of Irdi ireland and that her long delayed rights and privileges may be bel granted unto her as unto the most favored part of the british empire and that the jubilee celebration ot of good queen victoria way may be a jubilee indeed by celebrating the liberty and freedom of 05 ireland and ma may y god grant that it win will not be long before statesmen will arise in america who will consecrate their lives to e serva service of demanding and recognition i of the merits of and the granting of equal rights liberties and privileges to the people of this distressed ireland in the united states Terrt territory tory of utah alls following is the ADDRESS 0 above ref referred erred to it was the first of the session of the aution on the occa occasion mr J B balfour M P occupied the chay chair mr phelps said the theory upon which our system of government rests is mankind possesses certain natural rights usually described as those of life liberty and property tn in dispensable to human free freedom om and ha happiness p i a ess that those rights are not nat 9 deij derived v ed fromi but are antecedent to government which is instituted for their maintenance as its birst and principal object the government can never be allowed therefore to infringe or disregard them nor to fail to offer redress for invasion and when it ceases to respect and uphold them tbt mhd obligation of allegiance terminates and the right of revolution begins these thebe constitutional principles are of perpetual duration and bf perpetual authority because we the natural rights they maintain are of perpetual obligation no change of time or circumstance no new discovery in political science no modification of the forms of government can affect their validity or re strict their control the principles of law which I 1 have thus endeavored to state belong exclusively to the anglo vilgio saxon race in no other system that ever existed are they to be found they alethe are the distinctive characteristics of the common law of england which is likewise the common lay law of the en glish speaking race everywhere they were the off offspring spring of no mans creation the product of no mans brain through centuries of vigorous saxon life through much oppre oppression selon and violence through the rise and fall of kingdoms and wars and tumults iu numerable the great idea that underlies free government slowly ripened into inlo perfection it louna its first definite and perma permanent neut expression in ia magua magna charta anti and be came were the foundation of english law to distinguish it theme thenceforth forth from all other law andio and to conduct the people to whom it belonged and their de to a prosperity which the world had bad not seen been before I 1 do not mean to say that under no other system of government are the personal r rights 1 g maintained they may be upheld to a greater or less extent and possibly to the full extent under A wise and humane despot might promulgate a code of laws which should afford as complete se cuilty to 10 these rights while it lasted as the law of england does but under no otner theory than ours ca can they be assured of 0 a complete or er permanent protection in governments based upon different principles personal rights so far as they exist are derived irem the governing power and may therefore at any time be abridged oy or taken away by it human experience has shown that rights which are thus conferred are sooner or later lost it is only when they are conceded to be inviolable jud and w anen lien the observance of efthem them bi by government becomes the condition a 0 of its its existence that they ever can call be permanently safe there is still another branch of the constitutional law which is practically hIly unchangeable in its character in the protection of the cardinal rights it has been found that ce certain ri ain political institutions and certain judicial principles and processes are necessary the division of government u into three independent branches the executive the legislative and tile the judicial representation in parliament the maintenance of courts of equal 3 lu ustice stice the writ of habeas corpus pus the trial by jury these and nn d other principal features in the administration of civil authority are not of themselves essential to human hilman eri enjoyment joy they are only so many devices shown by experience as well as by reason to be indispensable to the just protect protection idu of the rights that are essential tue ane fundamental law divides divide therefore into two branches the principles that define human rights and the machinery established tor for their security upon this foundation of constitutional principles is reared that other etner portion of the general structure of the common law which I 1 have referred to as the law that is subject to change it is deduced from these theme principles by their gradual ap tion to the multiform and various relations of the Ri individual to his fellows and to the community As civilization becomes more exigent society more artificial industry hild aud business more various and compia comell bated and property more cintr intricate acate in I 1 its ts forms and titles the simple principles in which law has its orian n required to be developed and extended new relations sprang up new illa tibbs became becard necessary fresh fresh remedies had to be sought lor to if 0 meet these requirements the law constantly ad a ALI vances and is perfectly adequate all law that is worth anything comes ft growth not by arbitrary creation it arises out of an increasing ajo ever varying necessity its movement is constant sometimes in the wrong direction it is true but in the long run generally in the right direction when faw law ceases to grow satiety ceases to advance ad vanze it would be an interesting topic but outside the line ot my remarks to trace more particularly the nature ot of the growth of the body of the common law from its root and foundation toun dation the law of the land out of it arise numberless legal rights changeable in their character more or less important and desirable not absolutely necessary afley are all only provisions force for carrying out oat in the multiform multi lorm relations of life fife liberty and property in the liberal acceptation ot of those terms the province of the general body of the law in its vast elaboration of detail is only to increase the security to diminish tile the interruptions to improve aud the enjoyment of those those fundamental and indispensable rights when this is accomplished the power and province of civil authority are exhausted human law can do no more lor for man all that remains to make life happy and p prosperous ros must come under provid providence enc from from personal pe conduct and exertion for which the held field is thus open and protected I 1 have thus been elementary and I 1 fear at tile the same came time wearisome in ih order to point out as clearly as I 1 can just what it is isthan that the law of theland secures and to emphasize the distinction between constitutional rights and merely legal rights the first underlying government and not to be infringed by bv its power the latter derived from government held subject at all times to its action and liable to be modified or withdrawn w n the line which divides these two classes ot of rights is the one which dennes pineil and limits the power ot of the majority in respect to mer merely ely legal rights that power is ultimately supreme if inconvenience hardship or injustice fault from its exercise they can only be corrected through the law making power itself but over constitutional rights the popular voice his has no control major kajor josities ties are but an agency of bf government vern which in all its agencies is subject to constitutional limits it is the failure clealle to observe this distinction that is at the bottom of some movements ishall refer to hereafter r what whal then is civil liberty and what is free government we know i that we edjon them but alter after all what do they exactly consist in civil liberty 18 I 1 simply the enjoyment of ef tun tho ludu lu du mental rights in their lull full extent and free government is toe governmental prop in form that secures their permanent protection to ai all I 1 men alike not by a security dependent upon the dillof will of the government power bu bil t by one inherent in the government g vern ment itself and extensive coextensive co with witz itt its existence it is a very common mistake to suppose that the fre freedom edola of government consists in its form and not in its substance jr in the means that should mala maintain talu freedom rather than in breedom itself forms of government govern meat of whatever sort are 0 only aly forms the true test is not to in the nai nature ore of the machinery but in tha result that comes ot of it at last the machinery in and of itself is only a perpetual ewal burden we anif should gladly glad y dispense d terp with it it human nature was good enough to do without it it is but a means not an end that a form of government in which oe he ultimate power ix 14 inthe peo people peoples pleis is necessary the maintenance or of breedom is true that such governments are necessarily free is not true they have been usually free because they have not been perverted from their purpose not alot because it Is id impossible that they should be the opposite 0 to free government I 1 is arbitha arbitrary ry power that might be admiel administered t e ed by a despot de apat or oy by a class of a despotism de there is at this day and in our race no danger of attempt at establishing class government there is danger when in any f form orm of popular gohei bovein n went ment equal protection of life itle fundamental rights or of any of them ceases that government though its form remains is no longer free and becomes an all ordinary authority unjustly exercised by one class over another in of th 0 right of property defeats the equality of the law equality of rights is ordained of god inequality of condition is equally ordained the one may be temporarily broken down the other can never te be overcome it has pleased providence to accord to but few the capacity to ac cumulate or to preserve erve prope property alln to 0 any great extent it is a bene beneficial provision that the mass of mankind tina must live by their industry it is a bles blessing and not a curse that mat by the sweat of tile the brow we shall eat bread it would be an unhappy world it if amusement were the sole employment of its inhabitants inequality of acquisition there always has ceen and always must be under whatever condition of government the principle of law there therefore fure which secures to every man mail his own while it maintains equal rights cannot pre vent most unequal results it is a grave error to believe that invasion of the right of property to is for the benefit of the poor the result is precisely the reverse no property can be safe when once the general se security purity that protects all alike is lost it is id a delusion to imagine it can be impaired to a certain extent and maintained for the residue that it may be made the subject of it a discriminating protection on the limits of moral jit justice stice at the will of the governing power there can be no middle ground either the title to lawful property must be universally protected or it ceases tobe protected atall at all that Tha titis it is not the few but buethe the many most largely benefited by the protection of the right of property lias been strikingly kingl demonstrated in inice the history of the luitek united states under the american constitution as I 1 shall point out hereafter extraordinary safeguards haye have been devised which have thus ter far rendered the protection absolute and certain there the result has been the most Ke general nerol dig dimitri itri button of property and the largest individual di prosperity that have lever ver i been known in civilized life the flory of america has been well ell said to be in ill the homes of its people mil bons of those homes bomes the property of air occupiers held I 1 in n at security of tenure hitherto unquestionable stretch across the continent grom from sea to sea it to is true that under the same equal protection the millionaire enjoys and increases in creasea his bis times ill gotten sometimes ill lapent Lo pent but to assail him by impi impairing iring the general security to property property that ithe constitution affords woul would be like trying to stay toe the rain from heaven because it falls upon the I 1 as yell well as upon the uri usi lust just or like impugning the beneficence of the albig almighty ty be because cause under its impartial rule the wicked man still flourishes in his time no demagogue no self seeker no man who follows for a reward has ever struck |