whether an act or a pursuit is lawful or unlawful at common law.

THE ENGLISH RULE

The Court of King's Bench, speaking by Lord Mansfield, said: "It is the duty of the judge, in each particular case, to make a practical application of the rule of right and wrong, and that rule is the common law of England.

"There is no other or higher law.

"The rule embodies the essence of the purpose of government. If any pretended principle of law is advanced to prevent the application of the rule of right, the pretended principle is certainly wrong, and can not require the court to determine that to be true, which the court believes and knows to be untrue."

THE MISSOURI RULE

The Supreme Court of Missouri has said: "The supreme principle of the common law is the public good." This principle is so sacredly regarded in that state that there is imprinted upon the seal of the state the latin words, salus populi suprema lex, which, in English, mean that the public good is the supreme law. And this expression has been used approvingly many times by the United States Supreme Court and by many, if not all, the State Supreme Courts.

THE ILLINOIS RULE

The Illinois Supreme Court has declared: "That the public welfare is the underlying principle of the common law."

THE SOUTH CAROLINA RULE

The South Carolina Supreme Court says: "The self-preservation of society is the fundamental principle of the common law. The self-preservation of society is the first law of government, as the self-defense of the person is the first law of the individual."

THE INDIANA RULE

The Supreme Court of Indiana says: "Public policy is that principle of the common law, which, in the absence of any statute, treats as unlawful all acts, trades and pursuits, which naturally and inherently endanger the public order, the public morals or the public good."

BLACKSTONE'S RULE

"The law is a rule of civil conduct, prescribed by the supreme power of a state, commanding what is right and prohibiting what is wrong."

THE RULE OF THE INDIANAPOLIS NEWS

The Indianapolis News is a very ably edited newspaper, which rightfully assumes to instruct its readers upon all constitutional and legal questions that arise in the course of current events. On the 31st day of August, 1907, the News, editorially, said: "No man has an inherent or any other kind of a right to do that which is wrong."

So, we have the test and standard of the common law announced, from these sources, as the safety, the peace, the health, the morals of the people, the public good, the general welfare, the self

preservation of society, the public order and the rule of right.

The saloon is to be measured by this standard. If it harmonize with it, we must conclude that it is lawful at common law, but, if it run counter to this standard, it is just as certainly unlawful at common law. What estimate are we to place upon the saloon? Not the estimate of the writer, but as nearly as possible the estimate of the authorities, from whom we have borrowed the definition of the common law standard.

THE ESTIMATES to be AppLIED

The United States Supreme Court, in the case of Leisy vs. Hardin, 135 U. S. 159, said: "The general and unrestricted sale of intoxicating liquors tends to produce idleness, disorder, disease, pauperism and crime." This same court declared the standard of the common law to be the safety, peace, health and morals of the people. The question, then, is, do idleness, disorder, disease, pauperism and crime meet the approval or disapproval of the standard? The reader may think and answer according to his own judgment.

RIGHT IS THE RULE OF THE COURT OF KING'S BENCH

Chief Justice Coleridge said: "Nine-tenths of all the criminals that come before the court are made criminals by the saloon. If we could make England sober, we could shut up nine-tenths of her prisons." Is the business that makes nine-tenths of the criminals in England right or wrong?

THE MISSOURI Estimate OF THE SALOON

The public good is the Missouri test, and the Supreme Court of that State, in the case of the State vs. Bixam, 62 S. W. 828, declares that the liquor traffic naturally breeds disorder and tends to pauperism and crime. Can the public good be advanced by disorder, pauperism and crime?

THE PUBLIC Welfare is the Illinois Standard.

In Schwouchow vs. Chicago, 68 Ill. 444, the Illinois Supreme Court estimated the saloon as follows: “We presume no one would have the hardihood to contend that the retail sale of intoxicating drinks does not tend, in a large degree, to demoralize the community, to foster vice, produce crime and beggary, want and misery." If demoralized communities, the fostering of vice and the production of crime, beggary, want and misery are in harmony with the public welfare, then the saloon is lawful at common law, when measured by the Illinois rule; otherwise it is unlawful.

THE SELF-PRESERVATION OF SOCIETY IS THE SOUTH CAROLINA MAXIM

The Supreme Court of that state in State vs. Turner, 18 S. C. 106, said: "Experience has demonstrated that the unrestrained traffic in spirituous liquors is dangerous to the peace and welfare of society." How can How can we reconcile danger to the peace and welfare of society, with its self-preservation?

APPLYING THE HOOSIER YARDSTICK

The Supreme Court of Indiana has declared the common law test to be the public order, the public morals and the public good. In the case of Welsh vs. the State, the same court declares that the unlicensed saloon results in much evil and is detrimental to society; in the case of Haggart vs. Stehlin, 137 Ind. 43, to be dangerous, dangerous to public and private morals and dangerous to the public peace and good order of society; in the State vs. Gerhardt, 145 Ind. 439, to be fraught with great evil, and to result in the most demoralizing influence upon private morals, and the peace and safety of the public, and, in Sopher vs. State, 80 N. E. 913, as tending to pernicious and evil results.

In order to declare the unlicensed saloon lawful at common law, we are required to harmonize its character and natural effects with the public order, public morals and public good. Who can do it?

THE ENGLISH CONCLUSION

Blackstone's rule is the rule of right. It is surely not an unfair test, from the English viewpoint, to measure the saloon by Blackstone's gauge and Gladstone's estimate. Gladstone said: "The saloon is a curse, which inflicts more and greater calamities upon the world than the three historic scourges of war, pestilence and famine combined." Shall we say that the infliction of such calamities is right or wrong?