The lawyer is not only a worker and wage earner, but he is something more. He is not independent of the necessaries of life and he is not averse to its comforts and luxuries, but it may be said that a large class-the class which eventually succeeds and distinguishes itself in the profession-is not driven to the pursuit and practice of law by a mere desire to earn a living without manual labor. Those who are too lazy to work in other departments of labor and who think they can make an easy living by becoming lawyers eventually realize that they are mistaken. I have said that the lawyer is something more than a wage earner. He is not satisfied with large fees and many of them. His ambition is not attained by the accumulation of great wealth. He would not be human if he did not desire wealth as a means of independence and comfort, but he would soon cease to be a lawyer if he gave to the business of money making or money saving the same time, thought and care which bankers, merchants or capitalists give to the acquisition and accumulation of wealth. True, we sometimes hear of great, fortunate or successful lawyers, who enjoy a princely income from their profession and who sometimes earn a fee in a single case equal to a competency or a fortune; but, after all, such things are incidents only. This is well illustrated in the persons and careers of some of our distinguished visitors.

We have among us honored guests by whose wisdom we expect to profit on this occasion, whose salaries, if added together and divided by their number, would be considered no more than a moderate income for a lawyer of average ability and practice. Are not these gentlemen, who serve like gowned priests at the altar of justice, something more than day workers and wage earners? Yet they are of us. The bar supplies the bench. The bar is like a great sea, from which judges are fished as needed, and it needs but little bait to catch them, and fortunate it is also -with all due respect to our honored visitors-that there are just as good fish in the sea as ever were caught.

It has been said that the lawyer is a leader, and that he possesses that versatility of intellect and variety of knowledge which specially qualifies him for all the duties and requirements of civil administration and statesmanship. This is proved by his origin. The Roman patron was a prototype of the lawyer of to-day. The patron received an honorarium, the modern lawyer receives a fee, for his services. The duties of the patron were the same as those of the modern lawyer so far as they extended, but the

duties of the lawyer of the present day are greater and require greater fidelity and ability. The patron was a lawyer because of his social position, and his power and position as a patron were increased in proportion to his intellectual and other qualities. Cicero, the great orator and statesman, and Cæsar, orator, statesman and soldier, were patrons. It has often been remarked and treated as a boast that our parliamentary bodies are made up principally of lawyers. In the early history of our country this was notably true. Except in the army, lawyers were everywhere conspicuous, and they were the leaders of every movement in which they took part. They were the master minds in the creative and constructive work that followed the Revolution, and they are equally prominent in the political and parliamentary work of to-day. This is shown by the composition of the present congress of the United States. Of the three hundred and fifty and odd persons who compose the house, two hundred and eight are lawyers, and of the ninety who compose the senate, fifty-three belong to the legal profession. Lawyers are also in great demand as governors of states. Our state is one of the few and unfortunate exceptions in which this preference for lawyers has not been shown, and to that circumstance perhaps may be attributed the unsatisfactory condition of our state legislation and the frequent calls on our Supreme Court "to give its opinion upon important questions upon solemn occasions when required by the governor" (State Constitution, article VI., section 3); and this duty was not thrust upon our Supreme Court until our experience had shown either an unwillingness on the part of the people to elect or a disinclination on the part of lawyers to serve as governors; but after all, it is a significant compliment to the bar that the people, in the form of an amendment to the Constitution of the state, called upon three lawyers to give advice to the governor upon solemn and important occasions, a privilege frequently exercised, as attested by our Supreme Court reports.

In saying this there is no desire to boast or to glorify. It is said only to show that lawyers in the best sense of the word are something more than wage earners and that they have an ambition far above pecuniary success—an ambition not inspired by big fees, big cases and big clients, but an ambition bigger than all-an ambition to serve their fellow men; to strengthen and improve society; to secure the due and full administration of justice, and in so doing to shorten the distance between legal wrong and moral wrong. We are architects and builders

of a temple; a structure "not made with hands;" a structure commenced before Moses descended. from Mount Sinai amidst its lightnings and thunders with the tables of the Ten Commandments; a structure still growing and expanding and which will continue to grow and expand until the justice of man shall have attained the nearest possible approach to the justice of God. Then man's mission will have ended; the day of the last judgment will have come, and the work of the lawyer will have been done.

But none of us will ever live to see that day. This, however, need not discourage us, because in that respect we are not alone. We have had predecessors, and, if the prophesies of scientists do not fail, we will have many successors. We are but a part— and a small part-of an endless procession. All that we can do is to perform our duty in the present, making such use of our opportunties as to progress beyond our predecessors and making, if possible, a record that can not be excelled by our immediate successors. If we are to keep pace with the progressive spirit of the age in which we live, we have much to do. If what I have said is not an exaggeration of our mission, or an undue exaltation of ourselves as a class, we must be up and doing. The light of science has dispelled the darkness of ignorance; the activity of our enlightened senses has expelled torpidity and indolence; the doctrine of laches has supplied and in some cases surpassed the statute of limitations, and delay in everything except law has become an unpardonable offense. Vigilance the price of liberty; activity the spur of modern enterprise, and industry the original source of all prosperity and success, are the prime forces of our new civilization. That every worthy and successful member of our profession is diligent, zealous and faithful-and even courageous and unselfish-goes without saying; but all these virtues are, as a rule, wholly absorbed in the performance of the duties of a lawyer to his client. The other and higher duty of a lawyer is often forgotten or postponed. This other and higher duty devolves not upon any one member of the profession but upon all, and requires union and association to perform it efficiently. We have therefore organized, and on this occasion we meet to begin the performance of that duty.

Among the purposes declared in our constitution the two first are to advance the science of jurisprudence and to promote the administration of justice. They are the principal ones; they

include the others which follow, because the latter are but means to the end. The times are propitious for this work, and the spirit to do it is contagious. Let us emulate the example of our brethren in other states by doing our full share in advancing the science of jurisprudence and in promoting the due administration of justice. By so doing we will uphold the dignity of the bar and cultivate cordial intercourse among its members. Each state organization has its own local work and it has an ample field, but it has other work as well. By separate action in each state great improvement may result, but the great work will not be fully performed. There should be union and harmony of action as far as possible in all of the states which compose the federal Union. It is at once a boast and a reproach that we have two systems of courts, and in some respects two systems of jurisprudence. This means that one is better than the other, and there is a current belief in the profession that one class of courts is better than the other. Let the lawyers of each state do their duty, and the poorer may become the equal if not the better of its more favored rival, and then when equality has been established let the race between them continue until only the fittest shall survive, so that there shall be only one class of courts for the determination of one class of cases. In the meantime let us labor not only for uniformity of legislation in respect to matters' common to the people of all America-whether they reside in one state or another but let us labor for uniformity of judicial decisions as well, thus bring. ing about a perfect harmony in our system of jurisprudence-a harmony not to be marred by dissenting opinions. Then when the law pronounces its judgment, its voice will be like the voice of an oracle-aye, more-the voice of public justice-ranking next in dignity to the voice of God.

ADDRESS

OF

W. H. GABBERT,

JUSTICE,

SUPREME COURT OF COLORADO.

RELATIONS AND DUTIES OF BENCH AND BAR.

In every-day life, the practicing lawyer deals almost continuously with legal questions, and so with members of the bench; and hence, at these meetings, from which it is expected that benefits of a general nature will be derived, it will not be amiss if something is said on subjects in which there is a mutual interest, although not devoted to the treatment of an interesting legal proposition. What is offered in this brief and imperfect address will not be upon questions which are new; in fact, they are so old and probably so well understood, that it is with considerable hesitancy they are mentioned at all, for fear of the remark that nothing has been said which every one did not already know. It is, however, the well-known duties, the old rules, which are often disregarded, because they are old, and because each branch of the profession, engrossed with their labors, are prone to overlook some of the more simple and primary duties. The subject of this address is one about which much can be said and written. It embraces not only the social ethics, but other important relations and duties, and includes those which are reciprocal, as, also, those which are not. It is intended by these remarks to merely make suggestions on matters which are almost wholly the object of every-day observation by bench and bar, and at the outset it is suggested that a little study of these relations and obligations, and the proper observation of them, will aid both in the discharge of their respective duties; because, by reason of the peculiar and close