llent work, not altogether
judicial, and in that manner keep their memories alive; but the most of
us, when our work is done, step down into the mist and the darkness of a
very swift and prompt oblivion. And if you, gentlemen of the Bar, have
chosen for me to draw back the curtains a little, to dissipate somewhat
the mist and the darkness, it is just like you; it is only another of
those kindly deeds which it is pleasant to remember, and for which I am
grateful, and glad to have the opportunity of saying so. [Applause.]

I wished to confine what I have to say to-night simply to these words of
acknowledgment, but the thought comes to me, and I think I must give it
expression, that there never was a year in the history of this nation
when the work of the intelligent, of the able and of the scholarly
lawyer was more imperatively demanded in the interest of the nation and
of the race, than this year which now opens before us. [Applause.] I
have long been of the conviction that the law never leads civilization,
but always follows in its wake; that its purpose and its object is to
regulate and control the relations of men with each other, and their
relations to the State; but those relations must first come, must first
be established before there is anything for the law to regulate.
Progress goes on; new inventions are made; new relations between men
occur, and it is the office and the purpose of the law to march behind
them, to regulate and order and systematize them, and produce, if need
be, justice out of injustice; and to-day beyond the questions of
taxation, which are an almost insoluble problem, we have already the
beginnings in the metropolis of the State of an underground railway,
likely to open and introduce questions as difficult and as remarkable
as those which attended the elevated railways. We have a mass of
colossal trusts, as they are called, combinations of capital, in an
extraordinary degree, with which some of you have already been
wrestling, and others of you will be called upon to confront or defend.
Beyond that the student of international law is about to be obliged to
look away from home and reconsider his foundations, to reflect anew upon
the conclusions to which he has come in the application of the questions
of what is contraband and what is not in the light of an extending
commerce. Beyond that, again, and what interested me, perhaps, more than
it may you, I saw the other day in one of our leading cit