governmental powers,[1] but by considerations of convenience, of utility, and of the deepest sentiments of justice.
In these days, there is a good deal of discussion whether the rule of adherence to precedent ought to be abandoned altogether.[2] I would not go so far myself. I think adherence to precedent should be the rule and not the exception. I have already had occasion to dwell upon some of the considerations that sustain it. To these I may add that the labor of judges would be increased almost to the breaking point if every past decision could be reopened in every case, and one could not lay one's own course of bricks on the secure foundation of the courses laid by others who had gone before him. Perhaps the constitution of my own court has tended to accentuate this belief. We have had ten judges, of whom
