tions. I am therefore happy to find that such Mississippi, but he was summarily dealt with. a disposition prevails in your part of the country Gen. Wilkinson had it given out that he was .as to remove any idea of the evil, which a few a British spy and engaged a borderer to make years ago you so much dreaded. a sham assault upon him which so terrified
In 1788, Connolly, the notorious nephew of Lord Dunmore, arrived in Kentucky from Canada, " ostensibly to look after his lands at the mouth of the Ohio, but in reality, says Smith, the historian, "to discover the dispo sition of the leading men in regard to hostile operation against the Spanish on the lower
him that he quickly left the country." Thus ended the early conspiracies. On February 4, 1791, after eight years of vexa tious struggle which was the cause of all the bitterness and trouble, both houses of Con gress passed the act admitting Kentucky to the Union as a free and independent state.
THE COURTS AND POLITICS. BY BOYD WINCHESTER.
THE power of political partisanship over the judicial mind has manifested itself throughout judicial history — in the highest courts of the most civilized countries. Blackstone wrote : "The law and the opinion of the judge are not always convertible terms, or one and the same thing; since it may sometimes happen that the judge may mis take the law." Not merely "sometimes," but almost uniformly, does this happen when the law stands in the way of strong political bias and prejudice. This political partisan ship of judges is not always and necessarily conscious. On the contrary, one of the chief difficulties is that it is accepted unconsciously; that it is so subtle and unrecognized in its approach as to make the mind incapable of fully weighing the force of opposing reason; that it is yielded to not only without corrupt purpose, but often against the personal in terests of the judge who succumbs to its force. As exhibiting both the potency and the quality of this influence may be mentioned Queen Caroline's case, where, in this con spicuous trial, the law-lords, in the house of peers, voted with their respective parties in almost every division; on the one side Lord Erskine, on the other Lord Eldon. So in
the case of Daniel O'Connell, which was one of crucial importance, for it was one of the principal points in Sir Robert Peel's policy that O'Connell should be convicted, and that by the enforcement of his sentence Ireland should be kept quiet. On one side voted Lord Lyndhurst, the Tory Chancellor, and Lord Brougham, then acting with the Tories; on the other side Lords Denman, Cottenham and Campbell, all Whigs. The prosecutions of Queen Caroline and of O'Connell are not exceptional in English history. The same result has almost uni formly occurred whenever political issues have been committed to judges for determ ination. American judges, of all parties, and re gardless of tenure of office, when deciding political questions have fallen into the same current which English judges have found irresistible. Able and upright judges we have had in abundance in the United States; and it is not a little remarkable that among our ablest and most upright judges have been found our most uncompromising par tisans. It is not likely that a lawyer can be found with the requisite strength of mind and char acter to make a good judge, who is not a
