that insistence upon a particular inference from the Constitution was utterly unfitted to play a decisive part in the immediate decision of a pressing problem. And the like explanation holds, I believe, for the inefficacy of the speeches, however earnest and ardent, made upon other lines. The speakers, however exalted their principles, were intent not so much upon achieving something as upon freeing their own minds and recording their individual protest. There was no action behind their words; and it was said long ago that the very essence of oratory is "action, action, action."

I should regret it deeply if anything I have said should leave upon your minds the impression that I either admire or approve the spirit which leads a politician to follow the line of least resistance; to watch for the signs of what is coming, and make his peace with it; to talk glibly about great principles but dismiss them as useless lumber when their application comes to involve difficulty or sacrifice. Contentment with such a spirit in a democracy would be a fatal vice; what I have been speaking about is only a failing. Better, a thousand times, to run the risk of mistakes and failures from too simple a devotion. to great causes than to have the certainty of civic degeneracy from the lack of such devotion. If I have dwelt upon what is to my mind a defect in our political habits and standards, it is because, in addressing a body of men of high intellectual training, I have no fear that the part will be taken for the whole, or that what is recommended as a supplement to high endeavor will be understood as a

substitute for it. No one feels more deeply than myself the conviction that courage and firmness are the attributes which, in our public officers and our public teachers, we must prize above all others; all the more am I concerned, for that very reason, that the exhibition of these high qualities shall not fail of its due respect through being associated in the public mind with a want of such discrimination as circumstances from time to time imperatively demand. There are times when everything must be staked for the naked assertion of a principle; and there are principles in defence of whose sanctity everything must be staked at all times. I have never felt prouder of the brotherhood of university men than I have in following the course of that noble fight in France for justice and liberty which has owed its vitality in so large a measure to the devotion and the sacrifices of French men of learning and men of science. What so many noble-hearted men have done in that distracted country, giving up the loved seclusion and peace of the closet and the laboratory to lay their sacrifices on the altar of justice and civil liberty and freedom of opinion, that I trust our American scholars will be found ready to do if our country should ever have the misfortune of being threatened with such madness as a year ago held possession of the populace of France. The motto of our university is "Veritas vos liberabit "; but, while the avowed object of universities is the discovery and the preservation of the truth, a still prouder tradition of the men who have represented that aim has been the fearless utterance of the

be found more steadfast in any time that future try men's souls than the alum university which we all cherish so dearly impress has been so deeply felt in every u the land.

SEVERN TEACKLE WALLIS

(April 11, 1894)

In the death of Mr. Wallis, Maryland has lost her foremost citizen. His title to this eminence did not rest so much upon his distinction in any one direction as upon the significance of his whole life, of his manifold activity, of his lofty personality, to all that is best and highest in the community. Great as was his eminence at the bar, important and distinguished as were his services to the cause of pure politics in this city and State, brilliant as were his achievements as an orator-all these taken together are inadequate to account for the reverence with which he was regarded by all of those in the younger generations of Baltimoreans who cherish high ideals and who hope for the attainment of a higher and a purer public life. He has constantly furnished to such men faith and strength, in the face of the discouragement and doubt which every-day experience spread about them, not only by his steadfast aid to every high and worthy cause, but by the inspiration of his presence, of his high and chivalrous bearing, of his unwavering devotion to noble ideals.

That we should have had in our community a man so exceptionally fitted by moral no less than by intellectual endowments to adorn the highest stations in our country's councils, and did not avail ourselves of the rare privilege of engaging such a man in the public service, is food for melancholy

reflection. The Senate of the United States was so distinctly the proper field of his activity that in any sound condition of political life, and of general opinion on civic matters, his selection for the Senatorship would have been a matter of course, and the only obstacle to be feared would have been his own possible unwillingness to give up his professional activity for a Senatorial career. His constant and intense interest in politics, not only from the point of view of the local reformer, but also from that of national statesmanship, gave, however, sufficient evidence of his willingness to accept the honor of the Senatorship if it had been offered to him, as it should have been, by the free choice of the people of Maryland. Not only would his presence in the Senate have reflected lustre on his native State, but it would have gone far to stem the current of degeneration which has so rapidly deprived that once most honored body of nearly all the dignity and authority with which, in its better days, it was clothed. The deprivation of the State and nation of the splendid service which Mr. Wallis might have rendered is not the least of the sins for which the ignoble crew of political manipulators who have so long kept their grip on our public affairs are responsible; and many will feel more disposed to forgive their grosser offenses than the more subtle one of preventing this high and strong nature from asserting itself in the important and influential station to which, by every natural right, it belonged.

Yet nothing could be more mistaken than the idea that his public exertions have been unfruitful.