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Show 478 WESTERN WILDS. were forbidden to practice in many districts. One law I copy from the records of Union Mining District: " Resolved, That no lawyer be permitted to practice law in this district, under penalty of not more than fifty nor less than twenty lashes, and be forever banished from this district." Another states that, " whereas Bill Payne, commonly known as Cock-eye Payne," has committed certain outrages, among which drawing a revolver in court, and threatening the judge, are made prominent; therefore, " Resolved, That a committee of ten good men be sent to bring in the said Bill or Cock-eye Payne, and he be required to show cause why he should not immediately be hung." It appears that he was able to show cause, and got off with banish-ment. All these little governments came to an end on the passage of a Civil and Criminal Code by the first Territorial Legislature, in the winter of 1861-' 62; but this code legalized all acts of previous govern-ments, " not plainly contrary to justice or the common law." It was enacted that all the district recorders' books should be filed in the office of the county recorder, and be presumptive proof, the burden of proving the contrary to rest on the challenger; and that all decis-ions of former courts were to be valid " when both parties made ap-pearance or had notice according to such rules as were then in force, whether by law or accepted custom." The change from local to terri-torial law appears to have been made without a ripple of disturbance, and all disputed claims of any prominence have risen under the pres-ent laws. Thus is seen in miniature the course of civil aggregation : first, the individual man yields to the local organization, then the local is slowly merged in the general. Government is seen to be, not a pos-itive good, but only a choice of the lesser evil. Man yields a portion of his natural rights in order to preserve the rest ; he supports the claims of others because he must ask support from them. Thus, too, is manifested the inherent capacity of the Anglo- Saxon for civil organ-ization; and those who maintain that government necessarily had its origin in revelation, might profitably study the many proofs to the contrary in the settlement of the Far West. Colorado became a Territory in 1861, remained such fifteen years, and after four desperate efforts, at last succeeded in becoming a State, just in time to aid in the election of a centennial president. Denver, political and financial capital of the new State, is also the starting point for most places of interest. Thence by way of the Narrow-guage, fifty miles westward, and all the way up- hill, lands us in the |