ONE does not usually think of anarchy as a sentiment that may be manufactured in courts of justice; yet it is evident that much of the disregard of law which shows itself in so many communities at this time, has its fountain head in those places which should be the very sanctuary of the law, and in the acts of those who should be in a special sense guardians of the law. The truth is brought before us that no person has so much power to bring law into contempt as he who sits in the high position of interpreter of the law, he whose decrees are enforced as the law. The judges of the courts have power above all other classes of persons to manufacture anarchy, and there are facts before us which show that in some instances this is what they6are doing. Here is an example to which the press is calling attention just now. The case is that of the St. Louis “grafters” whose corruption was exposed, and whose prosecution was secured, by Circuit Attorney Joseph W. Folk, of that city. “Through his efforts, finally aided by an aroused public sentiment, scores of officials have been indicted, a number have been sent into exile, and some twenty officials and prominent politicians have been convicted, and sentenced to terms in the penitentiary. All the cases have been appealed, and the supreme court of the State has just decided the most important of them, by reversing the verdict of the lower court, which found Col. Edward Butler guilty of attempted bribery, and sentenced him to a term of three years in the penitentiary.” This man has for years been a party leader in St. Louis, and a recognized political “boss.” The charge against him, and of which he was convicted in the lower court, was that of offering a member of the city board of health twenty-five hundred dollars for the latter’s influence in securing the award of the garbage contract. The briber was sentenced to three years in the penitentiary. He made an appeal to the supreme court of the State, and now this court has dismissed the case, on the ground that “the board of health having no authority to award this contract, the defendant could not bribe members to do something which they had no authority to do.” “In spite of the wonderful efforts of Mr. Folk,” remarks the Washington Post, from which we have gathered these statements, “with more than twenty men convicted of bribery, conspiracy, blackmail, or open loot, no one of them has yet been landed in the penitentiary. There should no longer be any expression of surprise when the people cry out in protest against the law’s delays.” When plain justice is set aside on technicalities by the courts themselves, the people are tempted to take the law into their own hands, and substitute mob rule for orderly government.