In re the State

When the case of the Iron Cliffs Company was decided, I assumed — unwarrantably, it seems — that the judgment, though rendered by a divided court, would be •accepted by the circuit judges as law and followed by tins ■Court as a precedent, until it should be overruled by a •majority of this Court. I have always supposed that was the proper course, and it seemed to me a course so necessary to a dignified and orderly administration of justice, that it ¡never would have occurred to me that any other could be taken. Such a division of the Court is liable to occur •at any time; and there are so…