"FIAT JUSTITIA, RUAT COELUM."
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."' SIB.,—This phrase is commonly attributed to Lord Mansfield, as being "its first and only begetter." I have no books at hand to enable me to verify the reference, but I believe the dictum was uttered by his lordship in the case of "Rex v. Wilkes," reported in the "Burrows Reports," vol. iv. The expression was current, however, long years before Lord Mansfield was born. " Fiat justitia, et ruant coeli " is found in William Watson's " Decacordon of Ten Quodlibetical Questions" (1602). In the same work occurs " Fiat enim -justitia, et ruant coeli," the presence of enim seeming to point to a missing context that still awaits discovery. John Downame, " Bachelier in Divinity," published in London in 1609 "Foure Treatises to dissuade all Christians from Foure no less heinous than Common Sinnes." At p. 67 of this work is the following sentence : "It is far better that a private man should perish than that the publike adminis- tration of law and justice should be stayed and hindered." On the margin opposite is printed in italics, " Fiat justitia, -rust coelum." The phrase occurs also on p. 137 of Burthogge's "Cause Dei " (1675). In the absence of evidence to the contrary, I think the Emperor Ferdinand I. may fairly be credited with the authorship of his favourite motto or Wahlspruch, " Fiat justitia, pereat mundus."—I am, Sir, &c.,
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