PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

Of the Administration of J:!stice. $75
~u.ch a judicature would be so many laws; and, in
the second place, that, when the parties and the interests
to be affected by the law were known, the incli.
nations of the law-makers would inevitably attach on
one side or the other; and that, where there were
neither any fixed rules to regulate their determinations,
nor any superior power to control their proceedings,
these inclinations would interfere with the
integ rity of public justice. The comequence of
which must be, that the subjects of such -a constitutiur.
would live either ,vithout any constant laws,
that i~, without any known pre-establbhed rules of
adjudication whatever; or, under bws made for
particular cases and particular persons, and partaking
of the contradictions and iniquity of the motives, to
\\-hich they owed their origin.
r 'Vhicb dangers, by the divi~ion of the legislative
and iudicial functions, are in this country effectually
provided against.; Parliament knows not the indi­
,,,i(Iuals upon whom its acts will operate; it has no
caEes or parties before it; no private designs to serve;
consequently, its resolutions will be suggested cy the
consideratil1n of uni\TersCll effects and tendencies,
which always produces impartial, and commonly advantageous
regulation:~. \Vhen laws are made, courts
of ju~tice~ whatever be the dhposition of the judges,
must abide by diem ; for the legislath·e bEing necessarily
the ~upn-me power of the state; the judicial and
every other po\ver is accountable to that; and it cannot
be douhted, but that the persons, who possess the
sovereign authority of government, win be tenacious
of the laws which they themselves prescribe, and-suf ..
ficiently jealou.-; of the assumption of dispensing and
iegisl.ative power by any others.
I This fundamental rule of civil jurisprudence is violated
in ~he case of acts of attainder cr confiscation, in
bills of pains and penalties, and in all e:-:pO.it facto laws
\Vllatevcr, in \\:hie!l pariiaillent exercises tIle double
office of legislator and judge~ And whoever either
~ll1dtrstan{ls the v~luc of the rllJe itself, or collects the
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