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

OJ/he AdminiJtralion of Justice.
history of those instances in which it has been inva ..
ded, will be induced .. I believe, to acknowledge, that
it had been wiser and safer never to have departed
from it. He will confess, at least, that nothing but
the most manifest and immediate peril of the com ..
monwealth will ju!)tify a repetition of these dangerous
examples. I If the laws in being do not punish an of •
. ,fender, let him go unpunished; let the legislature,
, admoni~hed of the defect of the laws, provide against
the comlni sion of future crimes of the same sort.}
1'he escape of one delinquent can never produce so
much harln to the cOlnnluni-y, as may aris~ from the
intraction of a rule, upon which the purity of public
justice .. and the e~~i~tence of civil liberty, essentially
I
depend.
The next security for the impartial administrati~n
of jUHice, esp~ciaUy in decisIOn· to which government
is a party, is the independency of the judges."1 As
protecrion against e\Tery illegal attatk upon the rights
of the subject by the servants of the crown is to be
:-ought for from these tribunals, the judges of· the
land beCODle not u11frequently the arbitrators t)et,';een
the king a!-::l the people., ()n which account they
ought to be independent of- either; or, \\'hat is the
same thing, equally dependent upon both; that is, if
they be appointed by the on~, thfY should be removeable
only by thc other. Thi~ was the policy
\\·hich dictated that memorable improvement in our
constitution, by which the jUdgfs, \yho, before the
revolution. held their offices during the pleasure of
the king; cz.n now only be deprh1cd of them by an
address ti·Olll b\lth houses J(1 parlianlellt; as the nl0st
regll!ar, S()leOll1, and authentic \\·ay, by \\1hich thE~
di ',~ati~factiol1
of tIle pec,ple can be expressed.' 1"'0
( make thi~ independency of the judges complete, t.he
' pu~lic salaries of their onice ought Hot on1y to be cert~jn,
both in atnc)unt al1d cO!ltinua!lCe, but so Iiheral
J
i as to secure their int,'~rity from the temptation of
\ secret bribc~: which liberality wiil ~ns\Vl'r also the
\ f,lrt h~r pu rpo ,jC ()f ~)r(1~er\'i!~ (~ tIl ci r j II ri!'diction froIn
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