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

OJ"the Adnzmistratifin of lustice.
S77
weB as of rendering the office worthy of the ambition
of men of eminence in their pr(Jfession~
A third precaution, to be observed in the forma-)
tion of courts of justice) h, that the number of the
judges be~mall. For, beside that the violence and
tumult insepa.rable from large assembli(:~ are inconsistent
with the patience, luethod, and attention requisite
in judicial investigations; beside that all passions
and prejudices act \\·ith augmented force upon
a collected llluititude; beside these objections, judges,
when they are numerous, diruide the shame of an un·
just determination; they shelt~r themselves under one
anotller's example; each man thinks his own charac c
ter hid in the crowd: r for which reason the judges I
ought always to be so few, ;~s that the condu~t of each
may be c(;nspicuQus to public observat!on; that each
rna)' be re~ponsjble in his separate and particular reputation
for the decisions iii which he concurs. l'he
truth_ of the above remark has been exemplified in
this country, in the effects of that wise regulation
which transferred the trial of parliamentary elections
from the house of t~)mmOilS at large, to a select committee
of that house composed of thirteen members.
This alteration, simply by reducing the number of the
judges, and, in consequence of that reduction, expoc
sing the judicial conduct of each to public animad.
. version, has given to a judicature, which had been
long swayed by interest and solicitation, the solemnity .
and virtue of the most upright tribunals.-I should
prefer an even to an odd number of judges, and four
to almost any other number; for in this number
be"ide ttJat it sufficiently sansults the idea of separate
responsibility, nothing can be decided bu~ by a rna-
- jority of three to one. And when we consider that
every decision establil--hes a perpetual precedent, we
shall allow that it ought to proceed from an author ..
ity not less than this. If the court be equally divi.
ded, nothing is done; things remain as they VI~re ;
with some inconveniency, indeed, to the parties, but
without the -danger to the pU.hlic of a hasty prece ..
dent.