THE JUDICIAL POWER, &c. 33

must be entirely at their disposal, as from them there could lay no appeal. The prince would be both judge and party, whenever any fubject should happen to appear at his tribunal, who had the miffortune not to be agreeable to his fovereign, or when confifcation of goods would be the confequence of the fentence. -Every man in the kingdom, from the highest peer to the lowest peasant, would be dependent on his caprice, or, what is worse, would be at the mercy of his creatures, his flaves, his fordid flatterers and favorites; and might become the prey of every fawning fycophant, who, in an unguarded hour, fhould catch his fovereign's ear, and obtain a hafty sentence. Even Mephibofbeth, even Mephibofheth the Son of Jonathan, that good, that humble fon of David's bofom-friend, may be robbed of the inheritance of his fathers; that truly loyal fubject may be adjudged a traitor, and his inheritance may be given to his fervant Ziba, as a reward for his perfidious flander, by his irritated and too credulous fovereign. What man is D

fi:

fit to be trufted with defpotic power! Where is the fovereign who is fit to fit in judgment, when he himfelf is party, either directly or indirectly ?—If in a free country the fovereign himself must not be judge, much less must his ministers and privy-council. In defpotic governments the prince himself may judge, or delegate his power. If in the monarchy of France this is not the cafe, it is only because the time is not yet arrived, when it may fuit that monarch to become a perfect defpot. By the late banishment of his parliaments, he has joined the legislative to the executive, and whenever he pleases he may feize the judicial likewife.-In England we have had defpotic princes and ftate inquifitors, the privy council, the ftar-chamber, and high commiffion. courts; but, through mercy, these abuses have been long fince banished from the realm; and while our happy conftitution lafts, we may enjoy the most perfect tranguillity of mind, in the fullest confidence that our perfons and properties are inviolably fecured, by a wife and well-eftablifhed

6

blished judicature. Happy island, how peculiar is thy lot!

§ 2. In monarchies and defpotic governments, the glory, the eafe, the pleafure of the fovereign, his minifters and favourites, will be the firft objects of every institution. In a free country, the ease, the welfare, the fecurity of the subject will ever take the lead.-For the fecurity of individuals, our ancestors devifed the office of confervators of the peace, who were chosen by the freeholders in the county courts, upon a writ directed to the fheriff.-When Ifabel, the queen of Edward the fecond, excited by her vile paffion for Mortimer, had depofed that weak and mifguided prince, and placed her fon upon the throne, fhe caufed the depofed monarch to be murdered in the moft inhuman manner, and then, in order to fupprefs commotions of the people, fhe prevailed with the parliament, which was at her devotion, to transfer the election of confervators of the peace from the people to the crown*

*See Rapin, and Jacob's L. D.

In the latter part of the reign of Edward the third, thefe confervators, having power given them to try felonies, they were called juftices. That the people might have nothing to fear from them, it was ordained that they fhould be men of the best reputation in the county, and responsible for their conduct to the most respectable tribunal in the kingdom. But that the subject may have proper confidence in his fecurity from all danger of false imprisonment, it is provided by our laws, firft, that these minifters of the crown fhall receive no information but on oath.. The laws of England give countenance or encouragement to no mercenary fpies, no dark affaffins; "every arrow must be infcribed with the name of him who shoots it ;" no anonymous letter can be received; no private fufpicions are allowed. These are fufficient, in a country which has loft its liberty; where jealoufy prevails, where the leaft delay might hazard a revolution, where the defpot thinks it fafer for himself that ten thouardinnocent people fhould be confined

in

in prison, than one efcape who might trouble his repofe.-According to our law, the charge must be fpecific, the time, the place, the injury or crime, and all fupported by that oath which leaves the falfe accufer indictable for perjury. It is provided, fecondly, that these ministers of the crown fball accept of reasonable bail for every bailable offence, and that the court of King's Bench may bail for every crime: fo tender is the law of England respecting the personal liberty of every fubject, who can poffibly deferve that high enjoyment. It is provided, thirdly, that if no fufficient bail is offered, or the offence be of fuch a nature that bail can not in reafon be allowed, nor is allowed by law, the accused muft indeed fubmit to be confined; but the commitment must be in writing, figned by the magiftrate, expreffing the cause of the commitment, that if the magistrate shall have been guilty of fraud, of falfehood, or of violence, he may be convicted and punished for his offence. But in the fourth place, in order most perfectly to fecure the perfonal liberty of the fubject, the laws of this free country D 3

have