412 ADVICE TO SIR GEORGE VILLIERS. 



in later ages been famous for good literature ; and 

 if preferment shall attend the deservers, there will 

 not want supplies. 



II. NEXT to religion, let your care be to promote 

 justice. By justice and mercy is the king s throne 

 established. 



1. Let the rule of justice be the laws of the land, 

 an impartial arbiter between the king and his people, 

 and between one subject and another : I shall not 

 speak superlatively of them, lest I be suspected of 

 partiality, in regard of my own profession ; but this 

 I may truly say, They are second to none in the 

 Christian world. 



[They are the best, the equallest in the world 

 between prince and people ; by which the king hath 

 the justest prerogative, and the people the best liber 

 ty : and if at any time there be an unjust deviation, 

 &quot; Hominis est vitium, nbn professionis.&quot;] 



2. And as far as it may lie in you, let no arbitrary 

 power be intruded : the people of this kingdom love 

 the laws thereof, and nothing will oblige them more, 

 than a confidence of the free enjoying of them ; 

 what the nobles upon an occasion once said in par 

 liament, &quot; Nolumus leges Angliae mutare,&quot; is im 

 printed in the hearts of all the people. 



3. But because the life of the laws lies in the due 

 execution and administration of them, let your eye 

 be, in the first place, upon the choice of good judges : 

 these properties had they need to be furnished with ; 

 to be learned in their profession, patient in hearing, 



