POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY. 103 



the cognisance of legislative authority ; and require active measures 

 for their prevention of punishment. 



As regards punishments, they should be commensurate with 

 offences ; and so framed as if possible both to redress the injured 

 party, and vindicate the violated laws ; having reference also to the 

 prevention of future crimes, and the moral reformation of the offender. 

 Among the various reasons theoretically assigned to justify the inflic- 

 tion of punishments, those to which we have just referred, including 

 the preservation of public safety, seem to be the strongest. The pub- 

 lic exhibition of capital punishments, we are fully persuaded, has a 

 very demoralizing and injurious effect ; but such punishment may, 

 we think, be justified in extreme cases, by reason as well as by Scrip- 

 tural authority. Still it remains a question, with some minds, whe- 

 ther, even in these cases, solitary confinement would not be prefera- 

 ble. Imprisonment for debt, we conceive to be justifiable, only where 

 the debtor is chargeable with fraud, or culpable negligence, in con- 

 tracting obligations without providing the means of discharging them. 



3. The Principles of Adjudication, or judicial action, relate ta 

 the organization of courts, with the right construction or interpreta- 

 tion of laws, and their due enforcement. Were the power of exe- 

 cuting the laws intrusted to the same persons who make them ; it would 

 be much more likely to be abused than when placed in different hands. 

 Hence the propriety of distinct Courts of Justice, and these of dif- 

 ferent grades ; that there may be room for appealing from the lower 

 to the higher, in cases of supposed injustice. The Judges or jus- 

 tices are properly nominated by the Chief Magistrate of the Nation, 

 or State ; but to prevent corruption, they should be approved by some 

 responsible body, and should afterwards be independent of the ap- 

 pointing power, at least for a long term of years, except when im- 

 peached for misconduct. A judge should not only be impartial, but 

 he should pay implicit obedience to the law, without regard to its 

 merits ; except in chancery or constitutional questions ; his office be- 

 ing not to make the law, but to declare and enforce it. In general, 

 more confidence may be placed in the decision of three or more 

 judges, than in that of a single individual, though of equal capacity. 



To secure more effectually the rights of citizens, the law allows 

 them, in many cases, the privilege of trial by a Jury, composed of 

 their fellow-citizens, who are supposed to have an immediate interest 

 in doing them full justice. The origin of this institution is lost in 

 antiquity ; but it was confirmed in England, by Henry II. in the Con- 

 stitutions of Clarendon, in 1164. The number of jurors, and mode 

 of selecting them, vary in different places and courts. A Grand Jury, 

 consists of at least twelve, and usually, when full, of twenty-three 

 persons ; who are charged with a general supervision of the public 

 safety, interest, and morals. Petit Juries, on the other hand, are 

 summoned and sworn for the trial of special causes. The other officers 

 of a court of justice, are the Clerk or Prothonotary, who records 

 its proceedings and decisions; and the Marshall, Sheriff, or Con- 

 stable, who executes its processes and orders. The Attorneys, 

 Solicitors, and Counsellors, or Advocates, are lawyers, commis- 

 sioned by the court, to manage causes before it. An Attorney or 



