126 TEEM OF OFFICE. [CHAP. XXVII. 



tiring pensions, we hold, with your Jeremy Ben- 

 tham, that no man can acquire a vested right in a 

 public injury. Men are apt, when they have re 

 tained possession of an office for a great part of their 

 lives, to think they own it.&quot; &quot; But what is to be 

 come of the judges,&quot; said I, &quot; who are thus cast off 

 without pensions ? &quot; &quot; Old Judge A ,&quot; he re 

 plied, &quot; owns a plantation, and will go and farm it. 

 Judge B - will probably get a professor s chair in 

 the new Law University ; &quot; and so he went on, pro 

 viding for all of them. &quot;In future,&quot; he continued, 

 &quot; our judges are to be appointed by the Governor 

 and Senate, with good salaries, for eight years ; those 

 first named being for two, four, six, and eight years, 

 so that they may go out in rotation ; but members 

 of the Legislature cannot be raised to the bench, as in 

 Great Britain.&quot; I objected, that such a system 

 might render a judge who desired to be re-elected 

 subservient to the party in power, or at least open 

 to such an imputation. &quot; No doubt,&quot; he rejoined ; 

 &quot;as in the case of your judges, who may be pro 

 moted to higher posts on the bench. As to the 

 corrupting influence of their dependance on a legis 

 lature chosen by a widely-extended suffrage, many 

 of your mayors and aldermen are elected for short 

 terms, and exercise judicial functions in England.&quot; 



