8&amp;lt;i ESSAYS CIVIL AND MORAL. 



dent. Above all things, integrity is their portion and proper Virtue, 

 &quot; Cursed,&quot; saith the law, &quot; is he that removeth the land-mark. I he 

 mislaycr of a mere-stone is to blame : but it is the unjust judge that 

 is the capital remover of land-marks, when he defineth amiss of lands 

 and property. One foul sentence doth more hurt than many foul 

 examples. For these do but corrupt the stream : the other corrupteth 

 the fountain. So saith Solomon ; &quot; Fons turbatus, et vena corrupta, 

 cst Justus cadcns in causa sua coram adversario.&quot; The office of judges 

 may have reference unto the parties that sue ; unto the advocates that 

 plead ; unto the clerks and ministers of justice underneath them ; and 

 to the sovereign or state above them. 



First, for the causes or parties that sue. &quot; There be,&quot; saith the 

 Scripture, &quot;that turn judgment into wormwood ;&quot; and surely there be 

 also that turn it into vinegar : for injustice makcth it bitter, and delays 

 make it sour. The principal duty of a judge is, to suppress force and 

 fraud ; whereof force is the more pernicious when it is open ; and 

 fraud when it is close and disguised. Add thereto contentious suits, 

 which ought to be spewed out as the surfeit of courts. A judge 

 ought to prepare his way to a just sentence, as God useth to prepare 

 his way, by raising valleys and taking down hills : so when there 

 appeareth on cither side an high hand, violent prosecution, cunning 

 advantages taken, combination, power, great counsel, then is the 

 virtue of a judge seen, to make inequality equal ; that he may plant 

 his judgment as upon an even ground. &quot; Qui fortiter emungit, elicit 

 sanguinem ; &quot; and where the wine-press is hard wrought, it yields a 

 harsh wine, that tastes of the grape-stone. Judges must beware of 

 hard constructions and strained inferences ; for there is no worse 

 torture than the torture of laws ; especially in case of laws penal they 

 ought to have care, that that which was meant for terror be not 

 turned into rigour ; and that they bring not upon the people that 

 shower whereof the Scripture speaketh, &quot; pluet super coslaqucos:&quot; 

 for penal laws pressed are a shower of snares upon the people. There 

 fore let penal laws, if they have been sleepers of long, or if they be 

 grown unfit for the present time, be by wise judges confined in the 

 execution; &quot; Judicis ofiicium est, ut res, ita tcmpora rerum,&quot; etc. In 

 causes of life and death, judges ought, as far as the law pcrmittcth, in 

 justice to remember mercy : and to cast a severe eye upon the 

 example, but a merciful eye upon the person. 



Secondly, for the advocates and counsel that plead ; patience and 

 gravity of hearing is an essential part of justice ; and an over-speak 

 ing judge is no well-tuned cymbal. It is no grace to a judge, first to 

 lind that which he might have heard in due time from the bar; or to 

 show quickness of conceit in cutting off evidence or counsel too short ; 

 or to prevent information by questions, though pertinent. The parts 

 of a judge in hearing arc four : to direct the evidence; to moderate 

 length, repetition, or impcrtinency of speech ; to recapitulate, select, and 

 collate, the material points of that which hath been said ; and to give 

 the rule or sentence. Whatsoever is above these is too much ; and pro- 

 cecdeth either of ylory and willingness to speak, or of impatience to 



