Add thereto contentious suits, which ought to be spewed out, as the surfeit of courts. 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. 'There be (saith the Scripture) that turn judgment into wormwood ' and surely there be, also, that turn it into vinegar for injustice maketh it bitter, and delays make it sour. 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, 'Fons turbatus, et vena corrupta est justus cadens in causa suâ coram adversario.' 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.įirst, for the causes or parties that sue. 'Cursed (saith the law) is he that removeth the landmark.' The mislayer of a mere stone is to blame but it is the unjust judge that is the capital remover of landmarks, when he defmeth amiss of lands and property.

Above all things, integrity is their portion and proper virtue. Judges ought to be more learned than witty, more reverend than plausible, and more advised than confident. Judges ought to remember that their office is 'jus dicere,' and not 'jus dare,' to interpret law, and not to make law, or give law else will it be like the authority claimed by the church of Rome, which under pretext of exposition of Scripture, doth not stick to add and alter, and to pronounce that which they do not find, and by show of antiquity to introduce novelty.

The essays of sir francis bacon