THE WEALTH OF NATIONS.

671

the jurisdiction. Whoever reads the instructions* whichwere given to the judges of the circuit in the time of Henry II. will see clearly that those judges were a sort of itinerantfactors, sent round the country for the purpose of levyingcertain branches of the king’s revenue. In those days theadministration of justice not only afforded a certain revenueto the sovereign, but to procure this revenue seems to havebeen one of the principal advantages which he proposed toobtain by the administration of justice.

This scheme of making the administration of justice sub-servient to the purposes of revenue, could scarce fail to beproductive of several very gross abuses. The person whoapplied for justice with a large present in his hand, waslikely to get something more than justice; while he, whoapplied for it with a small one, was likely to get somethingless. Justice too might frequently be delayed, in order thatthis present might be repeated. The amercement, besides,of the person complained of, might frequently suggest a verystrong reason for linding him in the wrong, even when liehad not really been so. That such abuses were far from be-ing uncommon, the ancient history of every country in Europe bears witness.

When the sovereign or chief exercised his judicial autho-rity in his own person, how much soever he might abuse it,it must have been scarce possible to get any redress; becausethere could seldom be any body powerful enough to call himto account. When he exercised it by a bailiff, indeed, redressmight sometimes be had. If it was for his own benefit only,that the bailiff had been guilty of an act of injustice, the sove-reign himself might not always be unwilling to punish him,or to oblige him to repair the wrong. But if it was for thebenefit of his sovereign, if it was in order to make court tothe person who appointed him and who might prefer him,that he had committed any act of oppression, redress wouldupon most occasions be as impossible as if the sovereign hadcommitted it himself. In all barbarous governments, ac-cording-^ i n those ancient governments of Europe in par-ticular, which were founded upon the ruins of the Romanempire, the administration of justice appears for a long timeto have been extremely corrupt; far from being quite equaland impartial even under the best monarchs, and altogetherprofligate under the worst.

* Tliey are to be (band in Tyrrel’s History of England.