676

THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF

might, in the same manner, afford a revenue sufficient fordefraying the expense of the administration of justice, with-out bringing any burden upon the general revenue of thesociety. The judges, indeed, might, in this case, be underthe temptation of multiplying unnecessarily the proceedingsupon every cause, in order to increase, as much as possible,the produce of such a stamp-duty. It has beon the customin modern Europe to regulate, upon most occasions, thepayment of the attorneys and clerks of court, according tothe number of pages which they had occasion to write ; thecourt, however, requiring that each page should contain somany lines, and each line so many words. In order to in-crease their payment, the attorneys and clerks have con-trived to multiply words beyond all necessity, to the corrup-tion of the law language of, 1 believe, every court of justicein Europe . A like temptation might perhaps occasion alike corruption of the form of law proceedings. - >

But whether the administration of justice be so contrive-as to defray its own expense, or whether the judges be main-tained by fixed salaries paid" to them from some other fund,it does not seem necessary that the person or persons en-trusted with the executive power should be charged withthe management of that fund, or with the payment of thosesalaries. That fund might arise from the rent of landedestates, the management of each estate being entrusted to theparticular court which was to be maintained by if. Thatfund might arise even from the interest of a sum of money,the lending out of which might, in the same manner, be en-trusted to the court which was to be maintained by it. Apart, though indeed but a small part, of the salary of thejudges of the court of Session in Scotland , arises from theinterest of a sum of money. The necessary instability ofsuch a fund seems, however, to render it an improper one forthe maintenance of an institution which ought to last forever.

The separation of the judicial from the executive powerseems originally to have arisen from the increasing businessof the society, in consequence of its increasing improvement.The administration of justice became so laborious and socomplicated a duty as to require the undivided attention ofthe persons to whom it was entrusted. The person entrustedwith the executive power, not having leisure to attend to thedecision of private causes himself, a deputy was appointedto decide them in its stead. In the progress of the Roman