Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1879-03-01
THE JUDICIARY BILL.

was common practice for the
Queen to interpose with a royal
mandate during trial, and in the
reign of James the Second, immedi-
ately preceding that of William, the
infamous conduct of Chief Justice
Jeffreys in carrying out the will of
his sovereign in the courts against
all law had much to do with expell-
| ing James from the throne and
placing William there. Jetfrey's
bloody assizes had made an indeli-
/ bic impression on the people of
England, and as soon as the Access
sion of the house of Orange gave
them the opportunity of making
/ terms with the sovereign, they
made their very first condition that
the judges should become entirely
independent of the Crown by means
of two provisos. They were to be
appointed for life, being only re-
movable for malfeasance in Office,
and then not by the fat Of their
sovereign, but on trial by their
peers. The second proviso was that
their salary should be fixed and in
variable, and especially incapable
of increase or diminutiOn by any
gift from the Crown. Prior to this
the judges had been maintained by
fees from suitors, a practice liable TO
/ incalculable abuses, which were so
difficult to define or detect that to
this day it is q disputed point
| whether the great Bacon was guilty
of bribery in certain cases or whether
he simply received the fees cOunten-
aneed by universal practice. Now
in cases OF high treason, such as
were prosecuted in Jeffrey's bloody
assizes in the Southwest of England,
the Crown il sutton for the prose-
| cutien, and it may be readily con-
ceived how a despotic and unprin-
| cipled sovereign like james the
/ Second could make the fees de-
pendent upon the subserviency of
the judge.
A really independent judicature
then could not exist until the judge
became irremOvable and had his
pay fixed so that nothing could
alter it, and this has been the law
of England since 1858. But why
state these things to our readers :?
Certainly not for the purpose of
lecturing them on English history.
No! the evils guarded against by
the English in 1888 are dangers
which always menace free govern
ment wherever it exists, and the
experience of our mother country
in combating them is thing which
it would be very unwise in us to
neglect.
We have no kings, it is true, but
we have a sovereign, and most
despOtic one. In theory our sOver-
eign is the people, but theory and
practice are generally widely at
variance in such matters: our real
sovereign is Party, and his encrOach-
ments on our free institutions are
daily becoming mere and more
dangerous TO them. He has long
had full possession of our Legisla-
lures, Executive and Federal, and
ne has of late invaded the Judiciary.
our experience in the electoral
troubles of 1857 have demon
strated that he has established his
will a. irresistible even ON the Su-
preme Bench, the last refuge of our
judiciary independence.
The authors of our Constitution
were not blind to the necessity OF
ample safeguards to Judiciary indie
pendence, and the method they
adopted for securing it from oil cor
rupting influences was in measure
the same as that adopted in Eng
land as above. Their rule was APP
pointments for long terms or life,
with irremOvable tenure except by
impeachment, and especially by the
provision that in no case shall a
judicial salary be increased or di-
: minished during the tenure of an
. existing incumbent. And in some
measure most of our State Govern
ments have acted upon the same
general principle. a perilOus ele-
ment of party motive was intro
duced into the matter when judges
were made las is now almost the
invariable rule) subject to popular
election. The events of our last
county elections were ominOus to Us
of the dangerous predominance OF
party in judiciary matters, and our
worst anticipatiOns were realized in
, the judiciary bill now before the
General Assembly. The effect of il
will be to vacate every judiciary
/ bench in Tennessee and to- require
: the election of new judges through
out the State. The avowed purpose
of this is to diminish the number
I and thereby the expense of the
Judges. The occult purpose, which
: is the real motive of the bill, is t.
, evade the rule in the Constitution
p that a judges salary shall not be
: changed during his tenure of office
; by legislating them all out of office
and creating new ones, Il previOu
} act of this Legislature having largely
> reduced judges salaries but still
r further and more influential as 4
motive was that of displacing the
| present Judiciary in order to place
: in office men i'm accord with the low
: tax repudiating faction now unhap
: PLY predominant in the State. II
? was thought that the present low
= tax craze might heave to the sur
= face and place upon the bench some
. of the nuisy demagogues who fol
p this very purpose have been keep
f ing up mischievousag agitation regard
ing the public debt, thus enthronine
, reputation in the high places o.