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of Castile, the Wise, that made the Siete Partidas." In the third place are liberatores, or salvatores, such as compound the long miseries of civil wars, or deliver their countries from servitude of strangers or 5 tyrants; as Augustus Cæsar, Vespasianus, Aurilianus, Theodoricus, King Henry the Seventh of England, King Henry the Fourth of France. In the fourth place are propagatores, or propugnatores imperii, such as in honourable wars enlarge their 10 territories, or make noble defence against invaders. And in the last place are patres patriæ, which reign justly and make the times good wherein they live. Both which last kinds need no examples, they are in such number.

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Degrees of honour in subjects are: First, participes curarum, those upon whom princes do discharge the greatest weight of their affairs; their right hands, as we call them. The next are duces belli, great leaders; such as are princes' lieuten20 ants, and do them notable services in the wars. The third are gratiosi, favourites; such as exceed not this scantling, to be solace to the sovereign and harmless to the people. And the fourth, negotiis pares; such as have great places under princes, and 25 execute their places with sufficiency. There is an honour, likewise, which may be ranked amongst the greatest, which happeneth rarely: that is of such as sacrifice themselves to death or danger for the good of their country; as was M. Regulus and the 30 two Decii.°

LVI. OF JUDICATURE

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 5 stick to add and alter; and to pronounce that which they do not find; and by show° of antiquity to introduce novelty. Judges ought to be more learned than witty, more reverend than plausible, and more advised than confident. Above all things, integrity 10 is their portion and proper virtue. "Cursed," saith the law, "is he that removeth the landmark." The mislayer of a merestone is to blame; but it is the unjust judge that is the capital° remover of landmarks, when he defineth amiss of lands and property. 15 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 sua 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.

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First, for the causes or parties that sue. "There 21 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. 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 5 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 10 either 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. "Qui fortiter emungit, 15 elicit sanguinem;" 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. Specially in case 20 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, "Pluet° super eos laqueos;" for penal laws pressed are a shower of 25 snares upon the people. Therefore 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: "Judicis officium est, ut res, ita tempora rerum," etc. In causes of life 30 and death, judges ought, as far as the law permitteth,

in justice to remember mercy°; and to cast a severe eye upon the example, but a merciful eye upon the person.

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Secondly, for the advocates and counsel that plead, patience and gravity of hearing is an essen-5 tial part of justice; and an over-speaking judge is no "well-tuned cymbal." It is no grace to a judge first to find 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 10 prevent information by questions, though pertinent. The parts of a judge in hearing are four: to direct the evidence; to moderate length, repetition, or impertinency of speech; to recapitulate, select, and collate the material points of that which hath been 15 said; and to give the rule or sentence. Whatsoever is above these is too much, and proceedeth either of glory and willingness to speak, or of impatience to hear,° or of shortness of memory, or of want of a staid and equal attention. It is a strange 20 thing to see that the boldness of advocates should prevail with judges; whereas they should imitate God, in whose seat they sit, who "represseth° the presumptuous and giveth grace to the modest." But it is more strange that judges should have noted 25 favourites, which cannot but cause multiplication of fees and suspicion of byeways. There is due from the judge to the advocate some commendation and gracing, where causes are well handled and fair pleaded, especially towards the side which obtaineth 30

not; for that upholds in the client the reputation of his counsel, and beats down in him the conceit° of his cause. There is likewise due to the public a civil reprehension of advocates, where there 5 appeareth cunning counsel, gross neglect, slight information, indiscreet pressing, or an over-bold defence. And let not the counsel at the bar chop with° the judge, nor wind himself into the handling of the cause anew, after the judge hath declared his sen10 tence; but, on the other side, let not the judge meet the cause half way, nor give occasion to the party to say his counsel or proofs were not heard.

Thirdly, for that that concerns clerks and ministers. The place of justice is an hallowed place, 15 and, therefore, not only the bench, but the footpace and precincts and purprise thereof, ought to be preserved without scandal and corruption. For certainly "grapes," as the Scripture° saith, "will not be gathered of thorns or thistles," neither can justice 20 yield her fruit with sweetness amongst the briars and brambles of catching and polling clerks and ministers. The attendance of courts is subject to four bad instruments: - First, certain persons that are sowers of suits, which make the court swell and the 25 country pine. The second sort is of those that engage courts in quarrels of jurisdiction, and are not truly amici curia, but parasiti curia, in puffing a court up beyond her bounds for their own scraps and advantage. The third sort is of those that may be 30 accounted the left hands of courts: persons that are