lect such particular
laws as they think require special attention,--this is like the work
of law-makers; and also, in their charges to the grand and petty
Juries, to suggest the execution thereof in such cases as the times
may bring,--this like the work of the law-appliers.

The good judge continually modifies the laws of his country to the
advantage of mankind. He leaves bad statutes, which aim at or would
promote injustice, to sleep till themselves become obsolete, or
parries their insidious thrusts at humanity; he selects good statutes
which enact natural Justice into positive law; and mixes his own fresh
instincts of humanity with the traditional institutions of the age.
All this his official function requires of him--for his oath to keep
and administer the laws binds him to look to the Purpose of Law--which
is the Eternal Justice of God,--as well as to each special statute.
Besides, after the Jury declares a man guilty, the Judge has the power
to fix the quantity and sometimes the quality of his punishment. And
the discretion of a great noble man will advance humanity.

In this way a good Judge may do a great service to mankind, and
correct the mistakes, or repel the injustice of the ultimate makers
and appliers of law, and supply their defects. Thus in England those
eminent Judges, Hale, Somers, Hobart, Holt, Camden, Mansfield, and
Brougham, have done large service to mankind. Each had his personal
and official faults, some of them great and glaring faults of both
kinds, but each in his way helped enact natural Justice into positive
law, and so to promote the only legitimate Purpose of human
legislation, securing Natural Rights to all men. To such Judges
mankind owes a quite considerable debt.

But in America the Judge has an additional function; he is to
determine the Constitutionality of a law. For while the British King
and Parliament claim to be legislatively omnipotent, supreme, the
Ultimate human source of law, the Living Constitution of the realm,
and therefore themselves the only Norm of law,--howsoever ill-founded
the claim may be,--in America it is the People, not their elected
servants, who are the Ultimate human source of law, the Supreme
Legislative power. Accordingly the People have prepared a written
Constitution, a Power of Attorney authorizing their servants to do
certain matters and things relating to the government of the nation.
This constitution is the human Norm of law for all the servants