ense of the civil
law. 'Leges et constitutiones futuris certum est dare formam negotiis,
non ad facta praeterita revocari, nisi nominatim, et de praeterito
tempore, et adhuc pendentibus negotiis cautum sit.'[42] This passage,
according to the best interpretation of the civilians, relates not
merely to future suits, but to future, as contradistinguished from past,
contracts and vested rights.[43] It is indeed admitted that the prince
may enact a retrospective law, provided it be done _expressly_; for the
will of the prince under the despotism of the Roman emperors was
paramount to every obligation. Great latitude was anciently allowed to
legislative expositions of statutes; for the separation of the judicial
from the legislative power was not then distinctly known or prescribed.
The prince was in the habit of interpreting his own laws for particular
occasions. This was called the 'Interlocutio Principis'; and this,
according to Huber's definition, was, 'quando principes inter partes
loquuntur et jus dicunt.'[44] No correct civilian, and especially no
proud admirer of the ancient republic (if any such then existed), could
have reflected on this interference with private rights and pending
suits without disgust and indignation; and we are rather surprised to
find that, under the violent and arbitrary genius of the Roman
government, the principle before us should have been acknowledged and
obeyed to the extent in which we find it. The fact shows that it must be
founded in the clearest justice. Our case is happily very different from
that of the subjects of Justinian. With us the power of the lawgiver is
limited and defined; the judicial is regarded as a distinct, independent
power; private rights are better understood and more exalted in public
estimation, as well as secured by provisions dictated by the spirit of
freedom, and unknown to the civil law. Our constitutions do not admit
the power assumed by the Roman prince, and the principle we are
considering is now to be regarded as sacred."

These acts infringe also the thirty-seventh article of the constitution
of New Hampshire; which says, that the powers of government shall be
kept separate. By these acts, the legislature assumes to exercise a
judicial power. It declares a forfeiture, and resumes franchises, once
granted, without trial or hearing.

If the constitution be not altogether waste-paper, it has restrained the
power of the legislature in these particulars. If