respectable
authorities, and in good times. In the first, the principle of law, that
the judge is to decide on law, the jury to decide on fact, is an ancient
and venerable principle and maxim of the law, and if supported in this
application by precedents of good times and of good men, the judge, if
wrong, ought to be corrected; he ought not to be reproved, or to be
disgraced, or the authority or respect to your tribunals to be impaired.
In cases in which declaratory bills have been made, where by violence and
corruption some fundamental part of the Constitution has been struck at;
where they would damn the principle, censure the persons, and annul the
acts; but where the law having been, by the accident of human frailty,
depraved, or in a particular instance misunderstood, where you neither
mean to rescind the acts, nor to censure the persons, in such cases you
have taken the explanatory mode, and, without condemning what is done,
you direct the future judgment of the court.

All bills for the reformation of the law must be according to the subject-
matter, the circumstances, and the occasion, and are of four kinds:--1.
Either the law is totally wanting, and then a new enacting statute must
be made to supply that want; or, 2. It is defective, then a new law must
be made to enforce it. 3. Or it is opposed by power or fraud, and then
an act must be made to declare it. 4 Or it is rendered doubtful and
controverted, and then a law must be made to explain it. These must be
applied according to the exigence of the case; one is just as good as
another of them. Miserable, indeed, would be the resources, poor and
unfurnished the stores and magazines of legislation, if we were bound up
to a little narrow form, and not able to frame our acts of parliament
according to every disposition of our own minds, and to every possible
emergency of the commonwealth; to make them declaratory, enforcing,
explanatory, repealing, just in what mode, or in what degree we please.

Those who think that the judges, living and dead, are to be condemned,
that your tribunals of justice are to be dishonoured, that their acts and
judgments on this business are to be rescinded, they will undoubtedly
vote against this bill, and for another sort.

I am not of the opinion of those gentlemen who are against disturbing the
public repose; I like a clamour whenever there is an abuse. The fire-
bell at midnight disturbs your sleep, but it keeps you from b