1. They are not qualified to exercise themselves the executive
department, but they are qualified to name the person who shall exercise
it. With us, therefore, they choose this officer every four years.
2. They are not qualified to legislate. With us, therefore, they only
choose the legislators. 3. They are not qualified to judge questions of
law, but they are very capable of judging questions of fact. In the form
of juries, therefore, they determine all matters of fact, leaving to the
permanent judges to decide the law resulting from those facts. But we
all know, that permanent judges acquire an _esprit de corps_; that being
known, they are liable to be tempted by bribery; that they are misled
by favor, by relationship, by a spirit of party, by a devotion to the
executive or legislative power; that it is better to leave a cause to
the decision of cross and pile, than to that of a judge biassed to one
side; and that the opinion of twelve honest jurymen gives still a better
hope of right, than cross and pile does. It is in the power, therefore,
of the juries, if they think the permanent judges are under any bias
whatever, in any cause, to take on themselves to judge the law as
well as the fact. They never exercise this power but when they suspect
partiality in the judges; and by the exercise of this power, they have
been the firmest bulwarks of English liberty. Were I called upon to
decide, whether the people had best be omitted in the legislative or
judiciary department, I would say it is better to leave them out of the
legislative. The execution of the laws is more important than the
making them. However, it is best to have the people in all the three
departments, where that is possible.

I write in great haste, my Dear Sir, and have, therefore, only time to
add wishes for the happiness of your country, to which a new order of
things is opening; and assurances of the sincere esteem with which 1