It is safe to assert that in no State are the functions of the
courts purely judicial. Many belonging to the administration of
the methods of political government are in all intrusted to
judicial officers either originally or by way of review. Some of
these concern such matters of internal police, as the enforcement
of laws to preserve the public health or to regulate the sale of
intoxicating liquors, and the establishment and repair of
highways.[Footnote: Application of Cooper, 22 New York Reports,
67, 82, 84; Norwalk Street Railway Company's Appeal, 69
Conn. Reports, 576; 37 Atlantic Reporter, 1080; Bradley _v._
New Haven, 73 Connecticut Reports, 646; 48 Atlantic Reporter,
960; Upshur County _v._ Rich, 135 U. S. Reports, 467, 477;
Janvrin _v._ Revere Water Co., 174 Mass. Rep. 514; 55 North
Eastern Rep. 381.] Instead of creating a system of bureaus and
prefects, we have adhered to the English plan of administering
local and county concerns through justices of the peace, courts
of quarter-sessions, and county or parish courts.[Footnote: See
Maitland, "Justice and Police," 85.] Of the affairs committed to
such authorities some pertain to the conduct of elections, and
courts are frequently empowered to appoint election officers or
clerks, because it is felt that thus a wise impartiality in
selection can best be attained.[Footnote: People _v._
Hoffman, 116 Illinois Reports, 587; 5 Northeastern Reporter, 596;
56 American Reports, 793; _Ex parte_ Siebold, 100
U. S. Reports, 371, 397.]

It is vital to the proper working of government under a written
constitution that these constitutional restrictions on the powers
of the courts should not be too strictly interpreted. Every step