384 THE CHANCELLOR'S CASE.—1 BLAND.

their substance." And when the authors of this Article meditated
on the subject of judicial salaries, the picture of the past oppressive
prodigality, and a cheering hope for the future were before them;
the contrast pressed upon their minds, and their thoughts, thus
influenced, were happily expressed in four words, "liberal but not
profuse." But this expression gives no positive direction. It
merely indicates an opinion, that the future judicial officers of the
State should be compensated according to the just and liberal
principles of the republic; not in the profuse manner in which
they had been maintained under the late monarchy, and nothing
more. It lays down no positive rule, and therefore gives no com-
mand, (k)

The salaries, it is said " ought to be secured." It will be suffi-
cient to observe here, that the word "ought'" frequently occurs in
*this Declaration of Rights, and is always used in the im-
623 perative sense of the word, " shall." Thus, it is said, "that
no soldier ought to be quartered in any house," &c. " that no per-
son ought to hold at the same time more than one office," &c.
The manifest and settled meaning of which is, " that no soldier
shall," &c.; "that no person shall," &c. Such also is the mean-
ing of the word " ought" in the Article under consideration; the
clear sense of it is, that the salaries "shall be secured," &c.

It is said, that the salary shall "be secured to the Chancellor; "
that is, according to the universally received meaning of the word
"seenred," the salary shall be, "ascertained, made certain, put
out of hazard, protected, made safe, and insured," to the Chan-
cellor. And even yet more; it is said, that salaries shall be secured
to the Chancellor and Judges ''during the continuance of their
commissions." Thus, after expressing an opinion, that the salary

(k) "Judges (it is said by a sensible Reviewer,) should be placed above
pecuniary difficulties; their minds should not be diverted from their import-
ant duties, by the pinching of want, or the necessity of devising ways and
means to eke out a living for their families. Such a situation both lessens
respectability and invites temptation. Bring the administrators of the law.
through whose sanctions alone the sovereignty of the people is heard, into
contempt, and the law itself will soon become odious—render the law and
its tribunals odious, and you prepare the people to despise the yoke and to
embrace any change which would afford a prospect of relief. Let it be
borne in mind by those in whose hands are our destinies, our legislators,
that the most distinguishing and delightful characteristic of our people, is
their cheerful submission to the law: to that they universally bow down
with obedience, and upon that foundation, mainly, stand our republican
institutions. Every thing which tends to shake it, a patriot should depre-
cate; and we know nothing more surely calculated to produce that lament-
able effect, than the reduction of the salaries of the Judges to a bare sub-
sistence, by which these offices will ere long be thrown into the hands of
inferior men, or will render those of a superior character who imprudently
accept them, the victims for life of debasing want."—(3 Southern Review,
446.)