592 THE CHANCELLOR'S CASE.—1 BLAND.

operation. The present subject necessarily carries our investiga-
tions no further than to the judiciary; and to but one single ques-
tion relative to that department; that is, when and how those judi-
cial salaries were ascertained and settled, which are required by
the Declaration of Rights to be secured to the Chancellor and to
the Judges during the continuance of their commissions.

A salary is a compensation for services rendered; it is the peri-
odical payment of a certain value, in money, for work and labor
done. The provision of the Declaration of Rights, which com-
mands the Legislature to secure to the Chancellor and Judges their
salaries, must have been predicated upon the capacity of the State
to effect the security required. If no revenue could be raised, in
money, no salary could be paid in money. And, if the money,
* or the circulating medium of the country had no value;
631 or a value continually fluctuating, and which it was im-
possible to ascertain, it would be impossible to fix and secure a
salary of any value to any officer; since there was not any such
money or standard by means of which any amount in value
could be ascertained and secured. These propositions are self-
evident.

The salaries of the Chancellor and Judges were not secured, as
required by the Declaration of Rights, until the year 1785. The
causes of their not being so constitutionally secured, before that
period, were the fluctuation and depreciation of the circulating
medium of the country; the actual poverty of the State; and the
very greatly embarrassed condition of its finances. These facts
shall be established; and it will then be shown, that the General
Assembly, themselves, referred to those circumstances as the
foundation of their reasons for not securing the salaries of the
Chancellor and Judges, as they were required to do by Declaration
of Rights.

During the first nine years of the Republic the salaries of the
Chancellor and Judges were, none of them, ascertained and se-
cured, according to the Declaration of Rights. They were all,
alike, settled by annual appropriations, given at the pleasure of
the Legislature; at first, by mere resolutions; and then by the bill
for the payment of the civil list; and their amount varied accord-
ing to the opinions of the Legislature, and the circumstances of
the State. In the year 1777, soon after a Chancellor was ap-
pointed, it was directed, that a yearly salary should be paid to
him at the rate of three hundred pounds current money. For the
year 1778 he was to receive a yearly salary of seven hundred and
fifty pounds common money. It was declared, that for the year
1779 he should be allowed twelve hundred and fifty pounds. For
the year 1780 it was determined, that a salary of twelve thousand
five hundred pounds per annum should be allowed the Chancellor,
For the year 1781 his salary was fixed at six hundred pounds, to be