HEPBURN'S CASE.—3 BLAND. 81

property on any one, merely as a generous donation, without re-
gard to any consideration of public good. The discretionary
power of the General Assembly, it may be admitted, is and must
be extensive; perhaps, beyond control from any other co-ordi-
nate department of the Government; but still it must be limited
by a sound regard to the general benefit of the people; and there-
fore, should not be allowed from a mere impulse of kindness to
make a gift of the public funds to any one who had rendered no
'service to the State; nor done any thing that might be considered
as a valuable consideration or a public benefaction. 3 Secret Jour.
Gong. 197; 1784, ch. 37, s. 7; 1788, eh. 44, s. 20; Construction Con-
strued by John Taylor, of Caroline, 261. (c)

If the unlimited discretionary power of the General Assembly
them selves over the public property can be susceptible of question,
surely no Court of justice should consider itself as having been
clothed with any such power by that department, without the
most express declaration to that effect. This Court must there-
fore, be extremely guarded how it assumes an authority from the
Legislature to dole out the charities, or to cast abroad the bounties
of the State. If however, laying aside the rules of law and equity
by which the rights of property are regulated, it is to be determined
upon principles of general morality, whether or not a petitioner is
to be paid from the public treasury any amount he may ask or
claim, then the General Assembly mast be much better judges of
such a matter than the Chancellor, because they are presumed to
be, and are in truth, much more intimately acquainted with the
feelings and disposition of the people than any single member of
the judiciary can be. But I cannot allow myself to believe, that
the General Assembly intended to clothe the Chancellor with any
such large and unqualified powers. He is directed to decide accord-
ing to the equity and right of the matter; that is, according to
those established rules by which he is governed in similar cases;
*not by any variable and uncertain notions of liberality and
benevolence. 98

Prudential and equitable considerations ought always to curb
licentious invasions of private right. 3 Secret Jour. Cong. 193.
But the Government of this Republic by virtue of that eminent
domain, which for public purposes is entrusted to all Governments,

(c) ''We, (Congress.) are not the almoners of the American people, the
dispensers of their charity, but agents, with limited powers, entrusted with
the control of the public purse, for the sole purpose of applying it to the
current exigencies of the Government, in the advancement of great prin-
ciples of public policy connected with the exercise of powers substantively
conferred upon us, and in the discharge of individual claims arising from
our own, or the engagements of our predecessors."—Speech of Mr. Berrien,
a Senator of Georgia, in the Senate of the U. States, 30th January, 1828.—Na-
tional Intelligencer, 19th April, 1828.

6 3B.