618 THE CHANCELLOR'S CASE.

the article itself; first as relates to its general character, and then
analyze and investigate its several parts. The article is in these
words:

" That the independency and uprightness of judges are essen-
tial to the impartial administration of justice, and a great security
to the rights and liberties of the people; wherefore, the chancellor
and all judges ought to hold commissions during good behaviour:
and the said chancellor and judges shall be removed for misbe-
haviour, on conviction in a court of law, and may be removed by the
governor, upon the address of the General Assembly: provided,
that two-thirds of all the members of each house concur in such
address. That salaries, liberal, but not profuse, ought to be secured
to the chancellor and the judges, during the continuance of their
commissions, in such manner, and at such time as the legislature
shall hereafter direct, upon consideration of the circumstances of
this State. No chancellor or judge ought to hold any other office,
civil or military, or receive fees or perquisites of any kind."

The objects contemplated by this article are the personal quali-
fications of an individual. It looks altogether to man as a moral
agent; and proposes to sustain and fortify those excellencies and
capacities which fit him to be entrusted with judicial power; and
to provide against those passions and frailties which may occasion
an abuse of such power. This general character of this article
will be more distinctly understood by contrasting it with some other
provisions of the constitution, which speak of collective bodies, of
divisions, and of departments of power.

Thus, it is declared, " that the legislative, executive, and judi-
cial powers of government, ought to be for ever separate and dis-
tinct from each other." In this there is no reference to personal
and moral qualities; it speaks merely of the artificial political divi-
sions of power; and directs each one of them to confine itself
within its own proper sphere. Again, it is said, " that no aid,
charge, tax, burthen, fee or fees ought to be set, rated, or levied
under any pretence, without the consent of the legislature ;(i) that

(t) This peculiar expression in the twelfth article of the Declaration of Rights,'
refers to that controversy which originated in the year 1770, between the Proprietary
Governor Eden, and the House of Delegates, as to the power claimed by the Gov-
ernor and Council to settle the rate of officers' fees by proclamation without the con-
sent of the people through their Delegates. This claim of the last provincial
governor was strikingly analogous to that set up by the mother country to levy taxes
by act of parliament without the consent of the representatives of the colonists. It