So much for the senate.
37. As for the court of justice or bench, it cannot rest upon the same
foundations as that which exists under a monarch, as we described it in
Chap. VI. Secs. 26, and following. For (Sec. 14) it agrees not with the
foundations of our present dominion, that any account be made of
families or clans. And there must be a further difference, because
judges chosen from the patricians only might indeed be restrained by the
fear of their patrician successors, from pronouncing any unjust judgment
against any of the patricians, and, perhaps, would hardly have the
courage to punish them after their deserts; but they would, on the other
hand, dare everything against the commons, and daily carry off the rich
among them for a prey. I know that the plan of the Genoese is therefore
approved by many, for they choose their judges not among the patricians,
but among foreigners. But this seems to me, considering the matter in
the abstract, absurdly ordained, that foreigners and not patricians
should be called in to interpret the laws. For what are judges but
interpreters of the laws? And I am therefore persuaded that herein also
the Genoese have had regard rather to the genius of their own race, than
to the very nature of this kind of dominion. We must, therefore, by
considering the matter in the abstract, devise the means which best
agree with the form of this government.
38. But as far as regards the number of the judges, the theory of this
constitution requires no peculiar number; but as under monarchical
dominion, so under this, it suffices that they be too numerous to be
corrupted by a private man.
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