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recall mankind from the by-paths where they turn , into that broad path of salvation which all know , but few tread . These plain lessons the humblest ministers of the gospel may teach , if they are hone 3 t , and the most powerful Christians will ponder , if
they are wise . No man , whether he bear the sword of the law , or whether he bear that sceptre which the sword of the law cannot reach , can answer for his own heart to-morrow , and can say to the teacher , * Thou warnest me , thou teaehest me in vain / * A Christian Judge , in a free land ,
should , with the most scrupulous exactness , guard himself from the influence of those party feelings , upon which , perhaps , the preservation of political liberty depends , but by which the better reason of individuals is often blinded , and the tranquillity of the public disturbed . I am not talking of the ostentatious display of such feelings ; lam hardly talking * of any gratification of which the individual
himself is conscious ; but I am raising up a wise and useful jealousy of the encroachment of those feelings , which , when they do encroach , lessen the value of the most valuable , and lower the importance of the most important men in the country . I admit it to be extremely difficult to live amidst the agitations , contests and discussions of a free people , and to remain in that state of cool , passionless , Christian candour , which society expect from their great magistrates ; but it is the pledge that magistrate has given , it is the life he has taken up , it is the class of qualities which he has promised us , and for which he has rendered himself responsible : it is the same fault in him , which want of courage would be in some men , and want of moral regularity in others . It runs counter to those very purpoaes , and sins against those utilities for which the
very office was created : without these qualities , he who ought to be cool , is heated ; he who ought to be neutral , is partial ; the ermine of justice is spotted ; the balance of justice is unpoised ; the fillet of justice is torn off ; and he who sits to judge after the law , smites contrary to the law . * ' And if the preservation of calmncas amidst -the strong feelings by which a Judge is surrounded be difficult , is it not also honourable ? And
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would it be honourable if it were not difficult ? Why do men quit their homes , and give up their common occupations , and repair to the tribunal of justice ? Why this bustle and business , why this decoration and display , and why are we all eager to pav
our homage to the dispensers of jus tice ? Because we all feel that there must be , somewhere or other , a check to human passions ; because we all know the immense value and importance of men , in whose placid equity and mediating wisdom we can trust
in the worst of times : because wpm the worst of times ; because we cannot cherish too strongly , and express too plainly , that reverence we feel for men , who can rise up in the ship of the state , and rebuke the storms of the mind , and bid its angry passions be still .
** A Christian Judge , in a free land , should not only keep his mind clear from the violence of party feeling , but he should be very careful to preserve his independence , by seeking no
promotion , and asking no favours from those who govern : or , at least , to be ( which is an experiment not without danger to his salvation ) so thoroughly confident of his motives and his
conduct , that he is certain the hope of favour to come , or gratitude for favour past , will never cause him to swerve from the strict line of duty . It is often the lot of a Judge to be placed , not onlv between the accuser and the
accused , not only between the complainant and him against whom it is complained , but between the governors and the governed , between the people and those whose lawful commands the people are bound to obey . In these sort of contests , it
unfortunately happens that the rulers are sometimes as angry as the ruled ; the whole eyes of a nation are fixed upon one man , and upon his character and conduct the stability and happiness of the times seem to depend . The best and firmest magistrates cannot tell how they may act under such
circumstances , but every man may prepare himself for acting well under such circumstances , by cherishing that quiet feeling of independence , which removes one temptation to act ill . Every man may avoid putting himself in a situation where his hopes of advantage are on one side , and his sense of duty on the other : such a temptation may be
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258 Character of an English Judge .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1824, page 258, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2524/page/2/
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