All, or nearly all, voluntary associations give to a majority, or to some other portion of the members less than the whole, the right to use some _limited_ discretion as to the means to be used to accomplish the ends in view; but _the ends themselves to be accomplished_ are always precisely defined, and are such as every member necessarily agrees to, else he would not voluntarily join the association. Justice is the object of government, and those who support the government, must be agreed as to the justice to be executed by it, or they cannot rightfully unite in maintaining the government itself.] [Footnote 76: Jones on Bailments, 133.] [Footnote 77: Kent, describing the difficulty of construing the written law, says: "Such is the imperfection of language, and the want of technical skill in the makers of the law, that statutes often give occasion to the most perplexing and distressing doubts and discussions, arising from the ambiguity that attends them. It requires great experience, as well as the command of a perspicuous diction, to frame a law in such clear and precise terms, as to secure it from ambiguous expressions, and from all doubts and criticisms upon its meaning."--_Kent_, 460. The following extract from a speech of Lord Brougham, in the House of Lords, confesses the same difficulty: "There was another subject, well worthy of the consideration of government during the recess,--the expediency, _or rather the absolute necessity_, of some arrangement for the preparation of bills, not merely private, but public bills, _in order that legislation might be consistent and systematic, and that the courts might not have so large a portion of their time occupied in endeavoring to construe acts of Parliament, in many cases unconstruable, and in most cases difficult to be construed_."--_Law Reporter_, 1848, p. 525.] [Footnote 78: This condemnation of written laws must, of course, be understood as applying only to cases where principles and rights are involved, and not as condemning any governmental arrangements, or instrumentalities, that are consistent with natural right, and which must be agreed upon for the purpose of carrying natural law into effect. These things may be varied, as expediency may dictate, so only that they be allowed to infringe no principle of justice. And they must, of course, be written, because they do not exist as fixed principles, or laws in nature.] CHAPTER VI. JURIES OF THE PRESENT DAY ILLEGAL. It may probably be safely asserted that there are, at this day, no legal juries, either in England or America. And if there are no legal juries, there is, of course, no legal trial, nor "judgment," by jury. In saying that there are probably no legal juries, I mean that there are probably no juries appointed in conformity with the principles of the _common law_.