CHAPTER XVIII THE FEDERAL JUDICIARY =Establishment of the federal Judiciary.=--The Articles of Confederation, as we have seen, made no provision for a national judiciary. Hamilton declared this to be the crowning defect of the old government, for laws, he very properly added, are a dead letter without courts to expound their true meaning and define their operations. During the period of the Confederation, the national government was dependent for the most part, as has been said, on the states for the enforcement of its will. Thus if some one counterfeited the national currency, robbed the mails, or assaulted a foreign ambassador, there was no national court to take jurisdiction of the case and punish the offender. The only way by which he could be brought to justice and the authority of the national government upheld was through the kindly assistance of some state court, and this assistance was not always cheerfully lent nor was it always effective when tendered. Congress to be sure acted as a court for the settlement of disputes between the states themselves, but a legislative assembly is never well fitted for exercising judicial functions. In the absence of a national judiciary it proved impossible to enforce solemn treaty stipulations to which the United States was a party, a fact which led Great Britain to refuse to carry out certain of her treaty engagements with the United States. =The Judicial Power of the United States.=--The framers of the Constitution decided that the jurisdiction of the national courts should be restricted to questions of national interest and to those involving the peace and tranquillity of the Union, such as disputes between the states themselves and between citizens of different states, and that the jurisdiction of all other controversies should be left to the determination of the courts of the several states. The jurisdiction of the federal courts, therefore, was made to include all cases whether of law or equity arising under the national Constitution, the laws of the United States, and all treaties made under their authority; all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls; all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction; all controversies to which the United States is a party; all controversies between two or more states; and between a state, or the citizens thereof, and foreign states or citizens or subjects thereof.[96]