The early practice in this country favored having several judges hold all trial courts, whether a jury was or was not to be called in. It was a method wasteful of time and money. In Massachusetts it survived for their highest _nisi prius_ court until 1804. In many States it endured much longer for County Courts. County Courts in some States are courts only in name, except, perhaps, for some very limited purposes. Their real functions are administrative. Some or all of those who hold them are often styled commissioners, and their principal duties are to manage the general business affairs of the county.[Footnote: See Constitution of West Virginia, Amendment of 1880; Constitution of Oregon, Art. VII, Sec. 12.] A statute passed by Oregon in 1903 indicates that those in that State are not fountains of law, for it requires the district attorneys in each county, or their deputies, to advise the County Courts "on all legal questions that may arise." In Virginia, County Courts for a long period were held by all the justices of the peace in the county, or such of them as might attend. These magistrates nominated their own successors to the Governor, who almost never refused to commission the person so recommended. The court also nominated the officers of militia below the rank of General, and managed all the county affairs, besides having an extensive civil and criminal jurisdiction, including the power of acquittal in cases of felony. However clumsy and ill-ordered such a scheme appears, it gave general satisfaction for a long course of years, partly from a usage on the part of the older members of the bar who might be in attendance to volunteer advice as _"amci curiae"_ whenever any doubtful question of law chanced to arise.[Footnote: Tucker, "Life of Thomas Jefferson," II, 378; Kennedy, "Memoirs of William Wirt," I, 59.] Even in States where County Courts have jurisdiction of ordinary lawsuits the judges, or a majority of them, are sometimes without any legal training, though this is now less common than it once was.[Footnote: McMaster, "History of the People of the United States," III, 154.] The Constitutions of the States generally require the existence of a Supreme Court of last resort, and often specify also by name one or more of inferior jurisdiction. Such courts stand on a firmer footing than those created by the legislature under a general power to establish inferior courts. The power to establish implies a power to limit and to destroy. A tribunal created by a Constitution, with functions defined in the Constitution, is, as to these and as to its independence of existence and action, beyond legislative control.