"It must be owned that the Guards and Fences of the law have not always proved an effectual security for the subject. The Reader will ... find many Instances wherein they who hold the sword of Justice did not employ it as they ought to in punishment of Evil-Doers, but to the Oppression and Destruction of Men more righteous than themselves. Indeed it is scarce possible to frame a Body of Laws which a tyrannical Prince, influenced by wicked Counsellors and corrupt Judges, may not be able to break through.... The Law itself is a dead letter. Judges are the interpreters of it, and if they prove men of no Conscience nor Integrity, they will give what sense they will to it, however different from the true one; and when they are supported by superior authority, will for a while prevail, till by repeated iniquities they grow intolerable and throw the State into convulsions which may at last end in their own ruin. This shows how valuable a Blessing is an upright and learned Judge, and of what great concern it is to the public that none be preferred to that office but such whose Ability and Integrity may be safely depended on."[60] [Footnote 60: 1 Hargrave's St. Tr. 6.] Thus, Gentlemen of the Jury, is it that judges who know no law but the will of "the hand that feeds them," appointed for services rendered to the enemies of mankind and looking for yet higher rewards, have sought to establish the despotism of their masters on the ruin of the People. But the destruction of obnoxious individuals is not the whole of their enormity; so I come to the next part of the subject. (III.) The next step is for such judges to interpret, wrest, and pervert the laws so as to prepare for prospective Acts of Tyranny. Here, Gentlemen of the Jury, I shall have only too many examples to warn you with. Early in his reign James I. sought to lay burthensome taxes on the people without any act of Parliament; this practice was continued by his successors.