P.C. 22.]

III. ANOTHER capacity, in which the king is considered in domestic
affairs, is as the fountain of justice and general conservator of the
peace of the kingdom. By the fountain of justice the law does not mean
the _author_ or _original_, but only the _distributor_. Justice is not
derived from the king, as from his _free gift_; but he is the steward
of the public, to dispense it to whom it is _due_[y]. He is not the
spring, but the reservoir; from whence right and equity are conducted,
by a thousand chanels, to every individual. The original power of
judicature, by the fundamental principles of society, is lodged in the
society at large: but as it would be impracticable to render complete
justice to every individual, by the people in their collective
capacity, therefore every nation has committed that power to certain
select magistrates, who with more ease and expedition can hear and
determine complaints; and in England this authority has immemorially
been exercised by the king or his substitutes. He therefore has alone
the right of erecting courts of judicature: for, though the
constitution of the kingdom hath entrusted him with the whole
executive power of the laws, it is impossible, as well as improper,
that he should personally carry into execution this great and
extensive trust: it is consequently necessary, that courts should be
erected, to assist him in executing this power; and equally necessary,
that, if erected, they should be erected by his authority. And hence
it is, that all jurisdictions of courts are either mediately or
immediately derived from the crown, their proceedings run generally in
the king's name, they pass under his seal, and are executed by his
officers.

[Footnote y: _Ad hoc autem creatus est et electus, ut justitiam faciat
universis._ Bract. _l._ 3. _tr._ 1. _c._ 9.]

IT is probable, and almost certain, that in very early times, before
our constitution arrived at it's full perfection, our kings in person
often heard and determined causes between party and party. But at
present, by the long and uniform usage of many ages, our kings have
delegated their whole judicial power to the judges of their several
courts; which are the grand depositary of the fundamental laws of the
kingdom, and have gained a known and stated jurisdiction, regulated by
certain and established rules, which the crown itself cannot now alter
but by act of parliament[z]. And, in order to maintain both the
dignity