long as they
deserve it, so they should be checked severely when they are found
wanting to the obligations of their birth; and I have no hesitation in
advising that those who have so degenerated from the virtues of their
fathers as to avoid the service of the crown with their swords and with
their lives, deserve to be degraded from their hereditary honours and
advantages, and should be reduced to take part in bearing the burdens of
the people.

_Of the Disorders of Justice_

It is much easier to recognise the defects of justice than to prescribe
the remedy. Certain it is that they have arrived at such a point that
they could hardly be graver; yet I know that it is your majesty's desire
that the administration of justice should be as pure as the
imperfections and corruptions of mankind will permit.

In the opinion of the great majority of the people, the sovereign remedy
consists in suppressing venality, in doing away with the hereditary
principle in judicial offices, and in giving their positions
gratuitously to men of such well-known probity and capacity that not
even envy itself can contest their merit. But as it would be difficult
to follow this counsel at any time, and is quite impossible to follow it
here and now, it is useless to propose means calculated to secure that
end.

Although it is always dangerous to hold a view which others do not
share, I must boldly say that in my opinion, in the present state of
affairs and in any that one can foresee, it is better to suffer venality
and hereditary offices to continue than to change, from top to bottom,
your majesty's judicial establishment. The present abuses are great; but
I believe that a system under which the offices of justice should be
appointed by nomination by the king would lead to even greater abuses.
The distribution of these important charges would, in effect, depend on
the favour and intrigue of the courtiers who might at the time have most
power with the king, or on whose reports he must base his nominations.

Certainly venality and heredity in this matter are evils, but they are
evils of long standing. We have only to look back to the reigns of St.
Louis, when offices were already paid for, and of the great Francis, who
erected the principle into a regular traffic, to see that so inveterate
a custom is not easily to be eradicated. Our aim should be to turn the
minds of men gently and continuously to better ways, and not to pass
suddenly from