160  THE    HISTORY   OF

X766  sneer,  "  they  had  released  the  judges  from  the  cares
and  perplexities  of  politicks,  and  given  them  opportu-
nity to  make  still  further  advances  in  the  knowledge
of  the  law  ;  they  had  left  other  gentlemen  more  at
leisure  to  discharge  the  duties  and  functions  of
their  important  offices  :  this,  surely,  was  not  to  de-
prive the  government  of  its  best  and  ablest  servants,
nor  could  it  be  called  the  oppugnation  of  any  thing,
but  of  a  dangerous  union  of  legislative  and  executive
powers  in  the  same  persons."

Mr.  Otis  was  supposed  to  have  a  principal  share
in  the  composition  of  this  answer.  The  fleer  at  the
judges  was  owing  to  the  disappointment  of  his  father,
who  had  practised  in  the  courts.  Most  of  the  judges
had  not.  They  had,  however,  for  many  ^^ears  ap*
plied  themselves  to  the  study  of  the  law,  and  had
given  general  satisfaction,  perhaps  as  much  as  those
who  had  been  at  the  bar.  The  danger  from  the
•  union  of  legislative  and  executive  power  was  a  mere
fallacy.
Where  the  whole  legislative  and  judicial  powers
are  united  in  the  same  person,  or  the  same  body  of
magistrates,  the  government  becomes  arbitrary.  In
a  mixed  government,  like  that  of  the  English,  judges
may  be,  and  are,  members  of  one  or  other  branch
of  the  legislature,  without  such  danger.  In  Massa-
chusetts Bay,  from  the  date  of  the  charter,  the  su-
perior judges  had,  with  very  few  exceptions,  been
elected  into  the  council,  and  this  objection  had  never
))een  started.
A  day  or  two  after  the  governor's  speech,  he  re
ceived  the  letter,  just  mentioned,  from  Mr.  Conway.
