- In the first, it must
be observed that, according to the new constitution, the higher
parts of judicature, in either of its lines, are not in the king.
The king of France is not the fountain of justice. The judges, neither
the original nor the appellate, are of his nomination. He neither
proposes the candidates, nor has a negative on the choice. He is not
even the public prosecutor. He serves only as a notary to authenticate
the choice made of the judges in the several districts. By his
officers he is to execute their sentence. When we look into the true
nature of his authority, he appears to be nothing more than a chief of
bum bailiffs, sergeants at mace, catchpoles, jailers, and hangmen.
It is impossible to place anything called royalty in a more
degrading point of view. A thousand times better had it been for the
dignity of this unhappy prince that he had nothing at all to do with
the administration of justice, deprived as he is of all that is
venerable and all that is consolatory in that function, without
power of originating any process, without a power of suspension,
mitigation, or pardon. Everything in justice that is vile and odious
is thrown upon him. It was not for nothing that the Assembly has
been at such pains to remove the stigma from certain offices when they
are resolved to place the person who had lately been their king in a
situation but one degree above the executioner, and in an office
nearly of the same quality.
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