istence and extent of the authority of an official in his action against individuals are triable, at least at the pleasure of the executive, only in administrative tribunals, that is, courts pertaining to the executive department and instituted to assist that department in the performance of its functions. The aggrieved individual can only apply to the superiors of the official complained of. Such tribunals naturally incline to uphold the authority claimed, and indeed can lawfully allow the plea that the act complained of was ordered in pursuance of some executive policy. A recent instance is that unhappy affair at Zabern in Alsace where an army officer in time of peace wantonly struck and wounded a peaceful crippled citizen with his sabre. The victim could only appeal to the officer's military superiors, who acquitted the offender on the ground that the dignity of the military must be protected. In the United Kingdom, while at present, as for cenuries, the individual can appeal to the judicial courts against officials acting under any execu tive or legislative orders, Parliament, and even a majority of the House of Commons, can at any time deprive him of that right. In this country the executive and legislative departments combined have no such power. So long as our present system is maintained, questions between government officials and individuals must remain cognizable by the judicial courts where the private citizen is on a par with the highest official, and the single individual is on a par with the government itself. In contrast to the Zabern affair we may note that the striking copper miners of Michigan were not obliged to apply to higher military officials for redress of wrongs claimed to have been inflicted upon them by the military. They were free to apply, and did apply, to tribunals outside of and independent of the executive. They and such as they should be the most unwilling to degrade the courts or lessen their power. A similar instance is that of the striking miners in Colorado who so loudly complained of the acts of the militia. They were not obliged to appeal to military or executive officers for redress. The Judicial Courts were as open to them as to any others and there they would be upon an equality with the officials. CHAPTER VIII AN INDEPENDENT AND IMPARTIAL OR the judiciary to be in fact, as well as in theory, the protector of the constitutional rights of the individual against the government, and of the legal rights of the individual against the aggressions of others, it should be made so far as possible free, impartial and independent. The judges should have such security of tenure, and such security and liberality of maintenance, that they will have no occasion nor disposition to court the favor, or fear the disfavor, of any individual or class however powerful or numerous, not even the government itself. They should be made free to consider only what is the truth as to the existing law or fact in question, uninfluenced by any suggestions of what is demanded by prince, people, or individual, or by any suggestion of consequent good or evil to themselves. This proposition to my mind is so self-evident that quotations from eminent philosophers cannot strengthen it. The necessity of some independent tribunal between the governors and the governed was recognized in republican Rome, where it was provided that the persons of the tribunes should be inviolate, an immunity not granted to any other officials. The medieval cities of Italy frequently selected their judges from some other city that they might be free from any connection with different local factions or interests. When, however, the empire supplanted the republic in Rome, and the free cities of Italy were made subject to despotic domination, the independence of these tribunals was lost. History shows that those possessing the governmental power have always been unwilling to maintain an independent judiciary. The only countries today possessing a judiciary with any considerable degree of independence are the United Kingdom |