ABSTRACT
The judicial power ought to be distinct from both the legislative and executive, and independent upon both, that so it may be a check upon both, as both should be checks upon that. There are inequalities which no human legislator ever can eradicate because they have a natural and inevitable influence in society. Governments are divided into despotisms, monarchies, and republics. A despotism is a government in which the three divisions of power, the legislative, executive, and judicial, are all vested in one man. The nobles have been essential parties in the preservation of liberty against kings and people. Blind, undistinguishing reproaches against the aristocratical part of mankind, a division which nature has made and people cannot abolish, are neither pious nor benevolent. Despotism, or unlimited sovereignty, or absolute power is the same in a majority of a popular assembly, an aristocratical council, an oligarchical junto, and a single emperor. Equally arbitrary, cruel, bloody, and in every respect diabolical.
