By  the  Act  of  Settlement  the  judges  are  irremovable,  except  by  an
address  from  both  Houses  of  Parliament  The  protection  is  perhaps
excessive,  but  long  experience  had  taught  the  statesmen  of  the
Eevolution  that  these  people  could  not  be  kept  decently  honest  un-
less they  had  a  freehold  given  them  in  their  offices.  In  our  day,
perhaps,  the  privilege  is  too  absolute,  and  well-proved  partisanship,
•stupidity,  or  ignorance,  recognized  to  the  satisfaction  of  either
house  and  affirmed,  might  be  conveniently  substituted  for  the  double
address.  But  notwithstanding  the  Act  of  Settlement,  it  was  law,
•up  to  the  accession  of  George  IDE.,  that  the  demise  of  the  Crown
vacated  the  patents  of  the  judges.
The  evidence  on  the  subject  referred  to  was  collected  at  the  very
end  of  the  seventeenth  century  with  great  fulness  and  superficial
moderation  by  Davenant,  in  his  discourse  on  grants  and  resump-
tions. Davenant  was  a  very  capable  pamphleteer  and  partisan  writer
in  a  time  when  a  pamphlet  could  iofiuence  a  policy,  certainly  sustain
it.  He  knew  well  enough  what  were  the  conditions  under  which
party  writing  alone  could  be  successful,  for  during  the  Eevolutionary
time,  and  for  a  long  time  afterwards,  the  pamphlet  was  the  most
serviceable  weapon  of  Uterary  warfare.  In  our  day,  the  opinions  of  a
pohtician  expressed  in  writing  are  more  ephemeral  than  his  speeches.
