=Source.=--Bacon's _Essay of Judicature_.
Fourthly, for that which may concern the sovereign and estate. Judges
ought above all to remember the conclusion of the Twelve Tables,
"Salus populi suprema lex"; and to know that laws, except they be
in order to that end, are but things captious, and oracles not well
inspired. Therefore it is a happy thing in a state when kings and
states do often consult with judges; and again when judges do often
consult with the king and state; the one, when there is matter of
law intervement in business of state; the other, when there is
some consideration of state intervement in matter of law. For many
times the things deduced to judgment may be _meum_ and _tuum_, when
the reason and consequence thereof may trench to point of estate:
I call matter of estate, not only the parts of sovereignty, but
whatsoever introduceth any great alteration or dangerous precedent;
or concerneth manifestly any great portion of people. And let no man
weakly conceive that just laws and true policy have any antipathy;
for they are like the spirits and sinews, that one moves with the
other. Let judges also remember, that Solomon's throne was supported
by lions on both sides: let them be lions, but yet lions under the
throne; being circumspect that they do not check or oppose any points
of sovereignty. Let not judges also be so ignorant of their own
right, as to think there is not left to them, as a principal part
of their office, a wise use and application of laws. For they may
remember what the Apostle said of a greater law than theirs, "nos
scimus quia lex bona est, modo quis ea utatur legitime."