them has been thought worthy of particular regulation in various treaties between different powers of Europe, and that, pursuant to such treaties, they are determinable in Great Britain in the last resort before the King himself in his Privy Council, where the fact as well as the law undergoes a reëxamination. This alone demonstrates the impolicy of inserting a fundamental provision in the Constitution which would make the State systems a standard for the National Government in the Article under consideration, and the danger of encumbering the Government with any constitutional provisions, the propriety of which is not indisputable.
My convictions are equally strong, that great advantages result from the separation of the equity from the law jurisdiction; and that the causes which belong to the former, would be improperly committed to juries. The great and primary use of a Court of equity is to give relief in extraordinary cases, which are exceptions[1] to general rules. To unite the jurisdiction of such cases with the ordinary jurisdiction, must have a tendency to unsettle the general rules, and to subject every case that arises to a special determination; while a separation of the one from the other has the contrary effect of rendering one a sentinel over the other, and of keeping each within the expedient limits. Besides this, the circumstances that constitute cases proper for Courts of equity are in many instances so nice and intricate, that they are incompatible with the genius of trials by jury. They require often such long, deliberate and critical investigation, as would be impracticable to men called from their occupations, and obliged to decide before they were permitted to return to them. The simplicity and expedition which form the distinguishing characters of this
- ↑ It is true that the principles by which that relief is governed are now reduced to a regular system; but it is not the less true that they are in the main applicable to special circumstances, which form exceptions to general rules.—Publius.
