THE CHANCELLOR'S CASE. 655

tain qualifications, arising out of the constitutional provisions
affecting the two first points.

The Declaration of Rights directs, that a salary shall be secured
to the chancellor. A salary is a specified annual sum of money.
The constitution is silent as to the amount of the sum thus directed
to be secured; hence, the ascertaining and fixing that amount, neces-
sarily, and is expressly devolved upon the legislature. It belongs,
exclusively to the General Assembly to say what shall be the
amount of the salary. But, along with this discretionary power,
as to the amount, the Declaration of Rights has imposed an obli-
gation, not only to give a salary, but to secure it. The manifest
and necessary consequence of its being secured, is, that the
amount, once specified, may be increased, but cannot be dimin-
ished. A salary, being a particular amount or sum of money, to be
secured, must be so in every part and for the whole :—It must be
preserved entire, without the least subtraction or diminution;
otherwise, it cannot, in any sense, be said to be secured. But, a
salary may be increased indefinitely; because no addition can, in
any way, impair the security of any amount which had been pre-
viously given. Let us illustrate this by example.

The legislature, in 1785, secured to the chancellor a salary of
sia: hundred and jifty pounds, and, in 1792, they increased his
salary to nine hundred and fifty pounds, which they, in like
manner, secured to him. Now, it is obvious, that the addition
of the three hundred pounds necessarily left the security of the
six hundred and fifty pounds, which had been previously given,
wholly unimpaired; that salary was still, in every sense, secure ;
since it is certain, that the greater always includes the less.
But suppose the salary given, in 1785, had been nine hundred
and fifty pounds; and, in 1792, it had been reduced to six hun-
dred and fifty; it is manifest, that such a reduction would have
been a violation of the security of the salary of nine hundred and
fifty pounds. Hence it is clear, that the legislature are under a
constitutional obligation to give a salary; that it is perfectly dis-
cretionary with them to determine, in the first instance; or,
while the judicial office is vacant; or, when it shall become so ;
what shall be the amount of the salary; and, that when they
have determined the amount, they cannot render it insecure by
withholding it altogether, or in any manner diminishing its
value. The legislative discretion over the amount of the chan-
cellor's salary is, thus, partially restricted and controlled. The