George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 4, 15th edition.

It had been already decided that every American judge should hold his appointment at the royal pleasure. Hardy, governor of New Jersey, having violated his instructions, by issuing a commission during good behavior, was promptly dismissed; and at a time when the new-modelling of the charter governments was contemplated, William Franklin, the only son of the great adversary of the proprietaries of Pennsylvania, to ‘the extreme astonishment and rage’ of the younger Penn, at the suggestion of Bute, became his successor.

When New York refused to vote salaries to its chief justice, unless he should receive an independent commission, the Board of Trade, in June, 1762,¹ recommended that he should have his salary from the royal quitrents. ‘Such a salary,’ it was pleaded to the Board by the chief justice himself, ‘could not fail to render the office of great service to his Majesty, in securing the dependence of the colony on the crown, and its commerce to Great Britain.’² It was further hinted, that it would insure judgments in favor of the crown against all intrusions upon the royal domain by the great landed proprietors of New York, and balance their power and influence in the Assembly. The appeal was irresistible, and, by the direction of Bute and his colleagues, all of whom favored American taxation by act of parliament, the measure was adopted. Thus was consummated the system of subjecting the halls of justice to the prerogative. The king, in the royal provinces, instituted courts,