An Essay On The Trial By Jury - Lysander Spooner (epub e ink reader .TXT) 📗
- Author: Lysander Spooner
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The Neighboring Earls Held Not Their Courts On The Same Day; And,
What Seems Very Singular, No Judge Was Allowed, After Meals, To
Exercise His Office.
"The Druids Also, Or Priests, In Germany, As We Had Formerly
Occasion To Remark, And The Clergy In England, Exercised A
Jurisdiction In The Hundred And County Courts. They Instructed
The People In Religious Duties, And In Matters Regarding The
Priesthood; And The Princes, Earls, Or Eorldormen, Related To
Them The Laws And Customs Of The Community. These Judges Were
Mutually A Check To Each Other; But It Was Expected That They
Should Agree In Their Judgments, And Should Willingly Unite Their
Efforts For The Public Interest. [22]
"The Meeting (The County Court) Was Opened With A Discourse By
The Bishop, Explaining, Out Of The Scriptures And Ecclesiastical
Canons, Their Several Duties As Good Christians And Members Of
The Church. After This, The Alderman, Or One Of His Assessors,
Made A Discourse On The Laws Of The Land, And The Duties Of Good
Subjects And Good Citizens. When These Preliminaries Were Over,
They Proceede To Try And Determine, First The Causes Of The
Church, Next The Pleas Of The Crown, And Last Of All The
Controversies Of Private Parties." 8 Henry's History Of Great
Britain, 348.
This View Is Corroborated By Tyrrell's Introduction To The
History Of England; P. 83-84, And By Spence's Origin Of The Laws
And Political Institutions Of Modern Europe, P. 447, And The Note
On The Same Page. Also By A Law Of Canute To This Effect, In
Every County Let There Be Twice A Year An Assembly, Whereat The
Bishop And The Earl Shall Be Present, The One To Instruct The
People In Divine, The Other In Human, Laws. Wilkins, P. 136.
"But The Prince Or Earl Performed Not, At All Times, In Person,
The Obligations Of His Office. The Enjoyment Of Ease And Of
Pleasure, To Which In Germany He Had Delivered Himself Over,
When Disengaged From War, And The Mean Idea He Conceived
Of The Drudgery Of Civil Affairs, Made Him Often Delegate To An
Inferior Person The Distribution Of Justice In His District. The
Same Sentiments Were Experienced By The Saxon Nobility;
And The Service Which They Owed By Their Tenures, And The High
Employments They Sustained, Called Them Often From The
Management Of Their Counties. The Progress, Too, Of Commerce,
Giving An Intricacy To Cases, And Swelling The Civil Code, Added
To The Difficulty Of Their Office, And Made Them Averse To Its Duties.
Sheriffs, Therefore, Or Deputies, Were Frequently Appointed To
Transact Their Business; And Though These Were At First Under
Some Subordination To The Earls, They Grew At Length To Be
Entirely Independent Of Them. The Connection Of Jurisdiction And
Territory Ceasing To Prevail, And The Civil Being Separated From
The Ecclesiastical Power, They Became The Sole And Proper
Officers For The Direction Of Justice In The Counties.
"The Hundred, However, And County Courts Were Not Equal Of
Themselves For The Purposes Of Jurisdiction And Order. It Was
Necessary That A Court Should Be Erected, Of Supreme Authority,
Where The Disputes Of The Great Should Be Decided, Where The
Disagreeing Sentiments Of Judges Should Be Reconciled, And Where
Protection Should Be Given To The People Against Their Fraud And
Injustice.
"The Princes Accordingly, Or Chief Nobility, In The German
Communities, Assembled Together To Judge Of Such Matters. The
Saxon Nobles Continued This Prerogative; And The King, Or, In His
Absence, The Chief Justiciary, Watched Over Their Deliberations.
But It Was Not On Every Trivial Occasion That This Court
Interested Itself. In Smaller Concerns, Justice Was Refused
During Three Sessions Of The Hundred, And Claimed Without Effect,
At Four Courts Of The County, Before There Could Lie An Appeal To
It.
"So Gradually Were These Arrangements Established, And So
Naturally Did The Varying Circumstances In The Situation Of The
Germans And Anglo-Saxons Direct Those Successive Improvements
Which The Preservation Of Order, And The Advantage Of Society,
Called Them To Adopt. The Admission Of The People Into The Courts
Of Justice Preserved, Among The Former, That Equality Of Ranks
For Which They Were Remarkable; And It Helped To Overturn, Among
The Latter, Those Envious Distinctions Which The Feudal System
Tended To Introduce, And Prevented That Venality In Judges, And
Those Arbitrary Proceedings, Which The Growing Attachment To
Interest, And The Influence Of The Crown, Might Otherwise Have
Occasioned." Stuart On The Constitution Of England, P. 222 To
245.
"In The Anglo-Saxon Period, Accordingly, Twelve Only Were
Elected; And These, Together With The Judge, Or Presiding Officer
Of The District, Being Sworn To Regard Justice, And The Voice Of
Reason, Or Conscience, All Causes Were Submitted To Them."
Ditto, P. 260.
"Before The Orders Of Men Were Very Nicely Disinguished, The
Jurors Were Elected From The Same Rank. When, However, A Regular
Subordination Of Orders Was Established, And When A Knowledge Of
Property Had Inspired The Necessitous With Envy, And The Rich
With Contempt, Every Man Was Tried By His Equals. The Same Spirit
Of Liberty Which Gave Rise To This Regulation Attended Its Progress.
Nor Could Monarchs Assume A More Arbitrary Method Of Proceeding.
'I Will Not' (Said The Earl Of Cornwall To His Sovereign) 'Render Up
My Castles, Nor Depart The Kingdom, But By Judgment Of My
Peers.' Of This Institution, So Wisely Calculated For The Preservation
Of Liberty, All Our, Historians Have Pronounced The Eulogium." --
Ditto, P. 262-3.
Blackstone Says:
"The Policy Of Our Ancient Constitution, As Regulated And
Chapter 3 (Additional Proofs Of The Rights And Duties Of Jurors) Section 5 Pg 93Established By The Great Alfred, Was To Bring Justice Home To
Every Man's Door, By Constituting As Many Courts Of Judicature
As There Are Manors And Towns In The Kingdom; Wherein Injuries
Were Redressed In An Easy And Expeditious Manner, By The
Suffrage Of Neighbors And Friends. These Little Courts, However,
Communicated With Others Of A Larger Jurisdiction, And Those
With Others Of A Still Greater Power; Ascending Gradually From
The Lowest To The Supreme Courts, Which Were Respectively
Constituted To Correct The Errors Of The Inferior Ones, And To
Determine Such Causes As, By Reason Of Their Weight And
Difficulty, Demanded A More Solemn Discussion. The Course
Of Justice Flowing In Large Streams From The King, As The
Fountain, To His Superior Courts Of Record; And Being Then
Subdivided Into Smaller Channels, Till The Whole And Every Part
Of The Kingdom Were Plentifully Watered And Refreshed. An
Institution That Seems Highly Agreeable To The Dictates Of
Natural Reason, As Well As Of More Enlightened Policy.
"These Inferior Courts, At Least The Name And Form Of Them, Still
Cntinue In Our Legal Constitution; But As The Superior Courts Of
Record Have, In Practice, Obtained A Concurrent Original
Jurisdiction, And As There Is, Besides, A Power Of Removing
Plaints Or Actions Thither From All The Inferior Jurisdictions;
Upon These Accounts (Among Others) It Has Happened That These
Petty Tribunals Have Fallen Into Decay, And Almost Into Oblivion;
Whether For The Better Or The Worse May Be Matter Of Some
Speculation, When We Consider, On The One Hand, The Increase Of
Expense And Delay, And, On The Other, The More Able And Impartial
Decisions That Follow From This Change Of Jurisdiction.
"The Order I Shall Observe In Discoursing On These Several
Courts, Constituted For The Redress Of Civil Injuries, (For With
Those Of A Jurisdiction Merely Criminal I Shall Not At Present
Concern Myself, [23]) Will Be By Beginning With The Lowest, And
Those Whose Jurisdiction, Though Public And Generally Dispersed
Through The Kingdom, Is Yet (With Regard To Each Particular
Court) Confined To Very Narrow Limits; And So Ascending Gradually
To Those Of The Most Extensive And Transcendent Power." -- 3
Blackstone, 30 To 32.
"The Court-Baron Is A Court Incident To Every Manor In The
Kingdom, To Beholden By The Steward Within The Said Manor. This
Court-Baron Is Of Two Natures; The One Is A Customary Court, Of
Which We Formerly Spoke, Appertaining Entirely To The
Copy-Holders, In Which Their Estates Are Transferred By Surrender
And Admittance, And Other Matters Transacted Relative To Their
Tenures Only. The Other, Of Which We Now Speak, Is A Court Of
Common Law, And It Is A Court Of The Barons, By Which Name The
Freeholders Were Sometimes Anciently Called; For That It Is Held
By The Freeholders Who Owe Suit And Service To Th Manor, The
Steward Being Rather The Registrar Than The Judge. These Courts,
Though In Their Nature Distinct, Are Frequently Confounded
Together. The Court We Are Now Considering, Viz., The Freeholders
Court, Was Composed Of The Lord's Tenants, Who Were The Pares
Chapter 3 (Additional Proofs Of The Rights And Duties Of Jurors) Section 5 Pg 94(Equals) Of Each Other, And Were Bound By Their Feudal Tenure To
Assist Their Lord In The Dispensation Of Domestic Justice. This
Was Formerly Held Every Three Weeks; And Its Most Important
Business Is To Determine, By Writ Of Right, All Controversies
Relating To The Right Of Lands Within The Manor. It May Also Hold
Plea Of Any Personal Actions, Of Debt, Trespass In The Case, Or
The Like, Where The Debt Or Damages Do Not Amount To Forty
Shillings; Which Is The Same Sum, Or Three Marks, That Bounded
The Jurisdiction Of The Ancient Gothic Courts In Their Lowest
Instance, Or Fierding Courts, So Called Because Four Were
Institute Within Every Superior District Or Hundred." 8
Blackstone, 38, 34.
"A Hundred Court Is Only A Larger Court-Baron, Being Held For All
The Inhabitants Of A Particular Hundred, Instead Of A Manor. The
Free Suitors Are Here Also The Judges, And The Steward The
Registrar, As In The Case Of A Court-Baron. It Is Likewise No
Court Of Record, Resembling The Former At All Points, Except That
In Point Of Territory It Is Of Greater Jurisdiction. This Is Said
By Sir Edward Coke To Have Been Derived Out Of The County Court
For The Ease Of The People, That They Might Have Justice Done To
Them At Their Own Doors, Without Any Charge Or Loss Of Time; But
Its Institution Was Probably Coeval With That Of Hundreds
Themselves, Which Were Formerly Observed To Have Been
Introduced, Though Not Invented, By Alfred, Being Derived From
The Polity Of The Ancient Germans. The Centeni, We May Remember,
Were The Principal Inhabitants Of A District Composed Of Different
Villages, Oriinally In Number A Hundred, But Afterward Only Called
By That Name, And Who Probably Gave The Same Denomination
To The District Out Of Which They Were Chosen. Caesar Speaks
Positively Of The Judicial Power Exercised In Their Hundred
Courts And Courts-Baron. 'Princeps Regiorum Atque Pagorum' (Which
We May Fairly Construe The Lords Of Hundreds And Manors) 'Inter
Suos Jus Dicunt, Controversias Que Minuunt.' (The Chiefs Of The
Country And The Villages Declare The Law Among Them, And Abate
Controversies.) And Tacitus, Who Had Examined Their Constitution
Still More Attentively, Informs Us Not Only Of The Authority Of
The Lords, But That Of The Centeni, The Hundreders, Or Jury, Who
Were Taken Out Of The Common Freeholders, And Had Themselves A
Share In The Determination. ' Eliguntur In Conciliis Et
Principes, Qui Jura Per Pagos Vicosque Reddunt, Centenii
Singulis, Ex Plebe Comites Comcilium Simul Et Auctoritas Adsunt.
(The Princes Are Chosen In The Assemblies, Who Administer The
Laws Throughout The Towns And Villages, And With Each One Are
Associated An Hundred Companions, Taken From The People, For
Purposes Both Of Counsel And Authority.) This Hundred Court Was
Denominated Haereda In The Gothic Constitution. But This Court,
As Causes Are Equally Liable To Removal From Hence As
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