A GLANCE AT THE JURY SYSTEM. 297 



criminal matters at all — the decision in which was never termed judi- 

 cium, but veridictum. So that the most that can with safety be as- 

 serted of these two famous words is this, that out of them was evolved 

 the great j)rinciple which in after-years was to stand in the breach in 

 many a bitter struggle between law and force, and to play so impor- 

 tant a part in the history of civilization. 



And indeed that is the light in which the whole of this great act 

 is to be regarded. It is all of a piece with the judicium ^^cci'ium and 

 habeas corpus clause, the assertion of the supremacy of law in all 

 ranks and orders of society. Laws had existed before the time of 

 John, but they were but additional instruments in the hands of the 

 strong to oppress the weak. Under the Saxon kings the laws were 

 neither understood nor regarded. Every man was a law unto himself, 

 and the result was anarchy and barbarism. 



Under the Norman kings law was recognized and partially under- 

 stood, but it was enforced only against those least powerful to violate 

 it. Each Norman king in turn granted and confirmed the laws to the 

 people, but himself outraged every law, both human and divine. The 

 feudal lords right nobly imitated their example ; and, so great grew 

 their exactions that, like the Hebrews of old, the people cried aloud 

 for a deliverer. The deliverer came in the person of a king more sen- 

 sual, more vile, and more tyrannical than any who had preceded him ; 

 a king who ground the faces of the rich as well as of the poor ; who 

 outraged the noble as well as the base-born ; who oppressed the strong 

 as well as the weak. And the rich and the noble and the strong stood 

 up ; the barons turned against the king, and the king against the 

 barons, and out of the contest arose the supremacy of the law. Law 

 became the sole arbiter of right and wrong among all classes, and 

 force and violence and the savage instincts of man became subject 

 thereto. 



For upward of five centuries the principles of Magna Charta have 

 governed the Anglo-Saxon world, and among them the principle of 

 trial by jury has held its place. The tyranny of absolute monarchy 

 is gone, and the brutality of the barons has long since passed away, 

 but the jury system remains. Since the days of William III, when 

 the supremacy of the law was finally vindicated, and the judges were 

 made independent of the crown, trial by jury has been little more than 

 a form ; yet English-speaking people everywhere cling to it as a lately 

 bereaved wife clings to the form of him who through many long years 

 has been her shield and protector. 



In this age all men are peei'S and equals in the eyes of the law, yet 

 a jury of twelve, with all its ancient crudities, and all its modern anom- 

 alies, is still considered essential to a fair and impartial trial. 



Time was when the jury were judges of the law as well as the fact. 

 To-day they are in fact judges of neither. They are but the echo of 

 the court, and their principal office is to relieve the court of the respon- 



