34 On the Laws relating 



just mode so frec|Hcnlly complained of 

 as to tlie iioiiiinitlioii and appointment 

 of (hose juries in jijeneral, and espe- 

 cially in crown prosecutions, but also 

 on account of the great facility whicli 

 tliey aHord 1o dislionest men to retard 

 tlie administration of justice, and pre- 

 vent the redress of injuries. Nume- 

 rous inslances have recently come 

 under my observation, in which a de- 

 fendant has applied for, and of course 

 obtained, an order of court, that iho 

 action wiiicii lie defends, or rather 

 pretends to defend, shall be tried be- 

 fore a special jury; vvhil« the object 

 of making that application could only 

 be to protract the period of tlie suit, 

 and, consequently, to postpone the pay- 

 ment of his debt. This is a lamentable 

 fact, and incontrovcrtibly proves the 

 necessity of amending a law that 

 sanctions such a scandalous practice, 

 and is productive of such bauetiii 

 etitcts, as usually attend it. Undoubt- 

 edly, many actions occur wherein, un- 

 der the peculiar and special circum- 

 stances attending them, it becomes 

 ex])edient to obtain the decision of a 

 special jury ; but certainly some limits 

 ought to be prescribed for cases of 

 this description. 'J he [iractice coi«- 

 stantly adopted by unprincipled de- 

 fendants, of procuring the trial of the 

 p:dtry and indefensible suits, in which 

 they are involved, to be deferred, by 

 the contrivance which I have noticed, 

 for six, and frequently twelve or more, 

 months, beyond the time at which they 

 would have been decided by a com- 

 mon jury, cannot be denied, by the 

 most rigid adhereut to legal subtleties, 

 to be extremely pernicious and wicked; 

 and therefore it will neither be denied 

 that, upon this accKjnnt, if no other 

 reason reijuired it, a reformation is 

 extremely requisite in this branch of 

 legal practice: and, when it is consi- 

 dered how easily the evil which I have 

 described might be remedied, it cannot 

 but excite, in the minds of upright 

 men, astonishment and indignation 

 that so notorious an abuse should hi- 

 therto have escaped correction. 



'J'he general application of special 

 juries to all cases was unknown in 

 this couutry till within tl>e last cen- 

 tury, lormerly they were not per- 

 mitted except in trials at bar, a spe- 

 cies of trial to this day only resorted 

 to in matters of extreme importance; 

 and, even in those solemn trials, special 

 juries were not allowed, except upon 

 motion actually made before the court, 



to Special Juries. [Feb. r, 



supported by affidavit of the fact* 

 stated upon the motion, showing that 

 the case was of that extraordinary na- 

 ture which rendered it proper to be 

 discussed before, and decided by, men 

 of more than ordinary legal knowledge- 

 and technical learning: upon which 

 the court usually granted an order. 

 Indeed a common jury «as, till mo- 

 dern times, considered so com|)etent 

 to settle the simple dillerences and 

 disputes ))ctween one tradesman ancV 

 another, that it would have been con- 

 sidered a contempt of court to apply 

 fi>r a special jury in a matter that 

 mi<;ht be as readily adjusted by a jury 

 of connnon tradesmen as by one com 

 posed of merchants. However it was 

 discovered, about the commencement; 

 of the reign of George the Secoiid> 

 that, unhappily, the common petjple 

 liad degenerated into a stale of suciv 

 utter ignorance and unaccountable- 

 stupidity, or at least such was the 

 opinion of their more learned supe- 

 riors in Parliament, that it was deemed 

 expedient, for the ends of justice, to> 

 give the subject liberty of having a 

 special jury in all cases whatever^, 

 which, as 1 have already observetl, 

 previously to that period was only 

 granted under certain circumstances ; 

 and the judges were accordingly em- 

 powered, by an act passed in the third 

 year of the above-mentioned reign, to 

 order a special jury to be summoned 

 in any action or suit depending in the- 

 Court of King's Jjcnch, Commou 

 Pleas, or Excliequer, upon motion by 

 either party for that purpose ; whici*. 

 motion has since grown into one of 

 the greatest mockeries that can be 

 imagined, for it is never really made 

 in court, but an order is obtained by 

 the simple-process of handing a trifling 

 fee to counsel, who signs a slip of pa- 

 per denominated amotion-pajier ; and,, 

 this being presented at the proper 

 office, an order of court for a special 

 jury is, as a matter of course, granted 

 upon payment of a small demand. 

 Thus easily is a eralty defendant ena- 

 bled to delay, to an in<lefinite period,, 

 the trial of an action against which not 

 a tittle of defence exists. I 



It is well known that this manoeuvre ! 

 is constantly resorted to, and that fre- j 

 quently the knave who avails himself i 

 of it, in the interim betvteen issue and I 

 trial, manages to provide himself with | 

 some friend, who makes him a bank- I 

 rupt, or confines him in prison for a i 

 short season, tiiat be may take the be- 



nelit- I 



