whoever prefixed was called nytfJtuv ctncciry%iy, or prefident 
of the court. Thefe nine prefuled in different caufes pe¬ 
culiar to each jurifdiftion. The archon, properly fo cal¬ 
led, had'belonging to his department all pupillary and he¬ 
ritable cafes ; the ffgstxttovs or rex facrorum, the chief prieft, 
all cafes where religion was concerned ; the polemarchus, 
cr general, the affairs of the army and all military matters ; 
and the fix thefmothetae, the other ordinary fuits. Wher¬ 
ever then the «)i^£s Siy.xrxi, or judicial men, are addrefled 
by the Greek orators in their fpeeches, they are not to be 
underflood to be the prefiding magistrates, but another 
clafs of men, who were to enquire into the flate of the caufe 
before them, by witnefl'es and other methods of coming 
at truth j and, after inquiry made and witneffes heard, to 
report their opinion and verdict to the prefident, who was 
to declare it. The feveral fleps and cireurrtftances attend¬ 
ing this judicial proceeding are fo fimilar to the forms ob- 
ferved by our jury, that the learned reader, forfuch I muft 
fuppofe him, cannot doubt but that the nature, intent, and 
proceedings, of the h-'.xs-ngiov among the Greeks were the 
fame with the Engli/h jury 5 namely, for the protection 
of the lower people from the power and oppreffion of the 
great, by pdminiftering equal law and juftice to all ranks ; 
and therefore, when the Greek orators directed their 
fpeeches to the oiy.ara 1, as we fee in Demofthenes, 
AJfchines, and Lyfias, we are to underftand it in the fame 
fenfe as when our lawyers at the bar fry, Gentlemen of the jury. 
“ So iikewife among the Romans, the judices, in their 
pleadings at the bar, never fignified judges of the bench, or 
prefidentsof the court, but a body or order of men, whofe 
office in the courts of judicature was diltinft from that of 
the praetor, or judex queJUonis, which anfwered to our judge 
of the bench, and was the fame with the archon, or riyiput 
$iy.xrngie, of the Greeks; whereas the duty of the judices 
confilted in being impannelled, as we call it, challenged, 
and fvvorn to.try uprightly the cafe before them ; and, when 
they had agreed upon their opinion or verdift, to deliver 
it to the prefident who was to pronounce it. This kind 
of judicial procefs was firlt introduced into the Athenian 
polity by Solon, and thence copied into the Roman repub¬ 
lic, as probable means of procuring juft judgment, and 
protecting the lower people from the oppreffion or arbi¬ 
trary decifions of their fuperiors. 
“ When the Romans were fettled in Britain as a pro¬ 
vince, they carried with them their jura and injlituta, their 
laws and cuftoras, which was a practice effential to all co¬ 
lonies ; hence the Britons, and other countries of Ger¬ 
many and Gaul, learned from them the Roman laws and 
cultoms ; and, upon the irruption of the northern nations 
into the fouthern kingdoms of Europe, the laws and in- 
ftitutions of the Romans remained, when the power that 
introduced them was withdrawn ; and Montefquieu tells 
us, that, under the firlt race of kings in France, about the 
fifth century, the Romans that remained, and the Bur¬ 
gundians their new mailers, lived together under the lame 
Roman laws and police, and particularly the fame forms 
of judicature. How reafonable then is it to conclude, 
that in the Roman courts of judicature, continued among 
the Burgundians, the form of a jury remained in the fame 
flate it was ufed at Rome. It is certain, that Montefquieu, 
fpeaking of th'ofe times, mentions the paires or hommesde fief, 
homagers or peers, which in the fame chapter he calls juges, 
judges or jurymen ; fo that we hence fee how at that time the 
hommes de fief, or “ men of the fief,” were called peers, and 
thofe peers were juges, or jurymen. Thefe were the fame 
as are called in the laws of the Confeflor pers de la tenure, 
the “ peers of the tenure, or homagers,” out of whom the 
jury of peers were chofen, to try a matter in difpute be¬ 
tween the lord and his tenant, or any other point of con- 
troverfy in the manor. So Iikewife in all other parts of 
Europe, where the Roman colonies hatTbeen, the Goths, 
fucceeding them, continued to make ufe of the fame laws 
and inftitutions which they found to be eftablilhed there 
by the firlt conquerors. This is a much more natural 
way of accounting for the origin of a jury in Europe, than 
having recourfe to the fabulous ltorv of Woden and his 
Vox. XI. No. 774. 
lavage Scythian companions, as the firft introducers of fo 
humane and beneficent an inftitution.” 
Trials by jury in civiL caufes are of two kinds ; extra¬ 
ordinary and ordinary. The firft fpecies of j extraordinary 
trial by jury is, that of the grand affife, which was inlii- 
tuted by king Henry VII. in parliament, by way of alter¬ 
native offered to the choice of the tenant or defendant in 
a writ of right, intlead of the barbarous and unchriltian 
cultom of duelling. For this purpofe a writ demagnd afi- 
Jifa eligendd is directed to the iheriff, to return four 
knights, who are to eleft and choofe twelve others to be 
joined with them, in the manner mentioned by Glanvilie, 
(1. 2. c. 11, 21;) who, having probably advifed the mea- 
fure himl'elf, is more than ulually copious in defcribing 
it; and thefe, all together, form the grand affife, or great 
jury, which is to try the matter of right, and mull now 
confift of iixteen jurors. F. A r . B. 4. Finch. L. 412. 1 Leon. 
303. It feeins not, however, to be afeertained that, any 
1’pecific number above twelve is abfolutely neceffary to 
conllitute the grand affife ; but it is the ufual courfe to 
fwear upon it the four knights, and twelve others. 
2 Wifi. 541. 
Another fpecies of extraordinary juries, is the jury to 
try an attaint-, which is a procefs commenced againft a 
former jury, for bringing in a falfe verdift. It is fuffici- 
eut here to obferve, that this jury is to conliff of twenty- 
four of the bell men in the county, who are called the 
Grand jury in the Attaint, to diftinguilh them from the 
firft or petit jury ; and thefe are to hear and try the good- 
nefs of the former verdift. See Attaint, vol. ii. p. 492. 
With regard to the ordinary trial by jury, it may be pre- 
mifed, that thefe juries are not only ufed in the circuits 
of the judges, but in other courts and matters ; as, if Si 
coroner inquire how a perfon killed came by his death, 
he doth it by jury ; and the judices of peace in their 
quarter-feffions, the Iheriff in his county-court, the flevvard 
of a court-leet or court-baron, &c. if they inquire of any 
offence, or decide any caufe between party and party, 
they do it in like manner. Lamb. Eiren. 384. 
When an iffue is joined, between the parties in a fuit, 
by thefe words, “ and this the faid A. prays may be in¬ 
quired of by the country,” or, “and of this he puts him- 
felf upon the country, and the faid B. does the like,” the 
court awards a writ of venire facias upon the roll or re¬ 
cord, commanding the Iheriff', “ that he caufe to come here, 
on fuch a day, twelve free and lawful men ( liberos ct le¬ 
gates homines ) of the body of his county, by whom the 
truth of the matter may be better known, and who are 
neither of kin to the aforefaid A. nor the aforefaid B. to 
recognife the truth of the iffue between the faid parties.” 
And fuch writ is accordingly ifl'ued to the Iheriff'. 
Thus the caufe Hands ready for a trial at the bar of the 
court itfelf; for all trials were there anciently had, in ac¬ 
tions which were there firft commenced ; which then never 
happened but in matters of weight and confequence ; all 
trifling fuits being ended in the court-baron, hundred, or 
county courts ; A and indeed all caufes of great importance 
or difficulty, are Hill frequently retained upon motion, to 
be tried at the bar in the fuperior courts. (See the arti¬ 
cle Trial.) But, when the ufage began to bring aftions 
of any trifling nature in the courts of Weilminfter-hall, 
it was found to be an intolerable burthen to compel the 
parties, witneffes, and jurors, to come from Weffmorland 
perhaps, or Cornwall, to try an aftion of afi'auk at Welt- 
minfter. A praftice, therefore, very early obtained, of 
continuing the caufe from term to term in the court above, 
provided the jultices in eyre did not previoufly come into 
the county where the caufe of aftion arofe ; and, if it ap¬ 
peared that they arrived there within that interval, then 
the caufe was removed from the jurifdiftion of the juftices 
at Weftminfter, to that of the juftices in eyre. BraEl. 1 . 3, 
tr. 1. c. 11. § 8. Afterwards, when the juftices in eyre 
were fuperfeded by the modern juftices of affife, (who 
came twice or thrice in the year into the feveral counties, 
ad capiendas ojjifias, to take or try writs of affife, &c.) a 
power was fuperadded by Hat. Weftin. 2, 13 Edw. I. c. 30, 
