An Essay on the Trial By Jury

must necessarily be a part of every system of government which is not desig

ther necessaries for the trial, preliminary to the trial itself. Consequently, no one could lose the benefit of a trial, for the want of means to defray expenses. But afte

as a matter of course, but only in those cases where the injustice of his ca

other service that could legally be required of them; and their attendance was paid for by the state. In other w

hose days, when the people at large could neither write nor read, few contracts were put in writing. The expedient adopted for proving contracts, was that of making them in the prese

t "justice and right" should not be "sold;" that is, that the kin

title him to the benefit of the courts free of all expense; (except the risk of

by jury, because a jury could not rightfully give judgment against any man, in either a civil

r of another, the injured party has a natural right, either to chastise the aggressor, or to take compensation for the injury out of his property. But as the government is an impartial party as between these individuals, it is more likely to do exactjustice between them than the injured individual himself would do. The government, also, having more power at its command, is likely to right a man's wrongs more peacefully than the injured party himself could do it. If, therefore, the government will do the work of enforcing a man's rights, and redressing his wrongs, promptly, and free of expense to him, he is under a moral obligation to lea

e as effectually shut against them, as though it were done by bolts and bars. Being forbidden to maintain their own rights by force, as, for instance, to compel the payment of debts, and being unable to pay t

e judge and jury for their services, that there is in compelli

t men's rights? On what principle does a man pay his taxes to the government, except on that of contributing his proportion towards the necessary cost of protecting the rights of all? Yet, when his own rights are actually inv

upport, on the condition of receiving protection in return. But the idea that any poor man would voluntarily pay taxes to build up a government, which wi

ely, for aught they themselves can know, to be deciding merely the comparative length of the parties' purses, rather than the intrinsic strength of their respective rights. Jurors ought to refuse to decide a cause at all

him unless he prove his innocence at his own charges, is so evident that a jury

; it would also promote simplicity and stability in the laws. The mania for legislation would be, in an importan

necessary to enable any malicious man to commence and prosecute a groundless suit, to the terror, injury, and perhaps ruin, of another man. In this way, a court of justice, into which none but a conscientious plaintiff certainly should ever be allowed to enter, becomes an arena into which any rich and revengeful oppressor may drag any man poorer than himself, and harass, terrify, and impoverish him, to almost any extent. It is a scandal and an outrage, that government should suffer itself to be made an instrument, in this way, for the gratification of private malice. We might nearly as well have no courts of justice, as to throw them open, as we do, for

any means, confined to the actual suits in which this kind of oppression is practised; but we are to include all t

e speaks of plaintiffs being liable, without saying whether defendants were so or not. What the rule really was I do not know. There would seem t

he manner in which their attendance was procured; but it was doubtless done at the expense eithe

im was supported, was called the fore-oath, or ' Praejuramentum,' and it was the foundation of his suit. One of the cases which did not require this initiatory c

ance is generally understood. As a mere matter of economy, too, it would be wise for the government to pay them, rather than they should not be employed; because they collect and arrange the testimony and the law beforehand, so as to be able to present the whole case to the court and jury intelligibly, and in a short space of time. Wh

etionary with the jury in each case to determine whether the counse