fety of individuals. By these
inquisitors the trial was prepared and directed; but they could only
pronounce the sentence of the majority of judges, who with some truth,
and more prejudice, have been compared to the English juries. [202] To
discharge this important, though burdensome office, an annual list of
ancient and respectable citizens was formed by the praetor. After many
constitutional struggles, they were chosen in equal numbers from the
senate, the equestrian order, and the people; four hundred and fifty
were appointed for single questions; and the various rolls or decuries
of judges must have contained the names of some thousand Romans, who
represented the judicial authority of the state. In each particular
cause, a sufficient number was drawn from the urn; their integrity was
guarded by an oath; the mode of ballot secured their independence; the
suspicion of partiality was removed by the mutual challenges of the
accuser and defendant; and the judges of Milo, by the retrenchment of
fifteen on each side, were reduced to fifty-one voices or tablets, of
acquittal, of condemnation, or of favorable doubt. [203] 3. In his civil
jurisdiction, the praetor of the city was truly a judge, and almost
a legislator; but, as soon as he had prescribed the action of law, he
often referred to a delegate the determination of the fact. With the
increase of legal proceedings, the tribunal of the centumvirs, in which
he presided, acquired more weight and reputation. But whether he acted
alone, or with the advice of his council, the most absolute powers might
be trusted to a magistrate who was annually chosen by the votes of
the people. The rules and precautions of freedom have required some
explanation; the order of despotism is simple and inanimate. Before the
age of Justinian, or perhaps of Diocletian, the decuries of Roman judges
had sunk to an empty title: the humble advice of the assessors might
be accepted or despised; and in each tribunal the civil and criminal
jurisdiction was administered by a single magistrate, who was raised
and disgraced by the will of the emperor. [Footnote 201: The important
subject of the public questions and judgments at Rome, is explained with
much learning, and in a classic style, by Charles Sigonius, (l. iii. de
Judiciis, in Opp. tom. iii. p. 679--864;) and a good abridgment may be
found in the Republique Romaine of Beaufort, (tom. ii. l. v. p. 1--121.)
Those who wish for more abstruse law may stu