the court. By this means are
procured the best juries this country can afford; for if they should be
summoned by writ of venire, from any particular county, that county
cannot afford so many qualified persons as are here to be found, because
of the great resort of gentlemen from all parts of the colony to these
courts, as well to see fashions, as to dispatch their particular
business. Nor is vicinage necessary there, to distinguish the several
customs of particular places, the whole country being as one
neighborhood, and having the same tenures of land, usages and customs.

The grand juries are empanneled much after the same manner; but because
they require a greater number of men, and the court is always desirous
to have some from all parts of the country, they give their sheriff
order a day or two before, to provide this pannel.

Sec. 28. In criminal matters this method is a little altered; because a
knowledge of the life, and conversation of the party, may give light to
the jury in their verdict. For this reason a writ of venire issues in
such cases, to summon six of the nearest neighbors to the criminal, who
must be of the same county wherein he lived; which writ of venire is
returned by the sheriff of the respective county, to the secretary's
office, and the names are taken from thence, by the sheriff attending
the general court, and put in the front of the pannel, which is filled
up with the names of the other gentlemen summoned in the town, to be of
the petty jury for the trial of that criminal. If the prisoner have a
mind to challenge the jurors, the same liberty is allowed him there as
in England; and if the pannel fall short, by reason of such challenge,
it must then be made up of the bystanders.

Sec. 29. All actions in that country are generally brought to a
determination the third court, unless some special, extraordinary reason
be shown why the party can't make his defence so soon. The course is
thus: upon the defendant's nonappearance, order goes against the bail,
(for a capias is generally their first process,) on condition, that
unless the defendant appear, and plead at the next court, judgment shall
then be awarded for the plaintiff. When the defendant comes to the next
court he is held to plead. Thus, by common course, a year and a half
ends a cause in the general court, and three or four months in the
county court. If any one appeal from the judgment of the county court,
the trial always comes on