steward in the court-baron, are
only presiding officers, _with no judicial authority_."--_Political
Dictionary_, word _Suit_.

"COURT, (curtis, curia aula); the space enclosed by the walls of a
feudal residence, in which the followers of a lord used to assemble
in the middle ages, to administer justice, and decide respecting
affairs of common interest, &c. It was next used for those who stood
in immediate connexion with the lord and master, the _pares curiae_,
(peers of the court,) the limited portion of the general assembly, to
which was entrusted the pronouncing of judgment," &c.--_Encyclopedia
Americana_, word _Court_.

"In court-barons or county courts _the steward was not judge, but the
pares_ (_peers_, _jurors_); nor was the speaker in the House of Lords
judge, but the barons only."--_Gilbert on the Court of Exchequer_,
ch. 3, p. 42.

Crabbe, speaking of the Saxon times, says:

"The sheriff presided at the _hundred court_, * * and sometimes sat
in the place of the alderman (earl) in the _county
court_."--_Crabbe_, 23.

The sheriff afterwards became the sole presiding officer of the county
court.

Sir Thomas Smith, Secretary of State to Queen Elizabeth, writing more
than three hundred years after Magna Carta, in describing the difference
between the Civil Law and the English Law, says:

"_Judex_ is of us called Judge, but our fashion is so divers, that
they which give the deadly stroke, and either condemn or acquit the
man for guilty or not guilty, _are not called judges, but the twelve
men. And the same order as well in civil matters and pecuniary, as in
matters criminal_."--_Smith's Commonwealth of England_, ch. 9, p. 53,
Edition of 1621.

_Court-Leet._ "That the _leet_ is the most ancient court in the land
for _criminal_ matters, (the court-baron being of no less antiquity
in _civil_,) has been pronounced by the highest legal authority. * *
Lord Mansfield states that this court was coeval with the
establishment of the Saxons here, and its activity marked very
visibly both among the Saxons and Danes. * * The leet is a court of
record for the cognizance of criminal matters, or pleas of the crown;
and necessarily belongs to the king; though a subject, usually the
lord of the manor, may be, and is, entitled to the profits,
consisting of the essoign pence, fines, and amerciaments.

"_It is held before th