ch
diligently to find out all treasons, &c., within their charge, and
they must and ought to use their own discretion in the way and manner
of their inquiry. _No directions can legally be imposed upon them by
any court or judges_; an honest jury will thankfully accept good
advice from judges, as their assistants; but they are bound by their
oaths to present the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the
truth, to the best of their own, not the judge's, knowledge. Neither
can they, without breach of that oath, resign their consciences, or
blindly submit to the dictates of others; and therefore ought to
receive or reject such advices, as they judge them good or bad. * *
Nothing can be more plain and express than the words of the oath are
to this purpose. The jurors need not search the law books, nor tumble
over heaps of old records, for the explanation of them. Our greatest
lawyers may from hence learn more certainly our ancient law in this
case, than from all the books in their studies. The language wherein
the oath is penned is known and understood by every man, and the
words in it have the same signification as they have wheresoever else
they are used. The judges, without assuming to themselves a
legislative power, cannot put a new sense upon them, other than
according to their genuine, common meaning. They cannot magisterially
impose their opinions upon the jury, and make them forsake the direct
words of their oath, to pursue their glosses. The grand inquest are
bound to observe alike strictly every part of their oath, and to use
all just and proper ways which may enable them to perform it;
otherwise it were to say, that after men had sworn to inquire
diligently after the truth, according to the best of their knowledge,
they were bound to forsake all the natural and proper means which
their understandings suggest for the discovery of it, if it be
commanded by the judges."--_Lord Somers' Essay on Grand Juries_, p.
38.

What is here said so plainly and forcibly of the oath and obligations of
grand juries, is equally applicable to the oath and obligations of petit
juries. In both cases the simple oaths of the jurors, and not the
instructions of the judges, nor the statutes of kings nor legislatures,
are their legal guides to their duties.[57]

SECTION IV.

_The Right of Juries to fix the Sentence._

The nature of the common