had at Westminster. _The freeholders of the
county court are the real judges in this court, and the sheriff is the
ministerial officer._ * * In modern times, as proceedings are removable
from hence into the king's superior courts, by writ of pone or
_recordari_, in the same manner as from hundred courts and courts-baron,
and as the same writ of false judgment may be had in nature of a writ of
error, this has occasioned the same disuse of bringing actions
therein."--_3 Blackstone_, 36, 37.

"Upon the whole, we cannot but admire the wise economy and admirable
provision of our ancestors in settling the distribution of justice in a
method so well calculated for cheapness, expedition, and ease. By the
constitution which they established, all trivial debts, and injuries of
small consequence, were to be recovered or redressed in every man's own
county, hundred, or perhaps parish."--_3 Blackstone_, 59.]

[Footnote 54: 1 Blackstone, 63-67.]

[Footnote 55: This quaint and curious book (Smith's Commonwealth of
England) describes the _minutiae_ of trials, giving in detail the mode of
impanelling the jury, and then the conduct of the lawyers, witnesses,
and court. I give the following extracts, _tending to show that the
judges impose no law upon the juries, in either civil or criminal cases,
but only require them to determine the causes according to their
consciences_.

In civil causes he says:

"When it is thought that it is enough pleaded before them, and the
witnesses have said what they can, one of the judges, with a brief
and pithy recapitulation, reciteth to the twelve in sum the arguments
of the sergeants of either side, that which the witnesses have
declared, and the chief points of the evidence showed in writing, and
once again putteth them in mind of the issue, and sometime giveth it
them in writing, delivering to them the evidence which is showed on
either part, if any be, (evidence here is called writings of
contracts, authentical after the manner of England, that is to say,
written, sealed, and delivered,) and biddeth them go together."--p.
74.

This is the whole account given of the charge to the jury.

In criminal cases, after the witnesses have been heard, and the prisoner
has said what he pleases in his defence, the book proceeds:

"When the judge hath heard them say enough, he asketh if they can say
any more: If they say no, then he turneth his speech to the inquest.