parties._"--3
_Henry's History of Great Britain_, 348.

This view is corroborated by Tyrrell's _Introduction to the History of
England_, p. 83-84, and by Spence's _Origin of the Laws and Political
Institutions of Modern Europe_, p. 447, and the note on the same page.
Also by a law of Canute to this effect, _In every county let there be
twice a year an assembly, whereat the bishop and the earl shall be
present, the one to instruct the people in divine, the other in human,
laws_.--_Wilkins_, p. 136.]

[Footnote 67: There was no distinction between the civil and criminal
counts, as to the rights or powers of juries.]

CHAPTER IV.

THE RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF JURIES IN CIVIL SUITS.

The evidence already given in the preceding chapters proves that the
rights and duties of jurors, in civil suits, were anciently the same as
in criminal ones; that the laws of the king were of no obligation upon
the consciences of the jurors, any further than the laws were seen by
them to be just; that very few laws were enacted applicable to civil
suits; that when a new law was enacted, the nature of it could have been
known to the jurors only by report, and was very likely not to be known
to them at all; that nearly all the law involved in civil suits was
_unwritten_; that there was _usually_ no one in attendance upon juries
who could possibly enlighten them, unless it were sheriffs, stewards,
and bailiffs, who were unquestionably too ignorant and untrustworthy to
instruct them authoritatively; that the jurors must therefore
necessarily have judged for themselves of the whole case; and that, _as
a general rule_, they could judge of it by no law but the law of nature,
or the principles of justice as they existed in their own minds.

The ancient oath of jurors in civil suits, viz., that "_they would make
known the truth according to their consciences_," implies that the
jurors were above the authority of all legislation. The modern oath, in
England, viz., that they "_will well and truly try the issue between the
parties, and a true verdict give, according to the evidence_," implies
the same thing. If the laws of the king had been binding upon a jury,
they would have been sworn to try the cases _according to law_, or
according to the laws.

The ancient writs, in civil suits, as given in Glanville, (within the
half century before Magna Carta,) to wit, "Summon twelve free and legal
men, (or sometimes twelve knights,) to be in court