rivers and their
keepers, shall forthwith be inquired into in each county, _by twelve
knights of the same shire_, chosen by the most creditable persons in
the same county, _and upon oath_; and within forty days after the
said inquest, be utterly abolished, so as never to be restored."

There is substantially the same reason why a jury _ought_ to judge of
the justice of laws, and hold all unjust laws invalid, in civil suits,
as in criminal ones. That reason is the necessity of guarding against
the tyranny of the government. Nearly the same oppressions can be
practised in civil suits as in criminal ones. For example, individuals
may be deprived of their liberty, and robbed of their property, by
judgments rendered in civil suits, as well as in criminal ones. If the
laws of the king were imperative upon a jury in civil suits, the king
might enact laws giving one man's property to another, or confiscating
it to the king himself, and authorizing civil suits to obtain possession
of it. Thus a man might be robbed of his property at the arbitrary
pleasure of the king. In fact, all the property of the kingdom would be
placed at the arbitrary disposal of the king, through the judgments of
juries in civil suits, if the laws of the king were imperative upon a
jury in such suits.[69]

Furthermore, it would be absurd and inconsistent to make a jury
paramount to legislation in _criminal_ suits, and subordinate to it in
_civil_ suits; because an individual, by resisting the execution of a
_civil_ judgment, founded upon an unjust law, could give rise to a
_criminal_ suit, in which the jury would be bound to hold the same law
invalid. So that, if an unjust law were binding upon a jury in _civil_
suits, a defendant, by resisting the execution of the judgment, could,
_in effect_, convert the civil action into a criminal one, in which the
jury would be paramount to the same legislation, to which, in the
_civil_ suit, they were subordinate. In other words, in the _criminal_
suit, the jury would be obliged to justify the defendant in resisting a
law, which, in the _civil_ suit, they had said he was bound to submit
to.

To make this point plain to the most common mind--suppose a law be
enacted that the property of A shall be given to B. B brings a civil
action to obtain possession of it. If the jury, in this _civil_ suit,
are bound to hold the law obligatory, they render a judgment in favor of
B, that he be put in possession of