e of the system was that the freeholders held their
lands of the state, on the condition of rendering these military and
civil services as _rents_ for their lands, the principle implies that
_all_ the freeholders were liable to these rents, and were therefore
eligible as jurors. Indeed, I do not know that it has ever been doubted
that, at common law, _all_ the freeholders were eligible as jurors. If
all had not been eligible, we unquestionably should have had abundant
evidence of the exceptions. And if anybody, at this day, allege any
exceptions, the burden will be on him to prove them. The presumption
clearly is that _all_ were eligible.

The first invasion, which I find made, by the English statutes, upon
this common law principle, was made in 1285, seventy years after Magna
Carta. It was then enacted as follows:

"Nor shall any be put in assizes or juries, though they ought to be
taken in their own shire, that hold a tenement of less than the value
of _twenty shillings yearly_. And if such assizes and juries be taken
out of the shire, no one shall be placed in them who holds a tenement
of less value than forty shillings yearly at the least, except such
as be witnesses in deeds or other writings, whose presence is
necessary, so that they be able to travel."--_St. 13 Edward I._, ch.
38. (1285.)

The next invasion of the common law, in this particular, was made in
1414, about two hundred years after Magna Carta, when it was enacted:

"That no person shall be admitted to pass in any inquest upon trial
of the death of a man, nor in any inquest betwixt party and party in
plea real, nor in plea personal, whereof the debt or the damage
declared amount to forty marks, if the same person have not lands or
tenements of the yearly value of _forty shillings above all charges
of the same_."--_2 Henry V._, st. 2, ch. 3. (1414.)

Other statutes on this subject of the property qualifications of jurors,
are given in the note.[82]

From these statutes it will be seen that, since 1285, seventy years
after Magna Carta, the common law right of all free British subjects to
eligibility as jurors has been abolished, and the qualifications of
jurors have been made a subject of arbitrary legislation. In other
words, the government has usurped the authority of _selecting_ the
jurors that were to sit in judgment upon its own acts. This is
destroying the vital principle of the trial by jury itself,