y impeachment,
should preside over a jury in criminal trials. To have the trial a legal
(that is, a _common law_) and true trial by jury, the presiding officers
must be chosen by the people, and be entirely free from all dependence
upon, and all accountability to, the executive and legislative branches
of the government.[94]

[Footnote 87: The proofs of this principle of the common law have
already been given on page 120, _note_.

There is much confusion and contradiction among authors as to the manner
in which sheriffs and other officers were appointed; some maintaining
that they were appointed by the king, others that they were elected by
the people. I imagine that both these opinions are correct, and that
several of the king's officers bore the same official names as those
chosen by the people; and that this is the cause of the confusion that
has arisen on the subject.

It seems to be a perfectly well established fact that, at common law,
several magistrates, bearing the names of aldermen, sheriffs, stewards,
coroners and bailiffs, were chosen by the people; and yet it appears,
from Magna Carta itself, that some of the _king's_ officers (of whom he
must have had many) were also called "sheriffs, constables, coroners,
and bailiffs."

But Magna Carta, in various instances, speaks of sheriffs and bailiffs
as "_our_ sheriffs and bailiffs;" thus apparently intending to recognize
the distinction between officers _of the king_, bearing those names, and
other officers, bearing the same official names, but chosen by the
people. Thus it says that "no sheriff or bailiff _of ours_, or any other
(officer), shall take horses or carts of any freeman for carriage,
unless with the consent of the freeman himself."--_John's Charter_, ch.
36.

In a kingdom subdivided into so many counties, hundreds, tithings,
manors, cities and boroughs, each having a judicial or police
organization of its own, it is evident that many of the officers must
have been chosen by the people, else the government could not have
maintained its popular character. On the other hand, it is evident that
the king, the executive power of the nation, must have had large numbers
of officers of his own in every part of the kingdom. And it is perfectly
natural that these different sets of officers should, in many instances,
bear the same official names; and, consequently that the king, when
speaking of his own officers, as distinguished from those chosen by the
pe