ns to defray expenses. _But after
the trial_, the plaintiff or defendant was liable to be amerced, (by the
jury, of course,) for having troubled the court with the prosecution or
defence of an unjust suit.[99] But it is not likely that the losing
party was subjected to an amercement as a matter of course, but only in
those cases where the injustice of his cause was so evident as to make
him inexcusable in bringing it before the courts.

All the freeholders were required to attend the courts, that they might
serve as jurors and witnesses, and do any other service that could
legally be required of them; and their attendance was paid for by the
state. In other words, their attendance and service at the courts were
part of the rents which they paid the state for their lands.

The freeholders, who were thus required always to attend the courts,
were doubtless the only witnesses who were _usually_ required in _civil_
causes. This was owing to the fact that, in those days, when the people
at large could neither write nor read, few contracts were put in
writing. The expedient adopted for proving contracts, was that of making
them in the presence of witnesses, who could afterwards testify to the
transactions. Most contracts in regard to lands were made at the courts,
in the presence of the freeholders there assembled.[100]

In the king's courts it was specially provided by Magna Carta that
"justice and right" should not be "sold;" that is, that the king should
take nothing from the parties for administering justice.

The oath of a party to the justice of his cause was all that was
necessary to entitle him to the benefit of the courts free of all
expense; (except the risk of being amerced after the trial, in case the
jury should think he deserved it.[101])

_This principle of the free administration of justice connects itself
necessarily with the trial by jury, because a jury could not rightfully
give judgment against any man, in either a civil or criminal case, if
they had any reason to suppose he had been unable to procure his
witnesses._

The true trial by jury would also compel the free administration of
justice from another necessity, viz., that of preventing private
quarrels; because, unless the government enforced a man's rights and
redressed his wrongs, _free of expense to him_, a jury would be bound to
protect him in taking the law into his own hands. A man has a natural
right to enforce his own rights and redress