d not have been formed except under equal laws,
nor roused to full activity without the influence of that spirit
which the Great Charter breathed over their
forefathers."--_Mackintosh's Hist. of Eng._, ch. 3.[110]

Of the Great Charter, the trial by jury is the vital part, and the only
part that places the liberties of the people in their own keeping. Of
this Blackstone says:

"The trial by jury, or the country, _per patriam_, is also that trial
by the peers of every Englishman, which, as the grand bulwark of his
liberties, is secured to him by the Great Charter; _nullus liber homo
capiatur, vel imprisonetur, aut exuletur, aut aliquo modo destruatur,
nisi per legale judicium parium suorum, vel per legem terrae...._

The liberties of England cannot but subsist so long as this palladium
remains sacred and inviolate, not only from all open attacks, which
none will be so hardy as to make, but also from all secret
machinations which may sap and undermine it."[111]

"The trial by jury ever has been, and I trust ever will be, looked
upon as the glory of the English law.... It is the most transcendent
privilege which any subject can enjoy or wish for, that he cannot be
affected in his property, his liberty, or his person, but by the
unanimous consent of twelve of his neighbors and equals."[112]

Hume calls the trial by jury "An institution admirable in itself, and
the best calculated for the preservation of liberty and the
administration of justice, that ever was devised by the wit of
man."[113]

An old book, called "English Liberties," says:

"English Parliaments have all along been most zealous for preserving
this great Jewel of Liberty, trials by juries having no less than
fifty-eight several times, since the Norman Conquest, been
established and confirmed by the legislative power, no one privilege
besides having been ever so often remembered in parliament."[114]

[Footnote 106: _Mackintosh's Hist. of Eng._, ch. 3. _45 Lardner's Cab.
Cyc._, 354.]

[Footnote 107: "_Forty shilling freeholders_" were those "people
dwelling and resident in the same counties, whereof every one of them
shall have free land or tenement to the value of forty shillings by the
year at the least above all charges." By statute _8 Henry_ 6, ch. 7,
(1429,) these freeholders only were allowed to vote for members of
Parliament from the _counties_.]

[Footnote 108: He p