e usually
levied by the more summary proceeding of distress and sale, as in cases
of rent. And it is acknowledged on all hands, that this is essential to
the efficacy of the revenue laws. The dilatory course of a trial at
law to recover the taxes imposed on individuals, would neither suit the
exigencies of the public nor promote the convenience of the citizens. It
would often occasion an accumulation of costs, more burdensome than the
original sum of the tax to be levied.

And as to the conduct of the officers of the revenue, the provision in
favor of trial by jury in criminal cases, will afford the security
aimed at. Wilful abuses of a public authority, to the oppression of the
subject, and every species of official extortion, are offenses against
the government, for which the persons who commit them may be indicted
and punished according to the circumstances of the case.

The excellence of the trial by jury in civil cases appears to depend
on circumstances foreign to the preservation of liberty. The strongest
argument in its favor is, that it is a security against corruption.
As there is always more time and better opportunity to tamper with a
standing body of magistrates than with a jury summoned for the occasion,
there is room to suppose that a corrupt influence would more easily
find its way to the former than to the latter. The force of this
consideration is, however, diminished by others. The sheriff, who is
the summoner of ordinary juries, and the clerks of courts, who have the
nomination of special juries, are themselves standing officers, and,
acting individually, may be supposed more accessible to the touch
of corruption than the judges, who are a collective body. It is not
difficult to see, that it would be in the power of those officers to
select jurors who would serve the purpose of the party as well as a
corrupted bench. In the next place, it may fairly be supposed,
that there would be less difficulty in gaining some of the jurors
promiscuously taken from the public mass, than in gaining men who had
been chosen by the government for their probity and good character. But
making every deduction for these considerations, the trial by jury must
still be a valuable check upon corruption. It greatly multiplies the
impediments to its success. As matters now stand, it would be necessary
to corrupt both court and jury; for where the jury have gone evidently
wrong, the court will generally grant a new trial, and i