COMMENTARIES, 1 NOVEMBER 1787

ing and injuring this excellent mode of trial, will clearly appear from
the following observations of the learned Dr. Blackstone, in his com-
mentaries on the laws of England, Art. Jury Trial Book 3. chap. 33.-
'The establishment of jury trial was always so highly esteemed and val-
ued by the people, that no conquest, no change of government, could ever
prevail to abolish it. In magna charta it is more than once insisted upon
as the principal bulwark of our liberties-And this is a species of knowledge
most absolutely necessary for every gentleman; as well, because he may
be frequently called upon to determine in this capacity the rights of
others, his fellow subjects; as, because his own property, his liberty, and his
life, depend upon maintaining in its legal force the trial by jury-In settling
and adjusting a question of fact, when intrusted to any single magistrate,
partiality and injustice have an ample field to range in; either by boldly
asserting that to be proved which is not so, or by more artfully sup-
pressing some circumstances, stretching and warping others, and dis-
tinguishing away the remainder. Here therefore a competent number
of sensible and upright jurymen, chosen from among those of the middle
rank, will be found the best investigators of truth, and the surest guardians of
public justice. For the most powerful individual in the state will be cau-
tious of committing any flagrant invasion of anothers right, when he
knows that the fact of his oppression must be examined and decided
by twelve indifferent men, not appointed until the hour of trial; and
that when once the fact is ascertained, the law must, of course, redress
it. This, therefore, preserves in the hands of the people that share, which they
ought to have in the administration of public justice, and prevents the
encroachments of the more powerful and wealthy citizens. Every new tribunal,
erected for the decision of facts, without the intervention of a jury (whether
composed of justices of the peace, commissioners of the revenue,
judges of a court of conscience, or any other standing magistrates) is
a step towards establishing aristocracy, the most oppressive of absolute govern-
ments. And in every country as the trial by jury has been gradually
disused, so the great have increased in power, until the state has been
torn to pieces by rival factions, and oligarchy in effect has been estab-
lished, though under the shadow of regal government; unless where
the miserable people have taken shelter under absolute monarchy, as
the lighter evil of the two. And, particularly, it is worthy of observation,
that in Sweden the trial by jury, that bulwark of liberty, continued long
in its full force, but is now fallen into disuse; and that there, though
the regal power is in no country so closely limitted, yet the liberties of
the commons are extinguished, and the government is degenerated
into a mere aristocracy. It is therefore upon the whole, a duty which every
man owes to his country, his friends, his posterity, and himself to maintain, to

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