countrymen have been so often told, all measures were carried by the populace holding up their hands, we shall make use of the publications before us for calling attention to the Greek courts of justice, where measures were carried by holding the hand in the contrary position. In these courts the true and essential power of the old democracies resided:-and, whether we look to those who discharged the judicial office in Athens; to the advocate who conducted the business of her seats of justice; to the evidence accepted; or to the general construction of Athenian jurisprudence; to whichsoever of these points our eyes are turned, we feel warranted in saying, that in discussing the ancient courts of law, our hand is at once upon the sorest as well as the most important part of antiquity. For making good these assertions little more would be required than those remains of the old Greek drama which time has so fortunately spared to us; but as there are many excellent persons who make up for believing all that is said to them with a grave face in prose, by a corresponding incredulity as to what is advanced with a merry one in verse, we shall endeavour to draw our facts from the first work mentioned at the head of our paper, and illustrations only from the other two.

The law courts in Athens amounted to ten in number; and a stranger from the allied states, when set down in that metropolis, found his way to the Heliæa, or principal of them, merely by selecting the best-trodden streets; secure that whomsoever he met by the way, they were bound to the same goal as himself. Was it a quartet wrangling and disputing as they went? they were four witnesses on their way to give testimony, and in the mean time beating up a little quarrel among themselves to be decided by one of the standing arbitrators, of whom there were four hundred and forty † in different parts of Attica. That detachment of six requires a little more explanation. The vanguard is a slave, bearing the echinus, or sealed box of depositions previously taken; and like the urn, in which the judicial names were inclosed, or the cadiscus into which the votes were thrown, (Dem. 1302,) many a cunning trick § could it unfold, were it properly scruti

The Athenians, as if they had not legal business enough on their hands, obliged all states in alliance to come to Athens for justice. The expense, the hardship and cruelty of this proceeding gave birth to many satirical remarks from the comic poets, but the severest strictures are those by Xenophon, De Rep. Atheniensi, cap. 1. §§ 16, 17, 18.

† Sir W. Jones. Preface to Isæus, p. 64. Is not this number of arbitrators some answer to the surprize which Sir W. expresses (p. 50.) how the Archon and six Thesmothetæ could get through so much legal business, as he knows them to have had upon their hands, besides other official duties?

Isocrates, 526. The word judicial is not here to be understood in its legal sense. § Demosth. vol. ii. p. 1119.

Y 3

nized.

nized. Three assistant counsel bring up the rear, and the centre
is occupied by the principal advocate and the defendant himself.
The eye of this last rests upon a dense mass at the end of yonder
street; but he is mistaken in supposing them the friends who had
promised him their countenance and support at his trial. These
are a body of elderly dicasts or judges on the way to their official
labours; they have just finished the last stave of a song of Phry-
nichus,† (an ordinary device with the poor old souls for cheating
a dull morning;) and as the day-light has not yet fully declared
itself, the boy who precedes them is directed to throw out as much
light as he can from his lamp, while the leader of the company
takes an opportunity of mustering his forces and addressing to
them a word of admonition.

Cheerily, cheerily, Comias friend; say whence this hesitation?
Thou wert not wont to show delay and dull procrastination :

But stiff and strong as leathern thong, at march and step thoud'st tug
hard,

While now with ease Charinades might pass thee as a sluggard.

*

*

Cleon our prop and stay did lay upon us strict injunction,
That morn should see our troop equipt for high judicial function.
And charges grave he further gave, that we bore front ferocious-
A three days stock of wrath lay'd in-to meet these crimes atrocious.
Onward then, friends, whose age with mine an equal course is making,
'Tis fit we wend to our journey's end, ere yet the day be breaking.'
Mitchell, vol. ii. p. 193.

This maudlin address (and it was only by a judicious mixture of energy and apparent imbecility that the poet could venture on his dangerous subject) has brought us to the very doors of the Heliæa, and our faces must begin to assume a graver aspect, for there is but a little space between us and the very Majesty of Athens!

The first look of a person entering an English court of judicature is addressed to those venerable peruques, in which it has been thought proper for the dispensers of legal eloquence and justice

When the parties appeared, they usually brought with them as many powerful friends as they could assemble, with a view, no doubt, of influencing the jury--a shameful custom.' Sir W. Jones, Preface to Isæus. Many allusions to Greck customs are to be found in the writings of St. Paul; and Elsner, not without reason, conjectures, that 2 Tim. iv. 16. refers to this practice of the Athenian courts.

There were three dramatic authors of this name; but the one here alluded to is the tragic writer, who flourished not long after Thespis. He was the Dibdin of his day; and his songs, particularly those in his Sidonian or Phoenician Women,' were exceedingly admired. The old bard appears to have possessed great facility of composition; since Aristotle has admitted it as a question among his Problems, Why did Phrynielus compose more songs than the writers of the present day?'

to envelop themselves, and the next to that small box, wherein sit the twelve good men and true,' to whom an Englishman undoubtingly submits his honour, his property, his person. Where the good men and true' of Athens sat or stood (the shade of Aristophanes laughs, as we use the term) it is immaterial to inquire; certainly it was not in a small box; the smallest jury there consisted of 500 members, and not unfrequently that amount was quadrupled. Was this number conducive to the ends of justice? Graver authorities than ourselves have said, no; but before we attend to the numerical construction of a Grecian court of justice, let us examine its most efficient members individually.

Without doubt a most upright and able dispenser of justice may appear in a sorely threadbare coat; but the first impressions are obviously not in his favour, and if we may believe Cicero, they have no right to be so. Two points to be particularly observed in a judge,' says that writer, (and who had more opportunities of estimating the matter than he ?) are fortune and rank . . . . . the meaner he is in point of circumstances, the more readily will he give way to rigour and severity, that his own meanness may be wiped out, as it were, by the harshness of his decisions.' Had Aristophanes needed a confirmation from nature and necessity for that harshness and irritability of character, which he invaキ riably makes the § prominent features of his dicast, a better authority

E todo ome,' says the old Spanish law-book, que se quisier salvar de estas caloñas, devese salvar con doce omes, ca ansi fue acostumbrado en Castiella en el tiempo viejo.'-Fuero Viejo de Castiella, lib. i. t. titol. 2. §3. We are not aware that our writers upon juries have made the use they might do of this curious and amusing book.

† In a cause of extraordinary importance, no less than 6,000 persons were assembled to compose this tribunal.-T. iv. p. 9. 42. Dem. 715. A little trait of ancient manners, as connected with this part of our subject, may not be unamusing. In the pleading against Macartatus (Demosth. 1055.) the advocate observes, It was my first intention, gentlemen, to have drawn up a genealogical map of the family of Hagnias, and to have explained to you its several parts; but as it occurred to me, that all the judges would not have had an equal view of it, and that those on the remoter benches must have failed altogether of catching a view of it, I have no other resource than to convey the information by my voice, and that can reach every one of you alike.'

To express this more forcibly, the dicasts in the play to which our references will be chiefly made, wore a masquerade dress, which represented them as wasps with large stings in their tails. On this part of the subject, the reader will do well to compare the language of Isocrates (424,) with that of Aristophanes in Vespis, (876-882,) and with the choral song which Porson has so beautifully arranged in the comedy of the

Peace.

We should consider it a proof of very indifferent taste to bring the pure ermine of a British judge into any close contact with the dirty cloak of an Athenian dicast; but our picture requires a little relief, and we know not where to furnish it better than from the pages of a foreigner, who has surveyed our legal institutions with no small attention: Tout, en Angleterre, respire l'indulgence et la bonté; le juge paraît un

thority could not have been produced, than what is here given. For how stood the matter as to dignity and fortune with him? That a most dangerous importance did attach to the dicast in his corporate capacity will be seen hereafter; but that his dignity was not helped out by the state of his finances, a passage in one of the volumes before us will sufficiently evince.

*

Dic. Go to, go to: a scurvy pay must furnish
Myself (and two beside) bread, wood and fish:
And you, forsooth, ask figs?

Boy.

Father, put case

No court is held to-day: have you wherewith
To purchase us a meal,' &c.

The externals of respect, it seems clear, a Grecian dicast could not command; did he deserve them from the more valuable qualities of honesty and probity? Let him open his broad palm! A wolf's head was not the only attraction which the statue of Lycus had for the common citizens of Athens. It was by that statue, that an intercourse took place between the suer for justice and the + dispenser of it, so notorious in practice, that it passed into a proverb, and so wide in extent, that a legislative enactment was demanded-and proved utterly unavailing-to stop it.

wary

Individually then considered, the Greek judge or juryman has but little claims on our regard; and in no conference among themselves,' says Mr. Mitford, (speaking of the Heliæa, to which we principally confine ourselves,)' could the informed and the of so numerous a court correct the prejudices and misjudgment of the ignorant, careless or impassioned, or obviate the effects of misused eloquence; nor was it possible to make so large a portion of the sovereign people responsible for the most irregular

père au milieu de sa famille occupé à juger un de ses enfans. Son aspect n'a rien d'effrayant. D'après un ancien usage, son bureau est couvert de fleurs ainsi que celui du greffier. Le shérif et les autres officiers de la cour portent aussi chacun un bouquet, Le juge même, par une condescendance assez extraordinaire, laisse envahir son tribunal par la foule des spectateurs et se trouve ainsi entouré des plus jolies femmes de la province, sœurs, femmes ou filles des grands jurés, qui, venues aux fêtes dont les assises sont l'occasion, se font un devoir ou un plaisir d'assister aux audiences. Elles y paraissent dans le négligé le plus élégant, et ce n'est pas un spectacle peu curieux que celui de voir cette tête vénérable de juge chargée d'une grande perruque, s'élevant au milieu de ces jeunes têtes de femmes parées de toutes les grâces de la nature, et de ce que l'art peut y ajouter de plus séduisant.'-Cottu de l'Administration de la Justice en Angleterre, p. 109. Who can be surprized, after reading this, that our gaols are somewhat crowded? Who does not rather wonder, that we have not amateur felons as well as amateur artists, and that crime and misdemeanour are not absolutely at a premium?

The daily pay of a dicast was three obols, or nearly fourpence of our money. And this is the natural order of things. En général, à mérite personnel égal, il est plus à propos pour le bien public, que les riches et les nobles soient juges que les pauvres et les roturiers. Le riche peut facilement se passer de petits présens, le pauvre moins facilement. St. Pierre, Mém. pour diminuer le Nombre des Procès.

or

or flagitious decision. Punishment could not take place, and among the multitude shame was lost.'-(vol. v. p. 14.) When it is considered, that the issues of life and death were in the hands of a court thus composed; that no right of challenge existed against its component members, and that no appeal lay from its decisions,* it becomes important to see that no single word has been used in this assertion, for which most ample confirmation may not be found in ancient authors. That such confirmation is to be had, a very slight acquaintance with the Greek orators will suffice to prove.

To the natural acuteness and good taste of the lower Athenians, we have borne willing testimony on a former occasion; but acuteness, without more solid acquirements, is but a slender provision for constituting a judge; and in a person thus unlearned, the accession of taste may be considered rather as a detriment than an advantage. Looking to means more than to an end, it is apt to make the imagination pandar to the understanding, accustoming the fancy to regale upon the arguments of counsel, instead of habituating the intellect to seize upon those points, which lead the mind to right conclusions. Easier a great deal is it,' says the judicious Hooker, for men by law to be taught what they ought to do, than instructed how to judge as they should do of law; the one being a thing which belongeth generally unto all; the other, such as none but the wiser and more judicious sort can perform. Yea, the wisest are always touching this point the readiest to acknowledge, that soundly to judge of a law is the weightiest thing which any man can take upon him.' In order to see that the Greek juries, with the utmost natural sagacity, would have had no easy task upon their hands, even supposing that the orators always dealt fairly with them, it is only necessary for us to read the pleadings of Isæust and Demosthenes; but was this fair dealing always to be expected from Greek rhetoricians? That the judges had been deceived is a complaint too frequently escaping the Greek pleaders,‡ to admit of

Hence a very just observation of the orator Antiphon. Καὶ οὐκ ἴσον ἐστι τόν τε διώκοντα μὴ ὀρθῶς αἰτιάσασθαι καὶ ὑμᾶς τοὺς δικαστὰς μὴ ὀρθῶς γνῶναι· ἡ μὲν γὰρ τούτων αἰτίασις οὐκ ἔχει τέλος, ἀλλ ̓ ἐν ὑμῖν ἐστὶ καὶ τῇ δίκη· ὅ τι δ ̓ ἂν ὑμεῖς ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ δίκη μὴ ὀρθῶς γνῶτε, τοῦτο οὐκ ἔστιν ὅποι ἄν τις ἀνενεγκὼν τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ἀπολύσαιτο. t. vii. 753.

† And authorities are not wanting for making it questionable, whether these pleadings are to be considered as triumphs over the artifices of others, or as mere proofs of the superior cunning and subtlety of the pleaders themselves. See the lively description in Eschines (t. iii. 169–171.) where his great rival is described as returning from his day's labour in the courts, and amusing the young people about him with an account of the arts by which he had practised on the dicasts.

This could not be a very palatable topic to the dicasts, and Isæus and Demosthenes accordingly display much dexterity, wheu they touch upon so delicate a subject. T οὖν ἐξαπατήσαντι τῷ λόγῳ τοὺς δικαστὰς, δίκαιον ὀργίζεσθαι, οὐ τοῖς ἐξαπατηθεῖσι, is the polite language of the latter. Dem. 1347.

such