This officer, being in his own district the reprefentative of the king, who poffefled the executive power of the ftate, was confirmed in his place by the royal approbation. The mode of election, which prevailed among the Anglo-Saxons beyond the reach of records, was probably the fame with that which obtained in Scandinavia in lefs diftant times. When a var cancy happened, the people of the diftrict were convened by the priest. The vulgar met with the better fort in this convention; and every one prefent had a right to vote. They chose twelve out of the number prefent; fix landed proprietors, and fix of the inferior peafants. Thefe fixed on three whom they thought equal to the office; and the election being announced to the king, he felected one of the three for difcharging the duties of a judge.+

When the matter in difpute was clear and obvious, the judge decided without hefitation; and his decifion was enforced. When the cafe feemed dubious, he demanded aid from the wisdom of others ; and the litigating parties || chofe fix perfons, on either fide, to be his affiftants. Thefe were appointed to enquire into the fact, and having determined up on it, by the majority of voices, they delivered it over to the judge, who was obliged, without delay, to pafs fentence upon the fact fo delivered, according to the ufages of the district, and the established laws of the ftate. The different departments and powers of the jury and judge were afcertained with précifion, and defined with accuracy. The jury took cogni zance of the fact, the judge declared the law: the firft exVOL. X. Y y

The

Eliguntur in conciliis et principes, qui jura per pagos vicofque reddunt. Tacit. Germ. xii.

Electio autem reftricta, certo modo et conditione, peracta. Quoties enim vacabat locus, populus convocatus per facerdotem, ex feipfo duodecim electores eligebat, ex equeftri ordine fex et totidem ex plebe, qui tres alios viciffim eligebant quas pares muneri exiftimabant, ex quibus unum rex confirmabat. Stiernhook, lib. i.

Ubi res aut confeffione, aut teftibus, aut aliis documentis non fatis eft manifefta in fubfidium (Judicis) NEMBDA, a majoribus conftituta fuit; quæ rem vel factum quoquo modo exploratum judici tradere teneretur, ut fine mora fententiam fuper ea re ex jure conceftam ferret. Id. ibid.

Nembdam partes litigantes eligebant, pari numero utrinque: Id. ibid.

plained the ftate of the cafe; the latter decided the state of the controverfy.S

The apparent equity of trials by jury recommended the practice fo ftrongly to the people, that their interpofition became neceffary in all legal determinations. The jurors gradually became members of the court; and though their decifions were grateful to their fellow-citizens, their office became troublefome to themselves. When the parties retained the right of chufing them, a new jury appeared on every new caufe. All the members of the community were alternately harraffed by attendance; fome refufed to come, and others delayed to come in time. The practice was too good in itself to be dropt: and the magiftrate found himself obliged to interfere. The judge, or the king's lieutenant in the district, fummoned therefore a ftated jury, from the divifion of the kingdom, over which he prefided; and the parties, instead of chufing twelve, were only permitted to object to a certain number.**

The original office of juries, which the northern nations diftinguished by the name of Nembda, and other appellations expreffive of their nature,t was only to enquire into the fact, and, having explained it with great attention, to deliver it over CERTAIN to the judge 1. They were confidered as the competent judges of the true ftate of the fact, but they were not fupposed to be verfed in the provisions which the antient usa

ges

§ Circa alia officium judicis, circa alia Nembdæ. Nembda de facto cognefcebat, judex de jure. Illa ftatum caufæ, hic ftatum controverfiæ decidebat. Stiernhook, lib. i.

Nembda vera ab initio, stata & ordinaria non fuit; fed alia atque alia, non modo in quolibet judicio fed et qualibet in caufa. Id. ibid.

**Succeflu autem temporis, cum ejus officium neceffarium effet, confiquitio, vero pro fingulis in fingulis caufis gravis videretur, de certis & ordinariis cogitari coeptum eft, ne eorum penuria aut defectu caufæ pro laterentur. Itaque judex ipfe vel præfectus provinciæ regius, utrinque enim de jure extat, Nembdam conftituebat, viros honeftos, domicilii certos. Stiernhook, lib. i.

+ Quod deputati Nembdeman, quod duodecim Twelfman, quod integræ vitæ Gauneman, quod fenes Oldungar, nominat fuerunt. Id. ibid.

ibid.

Facti tantum cognitio, nulla juris dictio Nembdæ. Id:

Officium autem Nembdæ non fuit quod hodie cum judice judicare et per fuffragio fententiam dicere, fed, quod modo dictum, factum tantum examinare, explicare judici certum tradere. Id. ibid.

ges and the laws of the ftate had made for the relief of the injured, and the punishment of the guilty. Their jurifdic tion, however, encreased in the northern Europe in the course. of time. They became the judges of law as well as of fact: from giving only their opinion to the judge, they rofe to be his affeffors; and his power degenerated to fuch a low degree, that he became at laft the mouth through which they communicated their decifions to the public .

The mode of proceeding before juries which was practifed in Scandinavia differed from that which has obtained in England. The majority of voices determined, on the continent, the guilt or innocence of the culprit. In England, all the members of a jury muft agree in the decifion: and either compleatly abfolve, or thoroughly condemn. The juries of the north delivered their judgments upon the whole of the cafe: in this country, they found their verdict, as the word imports, only upon the fact §. In Scandinavia the fuffrage of the majority, as has been already obferved, acquits or condemns the fuffrage of feven, out of twelve, determines the fate of the defendant :-But when the voices are equal, the law inclines to mercy, and the culprit is abfolved *. It appears clear, upon the whole, that the original power of juries did not extend fo far as to judge with the judge +; but only to examine and explain the fact only, and to deliver it over, in its true and certain ftate, to the judge, for his decifion, according to ancient ufage and the established laws of the land ‡.

Y y 2

The

|| Videntur pro fuo arbitratu ftatuiffe, et tam de jure, qu'am de facto. Stiernhook, lib. i.

De confuetudine vero hodie Nembdæ ex officio judicis participat, confufis enim officiis fimul de facto et jure cognof cunt et adjudicant tanquam affeffores, judice tantum prefidente. Id. ibid.

Facti tantum cognitio. Id. ibid.

*In eo tamen abit jus Anglicum a noftro, quod omnes et finguli fimul vel abfolvere debeant vel condemnare, non præcife quem omnes fed quem majo: pars Nembdæ abfolverit vel condemnarit itaque feptem fuffragiis reus vincit vel vincitur. Si autem paria utrinque fuerint, in meliorem partem inclinat jus noftrum, et abfolvi eum quam condemnari humanius exiftimavit. Stiernhook, lib. i.

Id.

+ Non cum judice judicare. Idem. ibid.

Denique in factum Angli condemnant vel abfolvunt,

The fubordination, without which no government can fubfift, was regulated with precifion and wifdom, by the free nations of the north. It however obtained lefs between perfons than things. In peace, a kind of equality prevailed among all; though merit, and even neceffity, gave birth to gradations of authority in war. It was an established maxim, that the few fhould yield to the many: that the courts of the leffer diftricts fhould poffefs no power of decifion which could not be reverfed by thofe of the greater. A general chain of appeal was established from the court of the tithing to the council of ftate; where the king prefided in perfon, being acknowledged, in the loweft ebb of his perfonal power, the fountain from which all authority flowed,

The following Letter was inferted in the London Packet of May I; but that not being the Channel through which the celebrated Letters of Junius have been usually conveyed to the Public, fome Perfons, notwithstanding the Elegance of the Style, fufpected this was not the Production of that able Writer, the Editor of that Paper, therefore, inferted the following Advertisement : "The Publick may be affured, that for ought the Editor knows, the Letters figned Junius, in the London Packet, came from the original Adopter of that Signature. One thing, however, he does know, that the Style is by no means inferior to that of the Letters univerfally fathered on the real Junius."

To the Printer of the LONDON PACKET,

SIR,

HATEVER my enemies may collect from my filence, I

W am too loyal a fubject to be long regardless of the royal

virtues of my approved good mafter. I purpofe fhortly, once more, to attempt his entertainment, though my first effay in his fervice met with fo rudely ungracious a reception. To pay a pro per attention to the accumulated exigencies of government, and to maintain, with confiftency, the ridicule of the measures he has adopted, is furely a task too laborious to be fupported without intermiffion. His affiduous culture of the ingenuous arts, with which no lifping infant is unacquainted, must require frerelaxation. I would efteem it as the firft happinels of my quent life, fhould my labours ever fucceed, to amufe the liftlefs tediaufness of his vacant hours, or in any degree alleviate the painful

repe

repetition of thofe cares, which have already fo effectually fecured the affections of his grateful fubjects. The unfashionable ftile of honeft admonition, proved, it feems, too harsh for the delicate texture of his royal ears. Ever confiftent with the plan of loyalty and moderation, which I from the first profeffed, I fhall for once attempt, in form more courtly, to prefent him with incenfe more agreeable. A tribute fo uncommon, as the approbation of an independant Englishman, may perhaps furprise him: yet he may believe me, when I declare, that I should not have taken the liberty of introducing his facred name upon this occafion, were it not to reward his matchlefs penetration in the choice of his minifters, with thofe praifes, which I feared the religious humility of modeft merit might render him unconscious of deferving.

Many English princes, before our prefent gracious fovereign, had conceived the pious defign of reitoring in fact a doctrine, which the folly of our philofophers had exploded; and reigning by divine right the arbitrary, unlimited tyrants that heaven undoubtedly intended them. Yet by the facrilegious obftinacy of their rebellious fubjects, he had feen them continually obliged, either to abandon the unhappy inftruments of their holy ambition, or fall themselves a facrifice to their fecurity. Thus the intention of taking upon himself alone the cares of state, and freeing the other powers from the heavy load of a vexatious adminiftration, was not more benevolent than it was dangerous. He was incapable, however, of being difcouraged, by any difficul. ties attending the execution of a defign, which he had undertaken upon fo humane a principle. He had feen measures the most artful carried into execution, by fervants of the greatest refolution and fidelity, uniformly unfortunate. A new system of policy therefore, and minifters of unufual qualifications, were neceffary, where every infamous fuggeftion of royal cunning, had been already nearly exhaufted, without fuccefs. His Majesty has adopted, in fact, a courfe of measures, which fuch a genius as himself alone, could have efteemed plaufible in theory; and left us to doubt with humility, whether we ought more to admire his wisdom in the defign, or his fuccefs in the execution. No poffible concurrence of circumftances, could have been conceived better calculated, to affift the accomplishment of his gracious intentions. Had his bofom friends and affociates, been lefs infamously contemptible, had their political manoeuvres been lefs glaringly ridiculous, it would have been poffible, that the existence of fuch phænomena might have been believed. The people would foon have become fenfible, of the degrading injuries they have sustained, and would have been with difficulty withheld from recurring to a precedent, they had fo often practifed with fuccefs. But when the conduct of administration manifefts fuch an incongruous complication of timid arrogance, and petulant Irrefolution-When the moit daring attacks upon the liberty of the subject, are advanced and fupported, without the appearance

of