power on the part of the court.

Certainly Mr. Hallam may very well say that "one may doubt whether these
(the several cases he has mentioned) were in contemplation of the
framers of Magna Carta"--that is, as exceptions to the rule requiring
that all judgments, that are to be enforced "_against a party's goods or
person_," be rendered by a jury.

Again, Mr. Hallam says, if the word _vel_ be rendered by _and_, "the
meaning will be, that no person shall be disseized, &c., _except upon a
lawful cause of action_." This is true; but it does not follow that any
cause of action, founded on _statute only_, is therefore a "_lawful_
cause of action," within the meaning of _legem terrae_, or the _Common
Law_. Within the meaning of the _legem terrae_ of Magna Carta, nothing
but a _common law_ cause of action is a "_lawful_" one.]

[Footnote 33: Hallam says, "It appears as if the ordeal were permitted
to persons already convicted by this verdict of a jury."--_2 Middle
Ages_, 446, _note_.]

CHAPTER III.

ADDITIONAL PROOFS OF THE RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF JURORS.

If any evidence, extraneous to the history and language of Magna Carta,
were needed to prove that, by that chapter which guaranties the trial by
jury, all was meant that has now been ascribed to it, and _that the
legislation of the king was to be of no authority with the jury beyond
what they chose to allow to it_, and that the juries were to limit the
punishments to be inflicted, we should find that evidence in various
sources, such as the laws, customs, and characters of their ancestors on
the continent, and of the northern Europeans generally; in the
legislation and customs that immediately succeeded Magna Carta; in the
oaths that have at different times been administered to jurors, &c., &c.
This evidence can be exhibited here but partially. To give it all would
require too much space and labor.

SECTION I.

_Weakness of the Regal Authority._

Hughes, in his preface to his translation of Horne's "_Mirror of
Justices_," (a book written in the time of Edward I., 1272 to 1307,)
giving a concise view of the laws of England generally, says:

"Although in the Saxon's time I find the usual words of the acts then
to have been _edictum_, (edict,) _constitutio_, (statute,) little
mention being made of the commons, yet I further find that, _tum
demum leges vim et vigerem habuerunt, cum fuerunt non modo institutae
sed firmatae approbatione communitatis