e steward, or was, in ancient times, before the
bailiff, of the lord._"--_Tomlin's Law Dict._, word _Court-Leet_.

Of course the jury were the judges in this court, where only a "steward"
or "bailiff" of a manor presided.

"No cause of consequence was determined without the king's writ; for
even in the county courts, of the debts, which were above forty
shillings, there issued a _Justicies_ (commission) to the sheriff, to
enable him to hold such plea, _where the suitors are judges of the
law and fact_."--_Gilbert's History of the Common Pleas,
Introduction_, p. 19.

"This position" (that "the matter of law was decided by the King's
Justices, but the matter of fact by the pares") "_is wholly
incompatible with the common law, for the Jurata (jury) were the sole
judges both of the law and the fact_."--_Gilbert's History of the
Common Pleas_, p. 70, _note_.

We come now to the challenge; and of old _the suitors in court, who
were judges_, could not be challenged; nor by the feudal law could
the _pares_ be even challenged, _Pares qui ordinariam jurisdictionem
habent recusari non possunt_; (the peers who have ordinary
jurisdiction cannot be rejected;) "_but those suitors who are judges
of the court_, could not be challenged; and the reason is, that there
are several qualifications required by the writ, viz., that they be
_liberos et legales homines de vincineto_ (free and legal men of the
neighborhood) of the place laid in the declaration," &c.,
&c.--_Ditto_, p. 93.

"_Ad questionem juris non respondent Juratores._" (To the question of
law the jurors do not answer.) "The Annotist says, that this is
indeed a maxim in the Civil-Law Jurisprudence, _but it does not bind
an English jury, for by the common law of the land the jury are
judges as well of the matter of law, as of the fact_, with this
difference only, that the (a Saxon word) or judge on the bench is to
give them no assistance in determining the matter of _fact_, but if
they have any doubt among themselves relating to matter of _law_,
they may then request him to explain it to them, which when he hath
done, and they are thus become well informed, they, and they only,
become competent judges of the matter of _law_. And this is the
province of the judge on the bench, namely, to show, or _teach_ the
law, but not to take upon him the trial of the delinquent, either