on and territory ceasing to prevail, and the
civil being separated from the ecclesiastical power, they became the
sole and proper officers for the direction of justice in the counties._

"The _hundred_, however, and _county_ courts, were not equal of
themselves for the purposes of jurisdiction and order. It was necessary
that a court should be erected, of supreme authority, where the disputes
of the great should be decided, where the disagreeing sentiments of
judges should be reconciled, and where protection should be given to the
people against their fraud and injustice.

"The princes accordingly, or chief nobility, in the German communities,
assembled together to judge of such matters. The Saxon nobles continued
this prerogative; and the king, or, in his absence, the chief
_justiciary_, watched over their deliberations. But it was not on every
trivial occasion that this court interested itself. In smaller concerns,
justice was refused during three sessions of the _hundred_, and claimed
without effect, at four courts of the county, before there could lie an
appeal to it.

"So gradually were these arrangements established, and so naturally did
the varying circumstances in the situation of the Germans and
Anglo-Saxons direct those successive improvements which the preservation
of order, and the advantage of society, called them to adopt. The
admission of the people into the courts of justice preserved, among the
former, that equality of ranks for which they were remarkable; and it
helped to overturn, among the latter, those envious distinctions which
the feudal system tended to introduce, and prevented that venality in
judges, and those arbitrary proceedings, which the growing attachment to
interest, and the influence of the crown, might otherwise have
occasioned."--_Stuart on the Constitution of England_, p. 222 to 245.

"In the Anglo-Saxon period, accordingly, _twelve_ only were elected; and
these, together with the judge, or presiding officer of the district,
being sworn to regard justice, and the voice of reason, or conscience,
all causes were submitted to them."--_Ditto_, p. 260.

"Before the orders of men were very nicely distinguished, the jurors
were elected from the same rank. When, however, a regular subordination
of orders was established, and when a knowledge of property had inspired
the necessitous with envy, and the rich with contempt, _every man was
tried by his equals_. The same spirit of liberty whic