that they do show the truth of the deed, and seek aid of
the justices. But if they will, of their own accord, say that it is
disseisin, or not, their verdict shall be admitted at their own
peril."--_13 Edward I._, st. 1, ch. 3, sec. 2. (1285.)

The question of "disseisin, or not," was a question of law, as well as
fact. This statute, therefore, admits that the law, as well as the fact,
was in the hands of the jury. The statute is nevertheless void, because
the king had no authority to give jurors a dispensation from the
obligation imposed upon them by their oaths and the "law of the land,"
that they should "make known the truth according their (own)
consciences." This they were bound to do, and there was no power in the
king to absolve them from the duty. And the attempt of the king thus to
absolve them, and authorize them to throw the case into the hands of the
judges for decision, was simply an illegal and unconstitutional attempt
to overturn the "law of the land," which he was sworn to maintain, and
gather power into his own hands, through his judges. He had just as much
constitutional power to enact that the jurors should not be compelled to
declare the _facts_, but that they might leave _them_ to be determined
by the king's judges, as he had to enact that they should not be
compelled to declare the _law_, but might leave _it_ to be decided by
the king's judges. It was as much the legal duty of the jury to decide
the law as to decide the fact; and no law of the king could affect their
obligation to do either. And this statute is only one example of the
numberless contrivances and usurpations which have been resorted to, for
the purpose of destroying the original and genuine trial by jury.

[Footnote 68: _Marches_, the limits, or boundaries, between England and
Wales.]

[Footnote 69: That the kings would have had no scruples to enact laws
for the special purpose of plundering the people, by means of the
judgments of juries, if they could have got juries to acknowledge the
authority of their laws, is evident from the audacity with which they
plundered them, without any judgments of juries to authorize them.

It is not necessary to occupy space here to give details as to these
robberies; but only some evidence of the general fact.

Hallam says, that "For the first three reigns (of the Norman kings) *
* the intolerable exactions of tribute, the rapine of purveyance, the
iniquity of royal courts, a