agistrate could always procure witnesses
enough to testify to something or other, which _he himself_ could decide
to be corroborative of his own testimony. And thus the prohibition would
be defeated in fact, though observed in form.]

[Footnote 94: In this chapter I have called the justices "_presiding_
officers," solely for the want of a better term. They are not
"_presiding_ officers," in the sense of having any authority over the
jury; but are only assistants to, and teachers and servants of, the
jury. The foreman of the jury is properly the "presiding officer," so
far as there is such an officer at all. The sheriff has no authority
except over other persons than the jury.]

[Footnote 95: In this extract, Palgrave seems to assume that the king
himself had a right to sit as judge, in _jury_ trials, in the _county_
courts, in both civil and criminal cases. I apprehend he had no such
power at the _common law_, but only to sit in the trial of appeals, and
in the trial of peers, and of civil suits in which peers were parties,
and possibly in the courts of ancient demesne.]

[Footnote 96: _Alderman_ was a title anciently given to various
_judicial_ officers, as the Alderman of all England, Alderman of the
King, Alderman of the County, Alderman of the City or Borough, Alderman
of the Hundred or Wapentake. These were all _judicial_ officers. See Law
Dictionaries.]

[Footnote 97: "_Ban and arriere ban_, a proclamation, whereby all that
hold lands of the crown, (except some privileged officers and citizens,)
are summoned to meet at a certain place in order to serve the king in
his wars, either personally, or by proxy."--_Boyer._]

[Footnote 98: At the common law, parties, in both civil and criminal
cases, were allowed to swear in their own behalf; and it will be so
again, if the true trial by jury should be reestablished.]

CHAPTER VIII.

THE FREE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE.

The free administration of justice was a principle of the common law;
and it must necessarily be a part of every system of government which is
not designed to be an engine in the hands of the rich for the oppression
of the poor.

In saying that the free administration of justice was a principle of the
common law, I mean only that parties were subjected to no costs for
jurors, witnesses, writs, or other necessaries for the trial,
_preliminary to the trial itself_. Consequently, no one could lose the
benefit of a trial, for the want of mea