d
of George II. to establish them as legal, and also to extend them to all
cases, not only between individuals, but in cases where _the Government
itself should be the prosecutor_. This most probably gave rise to the
suspicion so generally entertained of packing a Jury; because, by this
act, when the Crown, as it is called, is the Prosecutor, the Master of
the Crown-office, who holds his office under the Crown, is the person
who either wholly nominates, or has great power in nominating the Jury,
and therefore it has greatly the appearance of the prosecuting party
selecting a Jury.

The process is as follows:

On motion being made in Court, by either the Plaintiff or Defendant, for
a Special Jury, the Court grants it or not, at its own discretion.

If it be granted, the Solicitor of the party that applied for the
Special Jury, gives notice to the Solicitor of the adverse party, and a
day and hour are appointed for them to meet at the office of the Master
of the Crown-office. The Master of the Crown-office sends to the Sheriff
or his deputy, who attends with the Sheriff's book of Freeholders. From
this book, forty-eight names are taken, and a copy thereof given to each
of the parties; and, on a future day, notice is again given, and the
Solicitors meet a second time, and each strikes out twelve names. The
list being thus reduced from forty-eight to twenty-four, the first
twelve that appear in Court, and answer to their names, is the Special
Jury for that cause. The first operation, that of taking the forty-eight
names, is called nominating the Jury; and the reducing them to
twenty-four is called striking the Jury.

Having thus stated the general process, I come to particulars, and the
first question will be, how are the forty-eight names, out of which the
Jury is to be struck, obtained from the Sheriff's book? For herein lies
the principal ground of suspicion, with respect to what is understood by
packing of Juries.

Either they must be taken by some rule agreed upon between the parties,
or by some common rule known and established beforehand, or at the
discretion of some person, who in such a case, ought to be perfectly
disinterested in the issue, as well officially as otherwise.

In the case of Merchants, and in all cases between individuals,
the Master of the office, called the Crown-office, is officially an
indifferent person, and as such may be a proper person to act between
the parties, and present them with