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are drawn, summoned, or impanneled. He has also a right to challenge for want of the requisite qualifications, for bias in favor of either party, or for his having been convicted of any infamous crime; and in criminal cases it is cause for challenge that the juror has formed an opinion concerning the guilt or innocence of the accused. And every person arraigned and put on trial for an offense punishable with death or by impris onment in the State prison for ten years or any longer time, has a right to challenge peremptorily that is, to reject without giving a reason-twenty of the persons drawn as jurors for such trial. The reason of the rule is this. A juror is challenged for cause. The challenge is not sustained. During the trial of the challenge-that is, of the question whether such juror is competent or not-the feelings of the juror may become excited, especially if he were challenged for having committed a felony. Under such circumstances, a juror from feelings of revenge might be disposed unjustly to convict. The accused having failed in his legal challenge, rejects the juror by his peremptory challenge. This rule is very important to the prisoner, and enables him to reject a juror when he has reason to fear he is prejudiced against him.

In all civil causes, either party, dissatisfied with the verdict of a jury, may appeal to a higher tribunal. In criminal cases, there is no review of the verdict of a jury, except where that review is intended to be for the benefit of the person con-l victed.

It is the humane policy of the law, that a person charged with the commission of crime, shall be entitled to the full benefit of all doubt and uncertainty that rests on his case; and it is provided by the Constitution of the United States, that no person shall be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb for the same offense. This, of course, does not apply to cases where the jury do not agree.

In England, in the reign of Edward III., the jurors who dissented from the rest were committed to prison. And although they were not suffered to eat or drink, or go at large, the justices were sometimes required to carry them about in carts until they had agreed upon a verdict. But no such forcing process is now used, and if a jury can not agree within a reasonable time, they are discharged.

That the present mode of appointing jurors is the best that can be devised, seems now to be plain. It may not be free from objections. What human institution is? But the power of appointment is so far removed from the parties interested,

as to leave little room for abuse. Add to all these circumstances one other, that any person, interested in obtaining an impartial jury, may, beforehand, procure the names of the jurors to be summoned, in order to be prepared with his reasons for challenge; and the chances for fraud and corruption are so small as little to be feared.

Another precaution is sometimes resorted to for the purpose of securing an impartial trial, by procuring a special or struck jury. The parties, after procuring an order for that purpose, attend before the clerk of the county, who selects from the list of jurors the names of forty-eight persons whom he thinks most indifferent between the parties, and best qualified to try the particular cause for which they are required. One name is then struck from the list by each party alternately, till the list is reduced to twenty-four names, which are certified by the clerk to be the persons drawn to serve as jurors. These twentyfour persons are summoned, and a jury of twelve is drawn from them as in other cases.

Errors in judgment and mistakes as to facts may, and often do occur; but these, so far from proving that the institution is not the best that can be devised, only go to show the weaknesses of human nature, and the imperfections of the human understanding.

As yet, nothing has been said of the organization of the grand jury. No person can be held to answer for an infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia when in actual service in time of war or public danger. This body is selected in nearly the same manner as the common or petit jury. The number is limited to three hundred in each county, who are selected by the board of supervisors, and a new list is prepared every year. The mode of drawing and summoning is the same as that for the petit jury. Twenty-four are summoned to attend any court of criminal jurisdiction, but no more than twenty-three, nor less than sixteen, can be sworn. to serve on any one jury; and the concurrence of twelve is necessary to find an indictment. Their deliberations must be private, and they are not permitted to disclose the fact of an indictment having been found for a felony, when the person indicted is not in actual confinement, until such person shall have been arrested. And in all cases the evidence presented to them must be such as would, if unexplained, convict the accused of the crime charged in the indictment.

Questions of fact are usually submitted to jurors under the

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direction of the court, who explain to them the law applicable to the case. Juries may, however, find a special verdict-that is, the facts which are proved before them-still leaving it to the court to pronounce the law upon the facts Though juries are one of the most powerful instruments of the law, yet they are by no means superior to the law. They may be indicted for corrupt conduct in the finding of their verdict; and if a juror take a gift from a party to a suit he is drawn to try, besides being liable to indictment, he is subject to a fine of ten times the value of the gift; and the giver is also fined in like manner. But unless liable to indictment, a juror can not be questioned for any verdict. It is proper also to add, that their compensation does not depend upon their verdict.

In a free government, the judicial power should be entirely separated from the executive and the law-making powers. Jurors do not derive their appointment from either, or from any other officers deriving their authority from the same source. By the manner in which they are appointed, and by the exercise of their powers, the principle of sovereignty is universally diffused among the people. In monarchical governments, an almost divine reverence is paid to the theory which teaches that all power emanates from the king; while the citizens of a free republic recognize the living fact, that it is derived from the people.

The people, then, in selecting jurors, and the jurors as representatives of the people, in exercising the powers delegated to them, enjoy some of the highest prerogatives of sovereignty.

It may be objected, that jurors are unduly influenced in the verdicts they render, by the eloquence of counsel, and by the sympathetic feelings that are excited in them. But let it be remembered that sympathy, if it exists, is always on the side of distress, always on the side of mercy. Although it may be weakness in a jury to be thus affected, yet that noble feeling should be cherished in their bosoms. The law intends that a jury shall consist of twelve men having human feelings, and not of twelve monsters in whom the fires of love and benevolence were never kindled. They should not be like so many rocks in the midst of the desert, on which no wave of human sympathy can beat, but rather like the beacon-lights on the green isles of the ocean, holding out to the last, to the wanderer who is willing to return to duty, the promise of forgiveness and hope.

In criminal cases, jurors are the judges both of the law and the fact; and if the law has not in its tenderness authorized the

exercise of a generous sympathy, it has not in its cruelty for bidden it. While it commands them to be just in the exercise of mercy, it permits them to be merciful in the dispensation of justice. It teaches them to judge as they would be judged.

One other consideration remains. The attendance of jurors upon courts is a great school of wisdom and knowledge, where they learn many useful things, of which they would else for ever remain ignorant. The great qualifications of which they are, almost without exception, possessed, are honesty and good sense. With these they are able to comprehend the strong points of a case, overlooking or disregarding the minute and perplexing technicalities of the law, and in most cases their decisions answer the ends of justice. Retaining in their memory what is claimed on one side, and admitted or denied on the other, as well as what is determined by the court, they learn many valuable principles of elementary law. Although it is a maxim, that "ignorance of the law excuseth no man," it can not be doubted that its precepts would be less frequently broken, if they were better understood; and it is to be feared that many who are enjoying the blessings of liberty which this institution contributes so powerfully to strengthen and preserve, have never reflected upon the condition of things that would exist, if its powers should be limited, or its existence destroyed.

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PATRIOTISM.

A FEW MAXIMS FOR THE CONSIDERATION OF THE PUBLIC.

1. EVERY man, by consulting his own heart, may easily know whether he is or is not a patriot. But is not so easy for the by-standers.

2. Being loud and vehement either against a court or for a court, is no proof of patriotism.

3. A man whose passion for money runs high, bids fair for being no patriot. And he likewise whose appetite is keen for power.

4. A native than an alien, a married man than a bachelor, a believer than an infidel, has a better chance for being a patriot.

5. It is impossible an epicure should be a patriot.

6. It is impossible a man who cheats at cards, or cogs the dice, should be a patriot.

7. It is impossible a man who is false to his friends and neighbors, should be true to the public.

8. Every knave is a thorough knave. And a thorough knave is a knave throughout.

9. A man who hath no sense of God or conscience: would you make such a one guardian to your child? If not, why guardian to the state?

10. A sot, a beast, benumbed and stupefied by excess, is good for nothing, much less to make a patriot of.

11. A fop or man of pleasure makes but a scurvy patriot.

12. A sullen, churlish man, who loves no body, will hardly love his country.

13. The love of praise and esteem may do something; but to make a true patriot there must be an inward sense of duty and conscience.

14. Honesty (like other things) grows from its proper seed, good principles early laid in the mind.

15. To be a real patriot, a man must consider his countrymen as God's creatures, and himself as accountable for his acting towards them.

16. If pro aris et focis be the life of patriotism, he who hath no religion or no home makes a suspected patriot.

17. No man perjures himself for the sake of conscience.

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