in that time scarcely inflicted for any crime, however clearly proved: a
circumstance which strongly marks the genius of the Saxon government.

[Sidenote: Trial by the Country.]

On the same principle from which the trial by the oath of compurgators
was derived, was derived also the Trial by the Country, which was the
method of taking the sense of the neighborhood on any dubious fact. If
the matter was of great importance, it was put in the full Shiremote;
and if the general voice acquitted or condemned, decided for one party
or the other, this was final in the cause. But then it was necessary
that all should agree: for it does not appear that our ancestors, in
those days, conceived how any assembly could be supposed to give an
assent to a point concerning which several who composed that assembly
thought differently. They had no idea that a body composed of several
could act by the opinion of a small majority. But experience having
shown that this method of trial was tumultuary and uncertain, they
corrected it by the idea of compurgation. The party concerned was no
longer put to his oath,--he simply pleaded; the compurgators swore as
before in ancient times; therefore the jury were strictly from the
neighborhood, and were supposed to have a personal knowledge of the man
and the fact. They were rather a sort of evidence than judges: and from
hence is derived that singularity in our laws, that most of our
judgments are given upon verdict, and not upon evidence, contrary to the
laws of most other countries. Neither are our juries bound, except by
one particular statute, and in particular cases, to observe any positive
testimony, but are at liberty to judge upon presumptions. These are the
first rude chalkings-out of our jurisprudence. The Saxons were extremely
imperfect in their ideas of law,--the civil institutions of the Romans,
who were the legislators of mankind, having never reached them. The