Note 704 — Chapter XLVI · CONSTITUTIONAL AND JUDICIAL CHANGES AT ATHENS UNDER PERIKLES.
Reading edition
Mr. Jardine (Criminal Trials, Introduct. p. 8) observes, that the “proceedings against persons accused of state offences, in the earlier periods of our history, do not deserve the name of trials: they were a mere mockery of justice,” etc.
Respecting what English juries have been, it is curious to peruse the following remarks of Mr. Daines Barrington, Observations on the Statutes, p. 409. In remarking on a statute of Henry the Seventh, A. D. 1494, he says:
“The twenty-first chapter recites: That perjury is much and customarily used within the city of London, among such persons as passen and been impannelled in issue, joined between party and party.’
“This offence hath been before this statute complained of in preambles to several laws, being always the perjury of a juror, who finds a verdict contrary to his oath, and not that which we hear too much of at present, in the witnesses produced at a trial.
“In the Dance of Death, written originally in French, by Macharel, and translated by John Lydgate in this reign, with some additions, to adapt it to English characters,—a juryman is mentioned, who had often been bribed for giving a false verdict, which shows the offence to have been very common. The sheriff, who summoned the jury, was likewise greatly accessory to this crime, by summoning those who were most partial and prejudiced. Carew, in his account of Cornwall, informs us that it was a common article in an attorney’s bill, to charge pro amicitiâ vicecomitis.
“It is likewise remarkable, that partiality and perjury in jurors of the city of London is more particularly complained of than in other parts of England, by the preamble of this and other statutes. Stow informs us that in 1468, many jurors of this city were punished by having papers fixed on their heads, stating their offence of having been tampered with by the parties to the suit. He likewise complains that this crying offence continued in the time of Queen Elizabeth, when he wrote his account of London: and Fuller, in his English Worthies, mentions it as a proverbial saying, that London juries hang half and save half. Grafton also, in his Chronicle, informs us that the Chancellor of the diocese of London was indicted for a murder, and that the bishop wrote a letter to Cardinal Wolsey, in behalf of his officer, to stop the prosecution, ‘because London juries were so prejudiced, that they would find Abel guilty for the murder of Cain.’
“The punishment for a false verdict by the petty jury is by writ of attaint: and the statute directs, that half of the grand-jury, when the trial is per medietatem linguæ, shall be strangers, not Londoners.
‘And there’s no London jury, but are led In evidence as far by common fame, As they are by present deposition.’ (Ben Jonson’s Magnetic Lady, Act. iii, Sc. 3.)
“It appears by 15 Henry the Sixth, c. 5,—which likewise recites the great increase of perjury in jurors, and in the strongest terms,—that in every attaint there were thirteen defendants: the twelve jurors who gave the verdict, and the plaintiff or defendant who had obtained it, who therefore was supposed to have used corrupt means to procure it. For this reason, if the verdict was given in favor of the crown, no attaint could be brought, because the king could not be joined as a defendant with the jury who were prosecuted.”
Compare also the same work, pp. 394-457, and Mr. Amos’s Notes on Fortescue de Laudib. Leg. Angliæ, c. 27.