Note 850 — MAGNA CARTA. (continued 5)

The erroneous identification of judgment of peers with trial by jury can be found far back in legal history. Pollock and Maitland, II. 622-3, n., trace it to within a century of Magna Carta. "This mistake is being made already in Edward I.’s day; Y. B. 30-1 Edward I., p. 531.“ In spite of modern research the error dies hard. It appears, e.g., in Thomson, Magna Charta, 223, and in Taswell-Langmead, Const. Hist., 110. It was repeated only the other day by so high an authority as Dr. Goldwin Smith in his recently published work, ”The United Kingdom," I. 127, where he maintains that chapter 39 of Magna Carta “affirms the right of trial by jury.”