Page:A History and Defence of Magna Charta.djvu/9

Rh hence in ſome degree we are enabled to determine the nature of their conſtitution; as each kingdom of the Heptarchy had its ſovereign, it was partly monarchical; as the King could not make laws without the conſent of the principal men of the nation, it was, it ſome degree, ariſtocratical; and as the people, who held their lands of the nobles, were ſummoned to the general aſſembly, we have reaſon to ſuppoſe it was, in ſome meaſure, democratical. That the crown was elective ſeems probable from the diſtant branches of the royal family, often ſucceeding to the throne before thoſe who were the neareſt relations of the monarch.

the dominion of theſe people, which laſted above ſix hundred years, the celebrated formed a code of laws, that will, for ever, do the greateſt honour to the memory of that amiable prince. Convinced that oppreſſion naturally follows power, to ſcreen the humble from the tyranny of the great, he inſtituted trials by jury; by which, in all criminal caſes it was ordained, that twelve men ſhould decide whether the accuſed perſon was guilty of the offence laid to his charge or not, and that the judge ſhould pronounce ſentence agreeably to their verdict. Theſe twelve jurymen were choſen from amongſt the peers