Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 24.djvu/695

Rh age, when "business extends over such wide territories, and when commercial transactions are usually evidenced more or less by written instruments, a debtor may be sued wherever he can be found, except in a few special cases, yet, on the other hand, crimes which, from the nature of the case, are evidenced usually and almost wholly by living witnesses, must still be tried in the vicinage or county where they were committed. While most civil actions may now be brought wherever the defendant may be found, yet the jury must be called from the vicinity of the forum in which they are tried. In the early history of the jury, vicinage meant simply the immediate neighborhood, while the same term is now used to denote the whole territory over which the court has jurisdiction. Calling the jury from the vicinage would seem to have the advantage of strengthening local self-government. Litigants usually have the assurance that their rights are to be determined, not by strangers who may be used to different customs and habits of life, but by their neighbors, upon whose rights they in turn may be called upon to adjudicate. And this feature of the jury has the further advantage that, while the jurors know nothing about the facts of the particular case, yet the parties have the benefit of whatever good repute they may sustain among their neighbors. So, while the reasons that gave rise to this restriction in calling a jury no longer exist, yet, when reasonable provisions are made for a change of venue in cases of violent popular feeling, there are some advantages derived from it, and there seems to be no good reason for a change.

2. We are next to consider the jury with reference to their previous knowledge of the facts in dispute. As before intimated, in the early stages of the system the jurors were called because they knew more or less about the facts in the case, and if, upon examination, it should be found that any one who was called was entirely ignorant of the facts to be tried, he was excluded, and another was called in his stead. This process was continued until all those who could add nothing to the jury's knowledge of the case were excused, and the requisite number of those possessing such information were found. They were then sworn to render a true verdict, not upon the evidence produced in court, but upon the knowledge they themselves possessed, or upon the words of their fathers. This explains the seeming anomaly of attaint for a false verdict. Should either party be dissatisfied with the verdict, he could demand a jury of double the usual number, to try the truthfulness of the former verdict. This was simply trying the whole panel for perjury because they possessed the requisite knowledge, and had sworn that they would render a true verdict upon that knowledge.

It often happened that controversies would arise when twelve men