The same facts also prove that the common
mind, and the general, or, perhaps, rather, the universal
conscience, as developed in the untrammeled judgments of juries,
may be safely relied upon for the preservation of individual rights
in civil society; and that there is no necessity or excuse for that
deluge of arbitrary legislation, with which the present age is
overwhelmed, under the pretext that unless laws be made, the
law will not be known; a pretext, by the way, almost universally
used for overturning, instead of establishing, the principles of
justice.
SECTION III. The Oaths of Jurors.
The oaths that have been administered to jurors, in England, and
which are their legal guide to their duty, all (so far as I have
ascertained them) corroborate the idea that the jurors are to try
all cases on their intrinsic merits, independently of any laws
that they deem unjust or oppressive. It is probable that an oath
was never administered to a jury in England, either in a civil or
criminal case, to try it according to law.
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