" 3 Henry's Hist. of Great Britain, 346.
The Mirror of Justices, (written within a century after
Magna Carta,) in the chapter on the abuses of the Common
law, says:"It is abuse to use the words, to their knowledge,
in their oaths, to make the jurors speak upon thoughts, since
the chief words of their oaths be that they speak the truth." p.
249.
Smith, writing in the time of Elizabeth, says that, in civil suits,
the jury "be sworn to declare the truth of that issue according to
the evidence, and their conscience." Smith's Commonwealth
of England. edition of 1621, p. 73.
In criminal trials, he says:
"The clerk giveth the juror an oath to go uprightly betwixt the
prince and the prisoner." Ditto, p. 90. [24]
Hale says:
"Then twelve, and no less, of such as are indifferent and are
returned upon the principal panel, or the tales, are sworn to try
the same according to the evidence." 2 Hale's History of the
Common Law, 141.
It appears from Blackstone that, even at this day, neither in
civil nor criminal cases, are jurors in England sworn to try causes
according to law.
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