* *Nothing can be more plain and express than the
words of the oath are to this purpose. The jurors need not search the
law books, nor tumble over heaps of old records, for the explanation
of them. Our greatest lawyers may from hence learn more certainly
our ancient law in this case, than from all the books in their studies.
The language wherein the oath is penned is known and understood by
every man, and the words in it have the same signification as they have
wheresoever else they are used. The judges, without assuming to
themselves a legislative power, cannot put a new sense upon them,
other than according to their genuine, common meaning. They cannot
magisterially impose their opinions upon the jury, and make them
forsake the direct words of their oath, to pursue their glosses. The
grand inquest are bound to observe alike strictly every part of their
oath, and to use all just and proper ways which may enable them to
perform it; otherwise it were to say, that after men had sworn to
inquire diligently after the truth, according to the best of their
knowledge, they were bound to forsake all the natural and proper
means which their understandings suggest for the discovery of it,
if it be commanded by the judges.
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