, ch. 24, sec.
6. (1495.)
This act was continued in force by 1 Henry VIII, ch. 11, (1509,)
to the end of the then next Parliament.
It was reenacted, and made perpetual, by 3 Henry VIII., ch. 12.
(1511.)
These acts gave unlimited authority to the king's' justices to
pack juries at their discretion; and abolished the last vestige of
the common law right of the people to sit as jurors, and judge of
their own liberties, in the courts to which the acts applied.
Yet, as matters of law, these statutes were no more clear
violations of the common law, the fundamental and paramount
"law of the land," than were those statutes which affixed the
property qualifications before named; because, if the king, or the
government, can select the jurors on the ground of property, it
can select them on any other ground whatever.
Any infringement or restriction of the common law right of the
whole body of the freemen of the kingdom to eligibility as jurors,
was legally an abolition of the trial by jury itself.
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