The idea of Coke and others, that the object of this chapter was
simply to forbid magistrates to put a man on trial, when there
were no witnesses against him, but only the simple accusation or
testimony of the magistrates themselves, before whom he was to
be tried, is preposterous; for that would be equivalent to supposing
that magistrates acted in the triple character of judge, jury and
witnesses, in the same trial; and that, therefore, in such case,
they needed to be prohibited from condemning a man on their own
accusation or testimony alone. But such a provision would have
been unnecessary and senseless, for two reasons; first, because
the bailiffs or magistrates had no power to "hold pleas of the
crown," still less to try or condemn a man; that power resting
wholly with the juries; second, because if bailiffs or
magistrates could try and condemn a man, without a jury, the
prohibition upon their doing so upon their own accusation or
testimony alone, would give no additional protection to the
accused, so long as these same bailiffs or magistrates were
allowed to decide what weight should be given, both to their own
testimony and that of other witnesses, for, if they wished to
convict, they would of course decide that any testimony, however
frivolous or irrelevant, in addition to their own, was sufficient.
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