4205. JURY (Trial by), Law and fact.
—The people are not qualified to judge questions
of law; but they are very capable of judging questions of fact. In the form of
juries, therefore, they determine all matters
of fact, leaving to the permanent judges to
decide the law resulting from those facts.
* * * It is left to the juries, if they think
permanent judges are under any bias whatever
in any cause, to take on themselves to
judge the law as well as the fact. They
never exercise this power but when they suspect
partiality in the judges; and by the exercise
of this power they have been the firmest
bulwarks of English liberty.—
To L'Abbé Arnond. Washington ed. iii, 81.
Ford ed., v, 103.
(P.
1789)
