Political Science Of The State

DEPARTMENTS OF GOVERNMENT IN A STATE. 329
to the character of the accused person, and it is supposed by
some that juries in our sense of the word began, when these
persons, neighbors of the person on trial and present in the
court, were found convenient to judge on the facts of the
case. Other explanations are given by others which we are
obliged to pass over. When the jury-system was established
a new element was introduced, somewhat similar to that found
in the early city-states in Greece, the juries being a kind of
committee of the people to aid the king's judge. But the
position of the jury in relation to the judge was not so inde-
pendent at first as it became afterwards.
The judges in England were the king's officers, although
there and in Scotland the baronial jurisdiction existed as it
did on the continent, and only disappeared by degrees. Of
the various courts I can say nothing, nor of the circuits of the
judges in the counties. The king's courts supplanted the
courts of the barons, being appealed to from them. But the
king's judges were dependent on him, and being removable
at pleasure, were often not to be trusted when he was inter-
ested or sought to influence them. At length, by the act of
settlement (1701), the judges were by law to hold their office
quamdiu se bene gesserint, and at the accession of George III.
it was provided that a king's death should not put an end to
their office. Many other improvements have been made in
more modern times, among which that which a few years
since brought in cheap justice, without lawyers and without
juries unless the parties wished, by means of county courts,
for the settlement of small civil cases, deserves especial men-
tion.
The judiciary system in a country comprises all the judges in
the various courts from the police and municipal justices up
to the high courts of appeal, including those of equity, if that
is committed to a distinct body of judges,—together with the
juries where they are in use, the officers employing in sum-
moning, arresting, and executing sentences, a portion of the
police, i. <?., the detective force, in a certain sense, also the
legal profession, and any bodies vested with judicial powers