THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. EDITED BY ALLEN THORNDIKE RICE. VOL. CXXXIX. Tros Tyriusque mihi nullo discrimine agetur. NEW YORK: No. 30 LAFAYETTE PLACE. NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. No. CCCXXXII. JULY, 1884. JURIES AND JURYMEN. ༡ 1 "When the English adopted trial by jury they were a semi-barbarous people; they have since become one of the most enlightened nations of the earth, and their attachment to this institution seems to have increased with their increasing cultivation; many of its offspring have founded powerful republics; but everywhere they have boasted of the privilege of trial by jury." THUS wrote De Tocqueville, fifty years ago. I do not believe the weight of opinion of the Anglo-Saxon race has shifted since. But murmurs against this time-honored institution are, no doubt, more frequently heard of late years than formerly. And they come not merely from disappointed litigants, but from intelligent journalists, whose quick eyes take in, as at a single glance, all the anomalous verdicts of the day; from doctrinaires, who look at all questions from their theoretical side alone; and from men of large business interests, who view with misgiving some of the men in the jury-box who are to pass upon their rights. No Anglo-Saxon institution is doomed, however, by a mere consideration of its imperfections. It is the genius of our race to look before and after, and to see what are the perils and inconveniences of the new before it displaces the old. But, before considering the comparative merits of trial by judges or by jury, viewed as a question simply of the adminisVOL. CXXXIX. —NO. 332. 1 |