CHANGES MADE IN COURSE OF TIME.

In the Jury System.—­The jurors were originally, as has been said, persons acquainted with the facts.  After the Norman conquest, it came about that the jury consisted of twelve persons disinterested and unacquainted with the facts.  Probably the change gradually came about from the difficulty of getting twelve men eligible to the jury who knew of the facts.  Persons ineligible to the jury were then invited to give it information, but not to join it in the verdict.  The next step, taken about 1400 A.D., was to require these witnesses to give their evidence in open court, subject to examination and cross-examination.  The testimony of the witnesses, however, was still merely supplementary.  Then in the time of Queen Anne, about 1707 A.D., it was decided that any person who had knowledge of the facts of the case should appear as a witness, that the jury should consist of persons unacquainted with the facts, and that the verdict should be rendered in accordance with the evidence.  And so it is to this day, both in England and America. [Footnote:  The best history of the jury system is probably Forsyth’s.]

“It is not true, however, that a man is disqualified from serving on a jury simply because he has heard or read of the case, and has formed and expressed some impression in regard to its merits; if it were, the qualifications for jury service in cases that attract great attention would be ignorance and stupidity.  The test, therefore, is not whether the juryman is entirely ignorant of the case, but whether he has formed such an opinion as would be likely to prevent him from impartially weighing the evidence and returning a verdict in accordance therewith.” [Footnote:  Dole’s Talks about Law, p. 59.]

In the Officers.—­As has been said, there were in the old Saxon courts no court officers.  But quite early the necessity for such officers became manifest.  And several of the offices then established have come down to us.  Some of them, however, have been so modified in the progress of time as to be hardly recognizable.

CHAPTER III.

PROCEEDINGS IN A JUSTICE COURT.

I. IN ORDINARY CIVIL ACTIONS.

Definitions.—­A Civil Action is one having for its object the protection or enforcement of a private right or the securing of compensation for an infraction thereof.  For instance a suit brought to secure possession of a horse, or to secure damages for a trespass is a civil action.  The person bringing the action is called the plaintiff; the one against whom it is brought, the defendant.  The plaintiff and the defendant are called the parties to the action.

Jurisdiction.—­A justice of the peace has jurisdiction within the county in most civil actions when the amount in controversy does not exceed a certain sum, usually one hundred dollars. (See p. 296.)