New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-03-21
JURORS AS JUDGKs OF THE LAW.

"ou ths part Of mani Of those who advocate extreme la
tute for Jurors there attempt to establish the principle
thst any may dbsgee verde, If be him
self the belief that the s~ which applied 70 case IN
jucu, soy that no lao pAdtcTer could be srseusd"
The above extract from Boston paper, in ref
erence TO 81 act declaring the rights of Jurors,
now pending before the Massachusetts, Legislature,
is fair specimen Of very common kind Of po-
liticslressoniDg, such as may paw wellenough, per-
bsps, among school boys or pedants who seldom
look outside of their studies. but which to the
apprehension Of everybody who knows anything
of mankind, the world, and its actual realities,
ia ss ridiculous "a il il bsselsssi.s bssslsssnsas
being irdee:, the cause Of its absuriity.
SchoolbOys ard pedants may insgine that
every on is born capable Of and ready to, form
an opinion of bis own upon all topics,
and that nothing but the iron compulsion of
legal OBJ igsiion will prevent juries from scat
t.rine. as to points Of law, in al possible
djrectiobs-uo two Of them, or, at least, no
twelve Of them, ever coming to the same idsat-
icsl conclusion aud at least one in every jury
being sure to stsnd out against the direction OF
the Court AID the opinion Of his fellows, how
ever obvious, Just, right, and reasonable that
direction and opinion may be. Such are the
indie pendent and self determining monsters that
figure in the maeinations of schoolboys-giants,
and Titsns, who, If left to themselves, and not
held down by the main force ofthe superior gods,
would, 1t is apprehended soon bring the uni
verse to utter confusion. But those who travel
On the level plain Of this ordinary wofk-dsy
world Of the middle Of the nineteenth century,
do not meet with more than very sllght traces.
If any, Of these eminent, and, to confess the
truth, mythical monsters, which never existed
anywhere except in the brains of dresmers.
The men who sit on juries TO- day-ninety nine,
at least, Of them out Of every hundred-giye them
whatever right you will; nay, impose upon them
whatever duty you will, Of following their own
judgment, must and Of necessity will still lean
upon the judgment of somebody else-for the
very good and sufficient reason that they have no
judgment of their own to lean upon. The
Judges, with their superior learning and the
weight which their position gives them, will
always carry with them, whether their views be
right or wrong very large proportion-much
too large proportion-of all juries; for he must
be poor tool indeed, who, with the education
and experience of Judge, is not able to cover
over even the most unjust and unfounded views
with web Of sophis,ry beyond the power Of or
binary jurors to to disentsngle.
And even those very few jurors-rari nantes in
gurgits rasto-who are in the habit of forming
opinions Of their own, must in ordinary cases
have some pretty strong backing to sustain them
in tettipg up their private and solitary opinion
against that of their fellows and the Court Leav-
irg out Of consideration disagreements caused by
mere caprice or peculiarly of temper, such as
must occasionally happen, and nothing will or
would sustain single juror, or even three or
four jurors, in standing on: against the instru:.
tions Of the Court as to the law, except the con.
sciousness that they are backed by strong party
out Of DOORS and it is precisely the legal right of
this strorg party out Of doors to have partici.
patton in the execution Of the law, which the
institution Of jury trials was intended to guaran.
tee and to secure. The trial BY jury is an insti-
tuition for the protectien of the weak against the
strong, Of those out Of power from the violence
Of those in power. II is the great democratic
Ingredient in the otherwise very aristocratic
constitution of Great Britain-an ingredient
which has tempered and modified all the rest,
and one, the tue spirit Of which Britsh juries
have, a. q general thing, firmly maintained in
practice, however Judges and lawyer, may have
attempted to deprive them Of their rights, and to
turn them into mere instruments Of the Court.
It the especial excellence Of jury trial In