Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1890-09-18
AN OLD FORM OF TRIAL.
DECISION BY WAGER or LAW, OR
TRIAL BY cOMPURGATlON.

TRIAL BY COMPURGATiON.
The Party Made Oath to the Facts and
Called His Eeighbors to Swear They
Believed misunderstanding Results Of
Such Trials.
There is acharm in antiquity, the force
of which we all feel and acknowledge.
1t lends an additional value to many Of
those things that we esteem the highest.
We love an old friend, q bottle of old
wine, an old coin, an old picture, an old
statue, an old manuscript, an old book.
To the same latent Write we are proba-
bly, to attribute the strong attachment
Of the legal profession to old laws and in
stitutions, and hence the zeal Of our legal
writers to trace back all that is valuable
in both to the remotest period. we cling
with tenfold affection to the institutions
that can boast the dignity Of barbarian
origin; and blessed is the man who can
prove to our satisfaction that we are liv-
ing under laws framed by the philosophy
or our half clad Saxon ancestors in the
contemplative retirement of their bogs
and Businesses.
The persevering efforts Of the learned
to show that we are indebted to the wis
dom Of the dark ages for our trial by
jury are well known. The attempt was
laudable, although not quite successful
But if the pedigree Of juries be involved
in some doubt, there have been other
judicial forms the claims Of which to
Teutonic origin may be established with
out even the aid Of strained jnterpreta-
ton or far fetched SURPRISE Of this
number is Wager of Law, or Trial by
Compurgation"-a species of trial which
maintained its ground in the English
courts until a comparatively recent date.
Our ancestors, considering that there
were many cases in which an innocent
man of good credit might be overborne
by multitude of false witnesses, estab-
lished this species Of trial. by the oath Of
the defendant himself; for if he abso-
lutely swore that he was not chargeable
and appeared to be a person Of reputa-
ton, he went free and forever acquitted
| Of the debt or other cause of action.
The manner Of waging and making
law was this: The defendant having
given security to make his law-that is,
take the benefit which the law has al
lowed him-brought with him into the
court room eleven Of his neighbors. The
defendant, then standing at the end Of
the bar, was admonished by the Judges
of the nature and danger Of false oath.
II he still persisted, he was made to re-
peat an oath in substance as follows:
''Hear this, " justices. that do not owe
unto Richard Jones thesum Of ten pounds,
nor any penny thereof, in manner and
form as the said Richard hath declared
against me. SO help me, Godr And
thereupon his eleven neighbors, or com
purgators, were made to avow upon their
oaths that they believed in their con
sciences that the defendant spoke the
truth
The result of wager of law was to per
petually bar the claim Of the plaintiff,
and it was never permitted except where
the defendant bore fair and irreproach-
able character, and it was also confined
in England to such cases where a debt
might be supposed to be discharged or
satisfaction made in private without any
witnesses to attest it,
Trial by compurgation was in general
use among the northern tribes that over
ran the Roman empire 1t was one Of
many expedients for eliciting truth
which prevailed in an age rather re-
markable for active energy than for in
tellectual acuteness and subtle distinc-
tions. In those lays religion was not
infrequently called in aid Of law. In
modern times law is but too often called
to the assistance of religion. Repeated
mention is made Of trial by compurga-
ton i'll the codes Of the northern nations
in old charters and by the earlier his
tOrians.
In his valuable work on the Origin Of
the Laws and Institutions Of Modern
Europe" Mr.. Spence observes that the
system Of compurgation, so far as put
ting the party himself to his oath, evi-
IDENTIFY had its origin from the decisory
oath of the Romans. In the same spirit
we might assert that the system Of trial
by jury, so far as regards judges and
witnesses, evidently had its origin in the
proceedings before a Turkish cadi The
fact is that scarcely single instance oc-
ours in the whole Of the barbarian codes
where the decision Of any question was
left to the unsupported oath Of either Of
the parties. Besides, the decisory oath
itself differed most materially from the
oath Of purgation-the former was ten
dered by one Of the parties to the other,
as the means Of abridging civil suit;
the latter was prescribed by the law as a
specific defense to a criminal charge or
civil claim.
The number Of compurgators varied
considerably, according to the import
ance of the subject, the character of the
person or the customs Of the particular
people. In Wales there was species Of
purgation, denominated assath, existing
at the beginning Of the Fifteenth cen
tury, in which the number of compur-
gators amounted to 300. Twelve, how
ever, appears to have been the usual
number, including the party himself.
Upon superficial view Of the subject
1t might seem that the custom of COM
purgation was calculated to prevent the
perjury which would have ensued if the
decision Of the question had been left to
the oath of the accused alone. But when
we consider that at the period when it
generally prevailed the ties Of consan-
guinity and clanship We're regarded as
superior to all other obligations, we shall
find that the security was rather appar-
ent than real 1t cannot. therefore. sur
prise us that the complaints Of the prev
alence Of false swearing were universal.
Trial by compurgation, thus respect
able in its origin, became theinheritance
Of the English; and they preserved it, as
we have already said, to comparatively
recent period, with that jealous affection
and fial reverence which have convert
ed their code into o species Of museum
Of antiquities and legal curiosities:-
Jurist
Electricity In Street Cars.
Two young electricians were disputing
as they rode on an Albany motor car the
other day as to whether they were in an
electric field or not. One strenuously
insisted that no electric current passed