be imagined that persons, in such wealthy circumstances, can be suborned or prevailed on to perjure themselves; they are supposed to be restrained, not only through a religious principle, but also as they regard their honor and reputation, as they would avoid the very great scandal and detriment which must accrue by such behaviour; and further, lest the infamy should extend to and affect their heirs. Other countries, my Prince, are not in such an happy situation, are not so well stored with inhabitants. Though there be in other parts of the world, persons of rank and distinction, men of great estates and possessions, yet they are not so frequent, and so near situated one to another, as in England; there is no where else so great a number of landowners: in a whole town, in any other country, you can scarce find a man of sufficiency enough to be put upon a Jury: for, except in large cities and walled towns, there are very few, besides the nobility, who are possessors of estates, or immoveable goods, to any considerable value. The nobility do not keep in their hands any great scope of feeding-lands; it does not comport with their rank and quality to cultivate vineyards, or put their hands to the plough and yet the main of their possessions consists in vineyards and arable lands, except some meadow grounds, which lie along the great rivers,

Pret. p. 23.) We find mention of several other foreign gold coins, circulating in this Country, as Byzants and Florences, although our Sovereigns in the times of Edward III, and of Henry III, if not in the intervening reigns, made gold coins at their mints. (Liverpool on Coins, p. 38.) In Fleetwood's "Chronicon Pretiosum," is contained an account of the price of commodities and of labor, the worth of the precious metals, and the state of the coinage throughout the reign of Henry VI; it consequently is calculated to afford a correct estimate of the value of money when Fortescue wrote. (See also Henry's History, Vol. V. p. 525. For the Value of Land in the time of Henry VI. Paston Letters, Vol. III. Lett. 21; and on the Depreciation of Money, Sir G. S. Evelyn's Endeavours to ascertain a Standard of Weight and Measure, Philosophical Transactions, A. D. 1798.)

and the woodlands; the pasture of which is in common to their tenants, and neighbours. How can it then be, that in such countries a Jury can be made up of twelve honest men of the neighbourhood, near where any fact in question is brought on to trial; seeing they cannot be well called of the neighbourhood, who live at any remote distances? It will be very difficult to make up a Jury of twelve men, though remote from the place where the fact in question lies, after that the party accused shall have challenged his thirty-five peremptorily, who lived nearest to the place: wherefore in those countries they must make up a Jury, either of persons living at great distances from the place where the fact was committed; persons wholly unacquainted with the parties and their circumstances; or the Jury must consist of people of inferior rank, who have no proper notion, either of shame or infamy, who have no estates or characters to lose; so prejudiced and incapable in point of education, as to be able clearly to discern on which side the truth lies. These things considered, you may cease, my Prince, your surprise, why that law, by means of which in England the truth is enquired into, is not in common to other countries, because other parts of the world cannot furnish Juries of so great sufficiency, or equally qualified.

a The Prologue to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, presents an interesting description of the characteristic qualities, by which the middle ranks of the people were formerly distinguished. A particular account is there given of the knight, the esquire, the yeoman, and the frankleyne, mentioned in the text. The distinctions of rank, which have been formed in this Country, are important, as connected with the progress of national manners: in this point of view, the Statute of Henry V, of additions, deserves particular attention: Fuller, in his English Worthies, supposes that it was the circumstance of the insurrection of Wat Tyler, and Jack Straw, which made the English gentry desirous of not being confounded with the levellers and rabble; but the adoption of these distinctions in society, will probably be

ascribed

ascribed to the operation of more general causes: the same writer mentions, that in the reign of Henry VI, the addition "de" such a place came to be left off, and that of knight and squire to be assumed. Camden observes, that the name of esquire, which in ancient times, was a name of charge and office, did not become a title of dignity, till the reign of Richard II; Spelman, in his Treatise upon Ancient Deeds, notices that some wrote themselves "armigeros," in the reign of Edward III; but he agrees with Fuller, who says, that additions in writing, did not become usual, till the time of Henry the Sixth, and he dates the general assumption of the title of esquire, from the reign of James: he mentions, that the addition of yeomen, was seldom used in writings, until the reign of Henry VIII, a circumstance, which may be thought to receive illustration from the remark of Bacon, that Henry VII, amortized a great part of the land of the Country, to the occupation and hold of the yeomen, of a condition between gentlemen and peasants. This chapter will be read with considerable interest, as shewing the importance of the middle ranks of society, in the time of Henry VI. The reader may be induced to compare it with the Statute 23 Henry VI, c. 15. which points out the proper class of persons, out of which knights of the shire ought to be chosen and the text may be thought to afford a valuable illustration of that most important Statute, passed in the same reign, which regulates the qualification of voters, at county elections. In another point of view, the history of ranks in this Country, may be deemed of importance, when it is considered that the permanence and the improvement of the English Constitution, is, in a great measure, owing to the absence of exclusive privileges, attached to the lesser nobility, and to the legal equality, for every essential purpose, of all ranks below the Peerage. (Sir T. Smith "de Republicâ," lib. i. c. 20, 21. Lord J. Russell on the Constitution, c. 1. Hallam, Vol. II. p. 198. For some Exceptions to this Principle, see Statute of Merton, c. 7. Statute 34 Edw. III. 3 Inst. 141. Britt. c. 25. fol. 49. b. 23 Henry VI. c. 14.) Some writers have attributed much of the excellence of the Constitution to the circumstance, that the knights anciently sat in one assembly with the citizens and burgesses. (Lord J. Russell on the Constitution, c. 1. Hallam's Middle Ages, Vol. II. p. 8. See on this Point, Append. to Hume's History, Vol. II. n. F.)-Respecting the conferring of titles by the Sovereign of this Country, it has been observed, that Walsingham made several unsuccessful attempts to obtain the honor of knighthood, at the hands of Elizabeth. (Welwood's Memoirs, p. 14.) The list of knights created by James, on his accession to the throne, in his way to London, may be seen in Mr. Ellis's recent collection of Original Letters. There issued many commissions at different periods, in pursuance of the Statute "de Militibus," for the

purpose

purpose of compelling persons, of a certain estate, to take upon themselves the order of knighthood: this practice is supposed to have materially contributed to produce the troubles and distresses, of the reign of Edward II; and when revived by Charles I, it greatly augmented the public discontents: Mr. Brodie observes, that persons who came within the operation of this Statute, were not, on that account, authorized to use the title of knights. (Rymer's Fœd. Vol. XV. p. 493, 497, 504. Barrington's Observations on 1 Edw. II. 2 Inst. p. 594. Vol. XIV. Arch. Antiq. Soc. p. 202. Clarendon's History, lib. i. p. 53. Brodie's History of the British Empire, Vol. II. p. 282.) The present chapter receives a particular illustration, from the circumstance, that a catalogue of the gentry of England, was composed by Commissioners in the reign of Henry VI, of which an account is given in Fuller's Worthies; another, similar to it, was made in the reign of Henry VIII. The writings of our legal antiquarians, abound with a variety of curious particulars explanatory of the early distinctions of ranks in this Country. (See Copy from a Manuscript in the Harleian Library, respecting Esquires, Strutt's Antiquities, Vol. III. p. 15. Concerning the Appellation of Rascal, Sir T. Smith de Republicâ, lib. i. c. 21. Birch's Memoirs of Elizabeth, Vol. II. p. 508. D'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature. Of Knights, Selden's Titles of Honor; and see ibid, respecting the Addition of "Chivalier" to Peers, and on the word "Sir." Spelman de Milite Dissertatio. Of the Franklin, 1st Part Shakespeare's Henry IV, Act 2, Scene 1. Cymbeline, Act. 3, Scene 2; and further, upon the Subject of Ranks and Precedency in England, 2 Inst. 594. 667. 4 Inst. 361. Keilway's Rep. 58 a. Barrington's Observations on 20 Rich. II, 34 Edw. III, 1 Hen. V. Selden's Table Talk, Art. Gentleman. Spelman on Ancient Deeds. Sir T. Smith de Rep. lib. i. c. 18, 19. Heywood on the Distinctions of Society among the Anglo-Saxons. Millar on Ranks. Verstegan's Decayed Intelligence, c. 10. Camden's Britannia " on the Degrees in England," p. 234, and the Glossarists.)

CHAP. XXX.

Prince. THOUGH we have already agreed in it, that "comparisons be odious;" yet the Civil Law, as you have made out the comparison, and set forth the reasons, is delivered from all imputation of blame or defect: for, although you have preferred the Laws of England to it, yet the defect is not in the law itself; neither the Civil Law, nor the first legislators stand impeached: you have only demontrated that the country, where it prevails, is the occasion of it; by means of which it does not so effectually get at the truth, in dubious cases, as the Laws of England do; that the Law of England, in the case just now discussed by you, is better accommodated for England than the Civil Law, is out of dispute; and we cannot have the least inclination to introduce the Civil Law instead of it: but this superior excellence of the Law of England does not happen through any blameable defect in the other law; but, as you say, the wealth and populousness of the country are the cause".

The most zealous admirer of the trial by Jury, must admit, that on numerous occasions it is found to be a partial or an incompetent tribunal. Yet it would perhaps be impossible by any other form of procedure to render the decision of judicial questions, subject, in a less degree, to the influence of prejudice or bias: it frequently also happens, that a Jury is better qualified, than any other description of persons, to determine the matter submitted to its consideration. But if it were a valid objection to the relaxing of the rules of evidence established in our Courts, that Juries do not ordinarily possess that capacity and discrimination