constitution, when traced to its principles, will be found is sober
reason to deserve. The impartial administration of justice, which
secures both our persons and our properties, is the great end of civil
society. But if that be entirely trusted to the magistracy, a select body
of men, and those generally selected by the prince or such as enjoy
the highest offices in the state, their decisions, in spite of their own
natural integrity, will have frequently an involuntary bias towards
those of their own rank and dignity: it is not to be expected from
human nature, that the few should always be attentive to the
interests and good of the many. On the other hand, if the power of
judicature were placed at random in the hands of the multitude,
their decisions would be wild and capricious, and a new rule of
action would be every day established in our courts. It is wisely
therefore ordered, that the principles and axioms of law, flowing
from abstracted reason, and not accommodated to times or to men,
should be deposited in the breasts of the judges, to be occasionally
applied to such facts as come properly ascertained before them. For
here partiality can have little scope: the law is well known, and is the
same for all ranks and degrees; it follows as a regular conclusion
from the premises of fact pre-established. But in settling and
adjusting a question of fact, when entrusted to any single magistrate,
partiality and injustice have an ample field to range in; either by
boldly asserting that to be proved which is not so, or more artfully
oppressing some circumstances, stretching and warping others, and
distinguishing away the remainder. Here therefore a competent
number of sensible and upright jurymen, chosen by lot from among
those of the middle rank, will be found the best investigators of
truth, and the surest guardians of public justice. For the most
powerful individual in the state will be cautious of committing any
flagrant invasion of another’s right, when he knows that the fact of
his oppression must be examined and decided by twelve indifferent
men, not appointed until the hour of trial; and that when once that
fact is ascertained, the law must of course redress it. This therefore
preservs in the hands of the people that share which they ought to
have in the administration of public justice, and prevents the
encroachments of the more powerful and wealthy citizens. Every
new tribunal, erected for the decision of facts, without the
intervention of a jury (whether composed of justices of the peace,
commissioners of the revenue, judges of a court of conscience, or any
other standing magistrates), is a step towards establishing
aristocracy, the most oppressive of absolute governments. -
Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England, Book 3,
Chapter 23