PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

Of tbe Administration oj Justice. 39:3
.vhich the law is chargeable: for, as to the rest, the
uncertainty, as hath been shewn above, is not in the
law, but in tbe means of human information.
-~
There are two peculiarities, in the judicial constitu.
tion of this country, whicb do not carry with them
~hat e\" idence of their propriety, which rerommends
altnost every other part of the system.
The firstl
of these is the rule, \\'hich requires that juries b
-{!Zl11ZilJ10Uj in tlleir ,"erdicrs. To expect that twelv
lnen, taken by lot out of a pronliscuous multitud ,
'5houlJ agree in thtir opinion upon points confessedly
dubious, and upon which oftentimes the wisest judg ..
ments might be heid in ~ uspense; or to suppose that
any real ullanimily, or change of opinion in the dis­
:-;entillg jurors, could be procured by confining them
until Lhey all con:\ented to the same verdict ; bespeaks
more of the conceit of a barbarous age, than of the
POliC}T \vhich could dictate such an institution as that
of juriess
Nevertheless, the effects of this rule are
not so detrilllental:; as the rule itself is uureasonable:
in crimina! prosecutions it operates considerably in
favour of the prisoner; for if a juror find it necessary
to surrender to the obstinac)r of- others, he ,,-ill
111ucll lnore readily resign his Opillion on the side of
lllercy, than of condelnnation: in ci''"il suits it adds
weight to the direction of the judge; for when a
conference with one another does not seem likely to
produce, in the jury, the agreement that is necessary,
they will naturally close their disputes by a common
0ubmission to tile opinion delivered from the bench.
l-Io\vever, there seelns to bt"! less of· the concurrence
of separate judgments in the same conclusion; con.
sequentiy, less assurance that the conclusion is found ..
cd in reasons of apparent truth and justice, than jf
tl1e decision were left to a plurality, or to sorne cer·
tain majority of voices.
The second circumstance in our constitution, which~ ",
however it may succeed in practice, does not seem to '
hay/"' h~('n suggested by any intelligible fitness in the
t