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ANCIENT GREECE.[CHAP. XLcome before each particular court were so uncertain, that itwould be vain for us to attempt to settle any general principles on the subject.But at this moment we have inEngland an example, which shows how vain it is to expectexact regulations, where courts of justice have been formedand enlarged by circumstances. Criminal cases, it is truebelong exclusively to the court of the King's Bench ;but itshares civil actiojis with the court of Common Pleas, and thecourt of Exchequer, in such a manner, that, with few exceptions, certain classes of suits cannot be said to belongexclusively to either of these tribunals.Our remarks thus far on the organization of the courtsapply immediately to Athens but; they will, without doubt,admit of a much wider application to the other Greciancities. Yet on one point there existed a remarkable difference.Though the popular tribunals were generally introduced, they did not prevail in every state. For if I understand Aristotlerightly, there were no popular tribunals inSparta, but all processes were there, as in Carthage, decidedby magistrates. 1If Sparta had had such courts, would theynot have been mentioned? But when Aristotle says ingeneral,that it is the leading characteristic of a democracy,that the citizens should be the2judges of one another, maywe not infer, and is it not evident from the nature of things,that popular tribunals disappeared, wherever the sway of thefew was established ?The example of Athens shows in a remarkable manner,how the institution of these popular tribunals could affectthe whole character of a state.Such could be the case inAthens, where the greatest extent was given to the publictrials, by permitting any who desired, to appear as accusers.The whole organization of the Grecian city governmentsleads us to believe, that most of the other cities had populartribunals, without which,^ having exactly the same form,must have been similar to those of Athens. Such tribunalsmust have existed in Argos, before the introduction of ostracism, and inSyracuse before the similar method of banish-*Aristot Polit o i. . 1 1. . Kal rag SUaeM r&v a>X eiW hK