The Upper House. 543

conusant of the Fact) has been found to be the greatest Se-
curity of the Peoples Lives, Fortunes, Liberty and Reputation
as well as the surest method of bringing Criminals to Justice,
and Exactly Agreeable to the ninth Chapter of Articuli Super
Chartas wherein it is Expressly provided that every Sheriff
or Bailiff should put on inquest such as be next Neighbours
most Sufficient and Least Suspitious, on pain of paying Double
Damages, and being grievously amerc'd to the King.
2 That altho the Alteration propos'd may probably increase
the Publick Charge about Thirty Thousand p^ds of Tobacco
according to the Estimate annex'd, that as the attendance of
Jurors Evidences and Suitors will be much Shorten'd, the Cost
will be Lessend in proportion; Besides the Convenience of
bringing the Tryals Home to the People's Doors, & saving
the fatigue & Expence of -psonal attendance at the Provincial
Court, (w^ch as the Courts are Established, happens in the
Busiest Season of the year, and Conseq^tly when it is more
prejudicial to the people to be from Home) will make Ample
Amends for the Increase of the Publick Charge.
3 That when Tryals are in the neighbourhood where the
facts arise, there's Less Danger of False Testimony prevail-
ing, than where the Contending Parties, Jurors & Wittnesses,

U. H. J.

P. 89

are Stranger to one another. This Circumstance is of very
great weight, & worthy of Consideration, as appears in Sir
Mathew Male's History of the Common Law of England,
where treating of these Sort of Tryals he has these Remark-
able words: — and further the very Quality, Carriage, Age,
Condition, Education & place of Commorance of Wittnesses,
is by this means plainly and Evidently set forth to the Court
& the Jury, whereby the Judge & Jurors may have a full In-
formation of them & the Jurors, as they see Cause, may give
more or Less Credit to their Testimony, for the Jurors are not
only Judges of the Fact, but many Times of the Truth of the
Evidence; and if there be Just Cause to Disbelieve what the
Wittness Swears; they are not Bound to give their Verdict
according to the Evidence or Testimony of that wittness, and
they may sometimes give Credit to one Wittness tho opposed
by more then one. And indeed it is one of the Excellencies of
this Tryal above the Tryal by wittnesses, that altho the Jury
ought to give a great regard to wittnesses & their Testimony,
yet are they not always Bound by it, but may upon Reason-
able Circumstances inducing a Blemish upon their Credibility,
tho otherwise in themselves in strictness of Law, they are to
be heard, pronounce a Verdict Contrary to such Testimony

p. 90

the Truth whereof they have Reason to Suspect, & may and
do often pronounce the verdict upon one single Testimony.

P. 91