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QUERY XIV.
THE administration of justice and the discrip|tion of the laws?
The state is divided into counties. In every county are appointed magistrates, called justices of the peace, usually from eigth to thirty or forty in number, in proportion to the size of the county, of the most discreet and honest inhabitants. They are nominated by their fellows, but commission|ed by the governor, and act without reward. These magistrates have jurisdiction both criminal and civil. If the question before them be a ques|tion of law only, they decide on it themselves: but if it be of fact, or of fact and law combined, it must be referred to a jury. In the latter case, of a combination of law and fact, it is usual for the jurors to decide the fact, and to refer the law arising on it to the decision of the judges. But this division of the subject lies with their discre|tion only. And if the question relate to any point of public liberty, or if it be one of those in which the judges may be suspected of bias, the jury undertake to decide both law and fact. If they be mistaken, a decision against right, which is casual only, is less dangerous to the state, and less afflicting to the loser, than one which makes part of a regular and uniform