_"The trial by jury," then, is a "trial by the country"--that is, by the people--as distinguished from a trial by the government._ It was anciently called "trial _per pais_"--that is, "trial by the country." And now, in every criminal trial, the jury are told that the accused "has, for trial, put himself upon the _country_; which _country_ you (the jury) are." _The object of this trial "by the country" or by the people, in preference to a trial by the government, is to guard against every species of oppression by the government. In order to effect this end, it is indispensable that the people, or "the country," judge of and determine their own liberties against the government; instead of the government's judging of and determining its own powers over the people. How is it possible that juries can do anything to protect the liberties of the people against the government, if they are not allowed to determine what those liberties are?_ Any government, that is its own judge of, and determines authoritatively for the people, what are its own powers over the people, is an absolute government of course. It has all the powers that it chooses to exercise. There is no other--or at least no more accurate--definition of a despotism than this. On the other hand, any people, that judge of, and determine authoritatively for the government, what are their own liberties against the government, of course retain all the liberties they wish to enjoy. _And this is freedom._ At least, it is freedom _to them_; because, although it may be theoretically imperfect, it, nevertheless, corresponds to _their_ highest notions of freedom. To secure this right of the people to judge of their own liberties against the government, the jurors are taken, (or must be, to make them lawful jurors,) from the body of the people, _by lot_, or by some process that precludes any previous knowledge, choice, or selection of them, on the part of the government. This is done to prevent the government's constituting a jury of its own partisans or friends; in other words, to prevent the government's _packing_ a jury, with a view to maintain its own laws, and accomplish its own purposes.