If any evidence, extraneous to the history and language of Magna Carta, were needed to prove that, by that chapter which guaranties the trial by jury, all was meant that has now been ascribed to it, and _that the legislation of the king was to be of no authority with the jury beyond what they chose to allow to it_, and that the juries were to limit the punishments to be inflicted, we should find that evidence in various sources, such as the laws, customs, and characters of their ancestors on the continent, and of the northern Europeans generally; in the legislation and customs that immediately succeeded Magna Carta; in the oaths that have at different times been administered to jurors, &c., &c. This evidence can be exhibited here but partially. To give it all would require too much space and labor. SECTION I. _Weakness of the Regal Authority._ Hughes, in his preface to his translation of Horne's "_Mirror of Justices_," (a book written in the time of Edward I., 1272 to 1307,) giving a concise view of the laws of England generally, says: "Although in the Saxon's time I find the usual words of the acts then to have been _edictum_, (edict,) _constitutio_, (statute,) little mention being made of the commons, yet I further find that, _tum demum leges vim et vigerem habuerunt, cum fuerunt non modo institutæ sed firmatæ approbatione communitatis_." (The laws had force and vigor only when they were not only enacted, but confirmed by the approval of the community.) The _Mirror of Justices_ itself also says, (ch. 1, sec. 3,) in speaking "_Of the first Constitutions of the Ancient Kings_:" "Many ordinances were made by many kings, until the time of the king that now is (Edward I.); the which ordinances were abused, _or not used by many, nor very current_, because they were not put in writing, and certainly published."--_Mirror of Justices_, p. 6. Hallam says: "The Franks, Lombards, and Saxons seem alike to have been jealous of judicial authority; and averse to surrendering what concerned every man's private right, out of the hands of his neighbors and equals."--_1 Middle Ages_, 271. The "judicial authority," here spoken of, was the authority of the kings, (who at that time united the office of both legislators and judges,) and not of a separate department of government, called the judiciary, like what has existed in more modern times.[34] Hume says: