"The anxious desire that has been shown to obtain these several acts, proves clearly that the nation, in general, is truly sensible of the great inconvenience arising from the disuse of the ancient county and hundred courts, wherein causes of this small value were always formerly decided with very little trouble and expense to the parties. But it is to be feared that the general remedy, which of late hath been principally applied to this inconvenience, (the erecting these new jurisdictions,) may itself be attended in time with very ill consequences; as the method of proceeding therein is entirely in derogation of the common law; and their large discretionary powers create a petty tyranny in a set of standing commissioners; and as the disuse of the trial by jury may tend to estrange the minds of the people from that valuable prerogative of Englishmen, which has already been more than sufficiently excluded in many instances. _How much rather is it to be wished that the proceedings in the county and hundred courts could be again revived_, without burdening the freeholders with too frequent and tedious attendances; and at the same time removing the delays that have insensibly crept into their proceedings, and the power that either party has of transferring at pleasure their suits to the courts at Westminster! _And we may, with satisfaction, observe, that this experiment has been actually tried, and has succeeded in the populous county of Middlesex_, which might serve as an example for others. For by statute 23 Geo. II., ch. 33, it is enacted: 1. That a special county court shall be held at least once in a month, in every hundred of the county of Middlesex, _by the county clerk_. 2. _That twelve freeholders of that hundred, qualified to serve on juries, and struck by the sheriff, shall be summoned to appear at such court by rotation_; so as none shall be summoned oftener than once a year. 3. That in all causes not exceeding the value of forty shillings, _the county clerk and twelve suitors (jurors) shall proceed in a summary way_, examining the parties and witnesses on oath, without the formal process anciently used; _and shall make such order therein as they shall judge agreeable to conscience_."--_3 Blackstone_, 81-83. What are these but courts of conscience? And yet Blackstone tells us they are a _revival of the ancient hundred and county courts_. And what does this fact prove, but that the ancient common law courts, in which juries sat, were mere courts of conscience?