_Due process of law_ may be defined as “according to the law of the place in which the trial is held”. It means in this instance that no person may be deprived of life, liberty, or property without the right of judicial trial. _Due process of law_ does not necessarily mean _jury trial_. If a jury trial is the legally recognized method of trying such case, then jury trial is _due process_, but if trial without a jury is legally provided for when permitted by the Constitution, in that instance, _due process_ does not require jury trial. For cases in which the right of trial by jury is guaranteed see pages 111, 125, and 160. “In a word, ‘due process of law’ to-day signifies ‘reasonable law’, in which sense it bestows upon the courts, and especially upon the Federal Courts, as final interpreter of the national constitution, a practically undefined range of supervision over legislation both state and national.”—_Cyclopedia of American Government_, Vol. I, p. 615. “Due process of law, is law in its regular course of administration through courts of justice.”—Story’s _Commentaries_, Vol. III, pp. 264, 661;—18 _Howard_ 272. “Any legal proceeding enforced by public authority, whether sanctioned by age or custom, or newly devised in the discretion of the legislative power, in furtherance of the general public good, which regards and preserves these principles of liberty and justice.”—110 _U. S._ 516. “Due process of law in each particular case means, such an exercise of the powers of government as the settled maxims of the law permit and sanction, and under such safeguards for the protection of the individual rights as those maxims prescribe for the class of cases to which the one in question belongs.”—Cooley’s _Constitutional Limitations_, p. 441. “This provision does not imply that all trials in state courts affecting the property of persons must be by jury.” This depends to some extent upon the constitution of the respective states, except as limited by the United States Constitution.—92 _U. S._ 90. 65 Constitution of the United States, Amendment V. Eminent domain means the right and authority of the government to take private property for public purposes upon the payment of a just compensation. “The superior right existing in a sovereign government by which private property may in certain cases be taken or its use controlled for the public benefit, without regard to the wishes of the owner.”—Bouvier’s _Law Dictionary_, Vol. I, p. 657.