His Grace the Steward and Trial of Peers: A Novel Inquiry Into a Special Branch of Constitutional Government, Founded Entirely Upon Original Sources of Information, and Extensively Upon Hitherto Unprinted Materials (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from His Grace the Steward and Trial of Peers: A Novel Inquiry Into a Special Branch of Constitutional Government, Founded Entirely Upon Original Sources of Information, and Extensively Upon Hitherto Unprinted Materials

The true story is somewhat remarkable and will, I think, be found by no means a dry subject, or deficient in matters of general interest. A few details are still rather obscure, but the main outlines are sufficiently established by the evidence which has been collected.

The remainder of the book deals with the trial of peers of the realm by their peers, the origin of the practice and its development. This again, I venture to affirm, is a subject which has never so far received adequate historical investiga tion; and yet it is a subject of the highest importance. When the Entstehung der Schwurgerichte by Heinrich Brunner made its appearance, it was justly hailed in England as an epoch-making treatise. The jury system has long formed an integral portion of our constitutional government, it has become endeared to us by an abiding though fabulous tradition; but, until Brunner's work appeared, there had been no sufficient research into the history of its origin, and exist ing ideas were extremely erroneous.

Even if the same importance cannot be claimed for the present subject of inquiry on account of its limited scope.

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