The Preservation of Civil Order in the Society was the original Design and End of the Institution of Justices of the Peace: And the primary Jurisdiction of this Court was to superintend it, by making an Enquiry into every Violation, and punishing every Breach of it. [2]

To aid in this Enquiry, it has the Assistance of a Double Jury, of Twelve Men at least; whom the Law requires to be disinterested and upright, and who are to present every Offender against the Laws upon their Oaths, without Bias, from Favour, or Affection to, or Malice and Resentment against, any Person whatsoever. This Institution of Juries, in the Trial of all Criminal Facts from the highest Offence to the lowest, does the greatest Honour to, and is the peculiar Privilege of the British Constitution: And whilst the sacred Regard and Veneration are paid to Oaths, which so solemn and awful an Appeal to the Supreme Being demands, and the Laws of Society presume, in the Administration of them, it must continue to be the [3] highest Security, which any Man could wish to have, for enjoying every Right which is most dear to him: But whenever the Members of Society in general, become so profligate and abandoned, as to prostitute their Oaths and their Consciences, to the lowest and vilest Purposes, whether from Considerations of falsly estimated Gain, (for what pecuniary Gain can compensate the Loss of so many valuable Privileges) or to gratify brutal Resentment; this noblest of Institutions must be totally subverted, and rendered useless; and the Decision of private Property, as well as the punishing every publick Offence, must become precarious; and the Lives, Liberties, Reputation, and every Valuable Possession of the Honest and Well-Meaning, must be in [4] the Power of the most abandoned profligates in the Society.