In allusion to the provision of Magna Carta on this subject,
Hallam says:
"A law which enacts that justice shall neither be sold, denied, nor delayed, stamps with infamy that government under which it had become necessary." 2 Middle Ages, 451.
Lingard, speaking of the times of Henry II., (say 1184,) says:
"It was universally understood that money possessed greater influence than justice in the royal courts, and instances are on record, in which one party has made the king a present to accelerate, and the other by a more valuable offer has succeeded in retarding a decision. * * But besides the fines paid to the sovereigns, the judges often exacted presents for themselves, and loud complaints existed against their venality and injustice." 8 Lingard, 231.
In the narrative of "The costs and charges which I, Richard de Anesty, bestowed in recovering the land of William, my uncle," (some fifty years before Magna Carta,) are the following items:
"To Ralph, the king's physician, I gave thirty-six marks and one half; to the king an hundred marks; and to the queen one mark of gold." The result is thus stated. "At last, thanks to our lord the king, and by judgment of his court, my uncle's land was adjudged to me." 2 Palgrave's Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth, p. 9 and 24.
Palgrave also says:
"The precious ore was cast into the scales of justice, even when held by the most conscientious of our Anglo-Saxon kings. A single case will exemplify the practices which prevailed. Alfric, the heir of 'Aylwin, the black,' seeks to set aside the death-bed bequest, by which his kinsman bestowed four rich and fertile manors upon St. Benedict. Alfric, the claimant, was supported by extensive and powerful connexions; and Abbot Alfwine, the defendant, was well aware that there would be danger in the discussion of the dispute in public, or before the Folkmoot, (people's meeting, or county court); or, in other words, that the Thanes of the shire would do their best to give a judgment in favor of their compeer. The plea being removed into the Royal Court, the abbot acted with that prudence which so often calls forth the praises of the monastic scribe. He gladly emptied twenty marks of gold into the sleeve of the Confessor, (Edward,) and five marks of gold presented to Edith, the Fair, encouraged her to aid the bishop, and to exercise her gentle influence in his favor. Alfric, with equal wisdom, withdrew from prosecuting the hopeless cause, in which his opponent might possess an advocate in the royal judge, and a friend in the king's consort. Both parties. therefore, found it desirable to come to an agreement." 1 Palgrave's Rise and Progress, &c;., p. 650.
But Magna Carta has another provision for the trial of civil suits, that obviously had its origin in the corruption of the king's judges. The provision is, that four knights, to be chosen in every county, by the people of the county, shall sit with the king's judges, in the Common Pleas, in jury trials, (assizes,) on the trial of three certain kinds of suits, that were among the most important that were tried at all. The reason for this provision undoubtedly was, that the corruption and subserviency of the king's judges were so well known, that the people would not even trust them to sit alone in a jury trial of any considerable importance. The provision is this:
Chap. 22, (of John's Charter.) "Common Pleas shall not follow our court, but shall be holden in some certain place. Trials upon the writ of novel disseisin, and of Mort d'Ancester, and of Darrein Presentment, shall be taken but in their proper counties, and after this manner: We, or, if we should be out of our realm, our chief justiciary, shall send two jnsticiaries through every county four times a year; [3] who, with four knights chosen out of every shire, by the people, shall hold the assizes (juries) in the county, on the day and at the place appointed."