An accused person, therefore, may be rightfully held responsible for such a knowledge of the law as is common to men in general, having no greater natural capacities than himself, and no greater opportunities for learning the law.
He states that an accused person can be held accountable for a level of legal knowledge that is common among the general population.
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In that case the trial is really a trial by the government, and not by the jury.
Since Magna Carta, we have evidence showing quite conclusively that all freemen, above the age of twenty-one years, were eligible as jurors.
When two men meet one upon the highway, or in the wilderness, have they a right to dispose of his life, liberty, or property at their pleasure, simply because they are the more numerous party?
And nobody is bound to take the least notice of them, unless it be to trample them under foot, as usurpations.