This principle of the free administration of justice connects itself necessarily with the trial by jury, because a jury could not rightfully give judgment against any man, in either a civil or criminal case, if they had any reason to suppose he had been unable to procure his witnesses.
He argues that the right to a fair trial is linked to the ability to present witnesses.
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What else than ignorance of the law is it that excuses persons under the years of discretion, and men of imbecile minds?
Therefore all their laws, as they call them,--that is, all the laws of their own making,--have no color of authority or obligation.
Any restriction upon the exercise of this right is a restriction upon his rightful power of providing for, and accomplishing, his own well-being.
Yet the codes of the most celebrated kings are very small, and were little more than compilations of immemorial customs.