29 MARCH 1986, Page 23

Wild jurymen

Sir: John Mortimer (Diary, 15 March) trots out that old tag from Blackstone about the jury being the palladium of English liber- ties: but the jury which Blackstone com- mended was 'a competent number of sensi- ble and upright jurymen, chosen by lot from among those of the middle rank'. Blackstone refers to the `great debase- ment of juries' when the property qual- ification was reduced in the reign of C. harles II, and he says that 'if the power of judicature were placed at random in the hands of the multitude their decisions would be wild and capricious.'

J. Patison

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