MEDIETAS LINGUÆ, in law, signifies a jury, or inquest impanelled, of which the one half are natives of this land, and the other foreigners. This jury is never used except where one of the parties in a plea is a stranger, and the other a denizen. In petit-treason, murder, and felony, foreigners are allowed this privilege; but not in high-treason, because an alien in that case shall be tried according to the rules of the common law, and not by a medietas lingua. A grand jury ought not in any case to be of a medietas lingua; and the person that would have the advantage of a trial in this way, is to pray the same, otherwise it will
not be permitted on a challenge of the jurors. MEDIMNUS, in Grecian antiquity, a measure of capacity. See MEASURE.