BATTLE or by JURY

BATTLE or by JURY. But upon indictments, since the abolition of ORDEAL, there can be no other trial but by jury, per pais, or by the country: and therefore, if the prisoner refuses to put himself upon the inquest in the usual form, that is, to answer that he will be tried by God and the country, if a commoner; and, if a peer, by God and his peers; the indictment, if in treason, is taken pro confesso; and the prisoner, in cases of felony, is judged to stand mute, and, if he perseveres in his obstinacy, shall now be convicted of the felony.

When the prisoner has thus put himself upon his trial, the clerk answers in the humane language of the law, which always hopes that the party's innocence rather than his guilt may appear, "God send thee a good deliverance." And then they proceed, as soon as conveniently may be, to the trial. See the article TRIAL.