in old English law-books, is defined to be an assembly of knights and other substantial men, together with a justice, in a certain place and at a certain time; but the word, in its present acceptation, implies a court, place, or time, when and where processes, whether civil or criminal, are decided by judge and jury. In Scotland the word assize is still technically used to denote the fifteen persons who, deciding on criminal charges, are colloquially termed the jury.