Jury trial is not only guaranteed in criminal prosecutions (see above, § 235), but also in civil suits, by Amendment VII of the federal constitution, " In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved; and no fact, tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law."

These provisions are analogous to those found in the various state constitutions on the same subject, the general purpose being to preserve as a distinctive and important feature of judicial procedure the common-law trial by jury as a safeguard against the encroachments of arbitrary power. The evident intent has been to preserve it in form and substance as it was known in the courts of Great Britain and the colonies, for it was regarded by the people as a right to which as British subjects they were entitled; which they were anxious to preserve as against any encroachments by the royal government; and which they thought it necessary to perpetuate as against any possible encroachment by the governments established under the constitutions.