This aristocracy is invested with no physical power, but it exercises its conservative influence upon the minds of men, and the most abundant source of its authority is the institution of the civil jury.

In criminal causes, when society is armed against a single individual, the jury is apt to look upon the judge as the passive instrument of social power, and to mistrust his advice.

Moreover, criminal causes are entirely founded upon the evidence of facts which common sense can readily appreciate; upon this ground the judge and the jury are equal.

Such, however, is not the case in civil causes; then the judge appears as a disinterested arbiter between the conflicting passions of the parties.

The jurors look up to him with confidence and listen to him with respect, for in this instance their intelligence is completely under the control of his learning.