Or, if we say that the word _by_ signifies _by authority of_, the result will still be the same; for nothing can be done _by authority of_ law, except what the law itself authorizes or directs to be done; that is, nothing can be done by authority of law, except simply to carry the law itself into execution. So nothing could be done _by authority of_ the sentence of the peers, or _by authority of_ "the law of the land," except what the sentence of the peers, or the law of the land, themselves authorized or directed to be done; nothing, in short, but to carry the sentence of the peers, or the law of the land, themselves into execution.
Doing a thing _by_ law, or _according to_ law, is only carrying the law into execution. And punishing a man _by_, or _according to_, the sentence or judgment of his peers, is only carrying that sentence or judgment into execution.
If these reasons could leave any doubt that the word _per_ is to be translated _according to_, that doubt would be removed by the terms of an antecedent guaranty for the trial by jury, granted by the Emperor Conrad, of Germany,[21] two hundred years before Magna Carta. Blackstone cites it as follows:--(_3 Blackstone_, 350.)
"Nemo beneficium suum perdat, nisi _secundum_ consuetudinem antecessorum nostrorum, et judicium parium suorum." That is, No one shall lose his estate,[22] unless _according to_ ("_secundum_") the custom (or law) of our ancestors, and (_according to_) the sentence (or judgment) of his peers.
The evidence is therefore conclusive that the phrase _per judicium parium suorum_ means _according to the sentence of his peers_; thus implying that the jury, and not the government, are to fix the sentence.
If any additional proof were wanted that juries were to fix the sentence, it would be found in the following provisions of Magna Carta, viz.:
"A freeman shall not be amerced for a small crime, (_delicto_,) but according to the degree of the crime; and for a great crime in proportion to the magnitude of it, saving to him his _contenement_;[23] and after the same manner a merchant, saving to him his merchandise. And a villein shall be amerced after the same manner, saving to him his waynage,[24] if he fall under our mercy; _and none of the aforesaid amercements shall be imposed, (or assessed, ponatur,) but by the oath of honest men of the neighborhood. Earls and Barons shall not be amerced but by their peers_, and according to the degree of their crime."[25]