3 “ If the jurors

state the fact as it is (factum narraverint sicut veritas se habuerit),

and afterwards judge the fact according to their statement of it
and err, they make a mistaken judgment rather than a false one,
since they believe that such a judgment follows such a fact."
Bracton uses the expression “ they judge the fact.” We can ob-
serve the real nature of this operation by looking at the case of
1 It would be straining our word "procedure" beyond due limits to say that reason-
ing is part of the procedure, for reasoning is essential everywhere in the law;
yet one
may get a useful hint by regarding it, for a moment, in that aspect. As the
procedure
and method of trial are to be discriminated from both law and fact, the subject-
matter
that is to be dealt with in these ways and methods, - so we may separate from law
and
fact the process by which conclusions are reached; viz., the process of reasoning.