Inspection
A Dictionary of Law · Henry Campbell Black · 1891
A Dictionary of Law
TRIAL BY. A mode of trial formerly in use in England, by which the judges of a court decided a point in dispute, upon the testimony of their own senses, without the intervention of a jury. This took place in cases where the fact upon which issue was taken must, from its nature, be evident to the court from ocular demonstration, or other irrefragable proof; and was adopted for the greater expedition of a cause.
3 Bi. Comm. 331.