Nei­ther the Illi­nois con­sti­tu­tion nor the leg­is­la­ture has attempted to define the pow­ers of the grand jury. It has its ori­gin in the com­mon law and has existed for many hun­dreds of years. Its con­struc­tion, orga­ni­za­tion, juris­dic­tion and method of pro­ceed­ing were all well known fea­tures of the com­mon law before the orga­ni­za­tion of the State of Illi­nois and have been rec­og­nized and adopted in all our con­sti­tu­tions and in leg­is­la­tion as it existed at the orga­ni­za­tion of the State.