Foreman. No.

Officer. Did he fly for it ?*

Foreman. No, we find no such thing,

Sir N. T. I had forgot to answer that question before, but you have found according to truth; and the better to justify what you have done, you are to understand that I came to London, and went to the Queen's council of my own accord, as soon as I came to know they inquired for me, though I was almost at a bundred miles distance from hence. If I had not relied upon my innocence, I might have easily withdrawn, and kept out of danger.

Bromley, C. J. What do the rest of you say? is your foreman's verdict the verdict of you all?

Now all of them said 'Yes.'

Bromley, C. J. Remember yourselves better. Have you substantially considered the whole evidence, as it was declared and recited? The business concerns the Queen's Highness, and also yourselves. Take good heed what you do.

Foreman. My Lord, we have thoroughly considered the evidence laid against the prisoner, and his answers to all these matters, and we have found him not guilty, agreeably to all our consciences.

for

Bromley, C. J. If you have done well, it is the better you.

Sir N. T. It is better to be tried than live suspected. 'Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed his people, and hath raised up a mighty

* Until very lately, the officer of the court, in all cases of treason and felony, directed the jury to inquire whether the prisoner fled for it,' though the actual inquiry and verdict upon that point has been long entirely disused. By the common law it was a maxim, derived originally from the civil law, that a person who fled from justice, confessed the crime; and therefore, in former times, on an accusation of treason or felony, even where the party was acquitted of the principal charge, if ⚫ it was found by the jury that he fled for it, he forfeited all his goods and chattels to the crown for,' says Staundford, in his Pleas of the Crown, book iii, c. xxi, notwithstanding the acquittal, he is still to remain a suspected man, by reason of the vehement presumption, arising from his flight and the indict

ment.

6

salvation for us in the house of his servant David.' May it please you, my Lord Chief Justice, seeing I have been indicted and arraigned for several treasons, and according to the law have put myself upon my trial by God and my country-that is by these honest men - who have found me not guilty, I humbly beseech you to give me the benefit of my acquittal by passing judgment as the law in this case doth appoint.

When the prisoner had said these words, the Commissioners consulted together.

Sir N. T. May it please you, my Lord Chief Justice, to pronounce sentence for my discharge.

Bromley, C. J. Whereas you desire the benefit which the law doth appoint, I will give it you; forasmuch as you have been indicted of several high treasons, and been this day before the Queen's Commisioners and Judges arraigned for them, to which you have pleaded not guilty, and have put yourself upon trial by God and your country, who have found you not guilty, the Court awards that you should be clearly discharged, paying your fees; nevertheless, Master Lieutenant, take him back with you, for there are other things to be laid to his charge.

Sir N. T. My Lords and Masters of the Queen's Privy Council, I entreat you to be humble suitors in my behalf to her Majesty, that as the law this day (God be praised) hath cleared me of the treasons wherewith I was dangerously charged, so it may please her excellent Majesty to clear me also in her private judgment; and both to forgive and forget my rash boldness in talking so freely of her Highness's marriage with the Prince of Spain; a matter far beyond my capacity, and of which I am not able to consider the gravity; a matter impertinent for a private person to talk of, and which belonged alone to the deliberation of her Highness's Privy Council. Now if her Majesty shall be pleased of her bountiful liberality to remit my former oversights, I shall think myself happy for trial of the danger I have this day escaped, which will admonish me to avoid things above my reach, and also instruct me to deal with matters agreeable to my vocation. And so God save the Queen's Majesty, and long may she reign over us; and the same Lord be praised for you, the good

magistrates, before whom I have had my trial indifferently this day by the law: the grace of God be amongst you now and ever!

Attorney-General. My Lords, seeing these men of the jury, who have strangely acquitted the prisoner of the treasons laid to his charge, will forthwith depart out of Court, I pray you for the Queen, that they may be bound in a recognizance of five hundred pounds a-piece to answer to such things as shall be alleged against them on the Queen's behalf, whenever they shall be charged or called.

Foreman. I pray you, my Lords, be good unto us, and let us not be molested for the faithful discharge of our consciences. We are poor merchant-men, and have great charge on our hands, and our livelihood depends upon our travails. We beseech the Court to appoint a certain day for our appearance, because perhaps else some of us may be in foreign parts, about our business.

The Court being dissatisfied with the verdict, committed the jury to prison. Four of them afterwards made their submission, and owned their offence, to the. prejudice of truth, and were delivered out of prison; but the other eight persisting in their integrity, were detained in custody, and on the 26th of October were brought before the Council in the Star-Chamber; where they affirmed, that what they had done in respect to their verdict, was according to the best of their knowledge and their consciences, even as they should answer for the same before God at the solemn day of judgment; and one of them said openly before all the Lords, that what they did in that matter was like honest men, and true and faithful subjects, and therefore they humbly intreated the Lord Chancellor and the other Lords to intercede with the King and Queen,* that they might be cleared and set at liberty: saying, they were all ready to submit themselves to their Majesties, saving and reserving their consciences, veracity, and honesty.

The Lords, extremely offended with their behaviour,

* The marriage between the Queen and Philip of Spain took place in the interval between the Trial and these Proceedings in the Star-Chamber.

adjudged them to pay exorbitant fines. Some said they ought to be fined one thousand pounds a man; but at last the sentence passed upon them was this-that the foreman, and he who had spoken his mind so boldly, should pay two thousand pounds a-piece within a fortnight after, and the other six a thousand marks each ; but the four which submitted were excepted. They were all remanded to prison, where they were to tarry till farther order: and the Sheriffs of London ordered to take an inventory of their goods, and to seal up their doors.

Having lain in prison till the 12th of December, five of them were then discharged and set at liberty upon the payment of their fines, which was reduced to two hundred and twenty pounds a-piece; the other three having, in an humble petition, set forth that their estates did not amount to the sum they were required to pay, they were discharged on the 21st of the same month, upon the payment of three-score pounds a-piece.

REMARKS.

THE first observation which suggests itself on the perusal of this trial is the absence of all method and regularity in the proceedings. Some allowance must no doubt be made in this respect for the imperfection of the report, which is obviously not taken at the time, but is a narrative of the facts drawn from memory, or from imperfect notes. Still the outline of the case is in all probability accurate, and it displays to a person familiar with courts of justice in their present state but few features of resemblance. The form of the arraignment, indeed, appears to have continued much the same for several centuries; and as it is at the present day an indispensable part of all criminal trials by the law of England, it may not be useless to take this opportunity of pointing out its object and origin.

The arraignment of a prisoner is nothing more than calling him to the bar of the Court to answer the

matter charged against him, and is founded upon the plain principle of justice, that an accused person should be called upon for his answer to a charge before he is tried or punished for it.

That this was a necessary form in English Criminal Law at a very early period, appears from the reversal in Parliament of the judgment given against the Mortimers in the reign of Edward the Second, and which Lord Hale calls an excellent record.' One of the errors assigned in that judgment, and upon which its reversal was founded, was as follows; 'That if in this realm any subject of the king hath offended against the king or any other person, by reason of which offence he may lose life or limb, and be thereupon brought before the justices for judgment, he ought to be called to account (poni rationi), and his answers to the charge to be heard before proceeding to judgment against him; whereas in this record and proceedings it is contained that the prisoners were ordered to be drawn and hanged, and afterwards adjudged to perpetual imprisonment, without having been arraigned thereupon, or having an opportunity of answering to the charges made against them, contrary to the law and custom of this realm.'*

The ceremony of holding up the hand upon the arraignment of a prisoner is merely adopted for the purpose of pointing out to the Court the person who is called upon to plead. As. it is usual to place several prisoners at the bar at the same time, it is obviously a convenient mode of directing the eyes of the Court to the individual who is addressed by the officer. In the case of Lord Stafford, who was tried for high treason in 1680, for being concerned in the Popish Plot, the prisoner objected in arrest of judgment that he had not been called on to hold up

* Hale's Pleas of the Crown, book ii, c. 28.