G4 AN HISTORICAL VIEW OP THE CHARACTER 



trew valew of the goods of Castell-acre, for my part thereof." And 

 that he made no difference bet wen his will and the law the follow- 

 ing passage from Stowe furnishes the most positive evidence : — 

 " On the south side and at the west end of this church many 

 fair houses are builded, namely, in Throgmorton-street ; one very 

 large and spacious, builded, in the place of old and small tene- 

 ments, by Thomas Cromwell, master of the king's jewel-house, 

 after that master of the rolls, then Lord Cromwell, knight, lord 

 privy seal, vicar general. Earl of Essex, high chamberlain of 

 England, &c. This house being finished, and having some reason- 

 able plot of ground left for a garden, he caused the pales of the 

 gardens adjoyning to the north part thereof on a sudden to be taken 

 down, twenty-two to be measured forth right into the north of 

 every man's ground, a line there to be drawn, a trench to be cast, 

 a foundation laid, and a high brick wall to be builded. My father 

 had a garden there, and a house standing close to his south pale ; 

 this house they loosed from the ground and bare upon rollers into 

 my father's garden twenty-two foot, ere my father heard thereof; 

 no warning was given him_, nor other answer, when he spake to the 

 surveyors of that work, but that their master, Sir Thomas, com- 

 manded them so to do ; no man durst go to argue the matter, but 

 each man lost his land, and my father paid his whole rent, which 

 was vis. viiid. the year, for that half which was left."* 



From this statement, and from the curious document so singu- 

 larly preserved, and which is so absolutely conclusive as to the per- 



in the politics and jurisprudence of the reign of Elizabeth, as a statesman 

 and a lawyer, declares most positively that the application of torture for the 

 purpose of extracting evidence and confession was unlawful and unjustifiable 

 by the English constitution : — " Torment, or question, which is used by the 

 order of the civile law and custome of other countries, to put a malefactor to 

 excessive paine to make him confesse of himselfe, or of his fellowes or com- 

 plices, is not used in England. It is taken for servile. For how can he 

 serve the commonwealth after, as a free man, who hath his bodie so haled or 

 tormented ? And if hee bee not found guilty, what amends can be made him ? 

 And if he must dye, what cruelty is it so to torment him before ! The na- 

 ture of Englishmen is to neglect death, to abide no torment ; and therefore 

 hee will confess rather to have done anything— yea, to have killed his owne 



father than to suffer torment. For death our nation doth not so much es- 



teeme as a meere torment ; in no place shall you see malefactors goe more 

 constantly, more assuredly, and with less lamentation to their death than in 

 England. The nature of our nation is free, stout, haulty, prodigall of life 

 and blood; but contumely, beating, servitude, and servile torment and pun- 

 ishment, it will not abide." — Commonirenlth of England^ b. ii., cap. 27- 

 • Stowe's London, p. 180. 



