1911] 
ed, if they give not in verdicts contrary 
.to their consciences.” a 
Recorder. ‘ My lord, you must take 
2 course with that same fellow.” 
Lord Mayor. ‘Stop his mouth. Jai- 
tor, bring fetters, and stake him to the 
ground.” 
Penn. “Do your pleasure ; I matter 
- Rot your fetters!” j 
Recorder. Till now, I never under- 
stood the reason of the policy and pru- 
dence of the Spaniards, in suffering the 
Anquisition among them: and certainly it 
will never be well with us, till something 
like unto the Spanish Inquisition be in 
England.” 
“The jury were once more required 
to, give another verdict; Mr. Lee, the 
clerk, was also desired to draw up a spe- 
cial one, which he declined; and the 
Recorder threatened to have the jurors 
“€ carted, about the. city, as i Edward 
TIL.’s time.” The foreman remonstrated 
in vain, that-any other verdict would be a 
 feree.on. them to save their lives ; and the 
jury refused to go out of court, until 
obliged by the sheriff Qn this, the caurt 
immediately adjourned, until next morn- 
ing at seven o’clock, when the prisoners 
were, as usual, brought from Newgate, 
and, being placed at the bar, the clerk 
demanded, ‘ Is William Penn guilty, or 
not guilty?” Foreman, Not guilty!” 
- “Ts William Mead guilty, or not guilty ?” 
Foreman. Not guilty!” The bench be- 
ing still dissatisfied, each of the jury was 
reguired to answer distinctly to his name, 
which being done, and they proving 
unanimous, the Recorder spoke as fole 
lows: ; 
“Tam sorry, gentlemen, you have fol- 
Jowed your own judgments and opini- 
ons rather than the good and wholesome 
advice that was given you, God keep my 
life out Bhyaut hands! But for this the 
court fines you forty marks a-man, and 
(commands) imprisonment until paid.” 
William Penn. 
ty, being freed by the jury.” 
Lord Mayor. “Wo, you are in for 
fines, for contempt of the court.’’ 
enn. ‘$I ask if it-be according to 
yo 
the fundamental laws of England, that . 
any Englishman should be fined, or 
amerced, but by the judgment of his 
peers, or jury? since it expressly contra- 
dicts the 14th and 29th chapter of the | 
_ Great Charter of England, which says, 
_ *“No freeman ought to be amerced, but 
by the oath of good and lawful men of 
the vicinage.” 
_ Recorder.: «* Take him away, take 
him away; take him out of court,” 
 - 
Infamous Trial of Penn. 
“I demand iy liber-- 
147 
Penn. ‘1 can never urge the funda : 
mental laws of England, but you cry, 
Take him away, take him away! But it is 
now order, since the Spanish Inquisition 
hath so great a place in the Recorder’s 
heart. God Aimighty, who is just, will 
judge you all for these things.” 
So far this curious tract. 
Both jury and prisoners were now 
forced into the Baile-Dock, for non-pay- 
ment of their fines, whence they were 
carried to Newgate. These proceedings, 
of course, aroused the attention of a na- 
tion, justly jealous of the government of 
such a profligate and arbitrary prince as 
Charles IT. and indignant at the conduct 
of such a judge as Lowel. Sir Thomas 
Smith, about a century before, had con- 
sidered the fining, imprisoning, and pu- 
nishing, of juries, to be violent, tyrannical, 
and contrary to the custom of the realm of 
England ; while the eelebrated Sir Mat- 
thewHale, who had been chief baron of the 
exchequer, and chief justice of the king’s 
bench, in this very reign, observed, in his 
Pleas of the Crown, p. $18, that it would 
Le a most unhappy gase for the judge 
himself, ‘*if the prisoner’s fate depended 
upon his directions, and unhappy also for 
the prisoner; as, if the judge’s opinion 
must rule the verdict, the tral by jury 
would be useless.” 
Edward Bushel, a citizen of London, 
whose name deserves to be handed down . 
to posterity with applause, immediately 
sued out a, writ of . Habeas Corpus. 
Upon the return, it was stated, that he had 
been committed §* for that, contrary to 
law, and against full and clear evidence 
cpenly given in court, and against the 
direction of the eourt in matter of law, 
he, as one of a jury, had acquitted Wil- 
liam Penn and William Mead, to the 
great obstruction of justice.” ‘This cause 
was at length heard in the superior 
courts; and, after a solemn argument 
before the twelye judges, the above was 
resolved * to be an insuflicient cause for 
fining and committing the jury. They 
weie accordingly discharged, and they 
broughtactions for damages. 
Eleven years afier this, William Renn 
bent the whole ferce of his capacious 
mind to a great and noble undertaking, 
Having, in 4681, obtained from ‘the 
crown the grant of a large tract of land 
in America, Since named Pennsylvania 
after himself, as a compensation for the 
-arrears due to him as executor to his 
fathef, he took over with him a colany of | 
Quakers, and founded Philadelphia, or 
the City of Brethren, in allusion to their 
union and fraternal affection. After thus 
establishing 
