PEIKE FORTE ET DURE. 



PELARGONIC SERIES. 



359 



is denoted by these words, was a species of torture used by the 

 English law to compel persons to plead when charged judicially with 

 crimes less than treason, but amounting to felony. It was applicable 

 whenever the accused stood mute on his arraignment, either by Ms 

 refusal to put himself upon the ordinary trial by jury, or to answer at 

 all, or by his peremptorily challenging more than twenty jurors, which 

 was a contumacy equivalent in construction of law to actually standing 

 mute. This proceeding differed essentially from the " qusestio " in the 

 Roman law, and the torture which generally prevailed in Europe, and 

 which, as connected with the royal prerogative, was also practised in 

 England for several centuries, inasmuch as its object was to force sub- 

 mission to the regular mode of trial prescribed by the law, and not to 

 compel testimony or the confession of a crime. 



Much difference of opinion has existed upon the question whether 

 the practice of the peine forte et dure originated with the statute 

 usually called the Statute of Westminster 1 (3 Edw. I., c. 12), or whether 

 it was in use at an earlier period. The latter opinion is maintained by 

 Coke and Hale, but the former is adopted by Staundforde, Blackstone, 

 and Barrington. In a note to Bale's ' Pleas of the Crown,' vol. ii., p. 

 322, Emlyn says that although the Statute of Westminster 1 speaks of 

 this punishment rather as a thing already known than as a new intro- 

 duction, there is no notice taken of it in any ancient author, case, or 

 record before the reign of Edward I. ; and, on the contrary, he cites 

 two curious records in the reign of Henry III., from which it appears 

 that persons at that time arraigned for felony, and standing mute, were 

 not put to peine forte et dure, but had judgment to be hanged. Upon 

 this point it is worthy of remark that the statute of Edward I. merely 

 directs that " such persons as will not put themselves upon inquests 

 of felonies at the suit of the king shall be put into hard and strong 

 prison (tvient mys en la priione fort el dure), as those which refuse to 

 be at the common law of the land ; " whereas the judgment of the 

 peine forte et dure, as given in ancient books, contained many par- 

 ticulars of suffering to be imposed on the contumacious prisoner, not 

 mentioned in the statute. Fleta, who must have written about ten 

 after the date of the statute, describes the judgment to be, that 

 " the party shall be cast into prison and lie upon the bare ground 

 clothed with a single garment and barefooted ; that he shall have for 

 his food only three morsels of barley-bread in two days ; that he shall 

 not have food every day, but only on alternate days ; that he shall 

 not drink every day, but that on the day when he shall have no food, 

 water shall be given him to drink." (Fleta, lib. i. cap. 34.) It certainly 

 seems improbable that all these circumstances should, within a very 

 few years, have been added to the judgment warranted by the statute, 

 if the statute had really been the origin of the practice. Mr. Reeve 

 hag plausibly suggested that the only object and effect of the statute 

 was to apply the same compulsory process to those who refused to 

 submit themselves to trial by jury in indictments at the king's suit, 

 which had been previously used to compel persons to put themselves 

 upon ancir-nt methods of inquiry, namely, the duel, the ordeal, or the 

 wager of law. (' Hist, of the English Law,' vol. ii, p. 137.) The trial 

 by jury had no doubt been much encouraged during the reign of 

 Henry III., hi opposition to the barbarous modes of trial previously 

 used ; and it is therefore by no means improbable that this statute 

 should have contemplated the promotion of this great judicial improve- 

 ment. The language of the enactment also is entirely consistent with 

 the view of its object suggested by Mr. Reeves. On the other hand it 

 must be acknowledged that the instances above mentioned, as cited by 

 Knilyn, and the total silence of Olanville and Bracton, as well as of the 

 .judicial records anterior to the statute, respecting such a mode of 

 enforcing submission to the law, are adverse to this interpretation. 

 The origin of this rude proceeding must therefore be considered as 

 uncertain. 



It appears from Fleta, and also from Britton (c. 22), that the punish- 

 ment in the reign of Edward I., when the first traces of it in the 

 history of English law appear, consisted merely of severe imprisonment, 

 with a diet barely sufficient to prevent starvation, until the offender 

 repented of hu contumacy and consented to put himself upon his 

 trial. A curious charter of pardon in 1357 (' Focdera,' vol. vi. p. 13), 

 recites that a woman indicted for the death of her husband, having 

 stood mute, had been adjudged "ad pocnam suain, ut dicitur, in qua 

 sine cibo et potu in arta prison/I per -quadraginta dies vitam sustinuit 

 via miraculi et quasi contra naturam hutnanam." It appears therefore 

 that at that time the sentence continued to be imprisonment only, and 

 iliil not authorise the infliction of any further violence. Shortly after- 

 wards, however, the practice of loading the sufferer with weights and 

 pressing him to death appears to have become the regular course. In 

 the Year Book of 8 Henry IV. (1406), the judgment upon persons 

 standing mute, as approved by advice of all the judges, was " that the 

 marshal should put them in low and dark chambers, naked except 

 about the waist ; that he should place upon them as much weight of 

 iron as they could bear, and more, so that they should be unable to 

 rise ; that they should have nothing to eat but the worst bread that 

 could be found, and nothing to drink but water taken from the nearest 

 place to the gaol, except running water ; that the day on which they 

 had bread they should not have water, and e eontra ; and that they 

 should li tlicre till they were dead." Thus, although the reporter 

 states in this case that the judgment was formally different, the punish- 

 ment now became capital, a lingering and painful death being enjoined 



instead of severe imprisonment to extort submission. There is no 

 trace of any statute or royal ordinance, or of any authority besides 

 this judicial resolution to justify a change in the mode of proceeding so 

 material as to affect the life of the party. The term by which it was 

 denoted was also changed from prisone to peine forte et dure ; and from 

 this period, for more than three centuries, until it was virtually 

 abolished by the stat. 12 Geo. III., c. 20 (1772), pressing to death con- 

 tinued to be the regular and lawful mode of execution for criminals 

 who stood wilfully mute upon their arraignment for felony. The 

 press-yard at Newgate at the present day retains it name as derived 

 from this barbarous practice. 



Blackstone, after alluding to "the doubts that were conceived of 

 its legality," and " the repugnance of its theory to the humanity of 

 the laws of England," states that the peiue forte et dure was rarely 

 carried into practice. It is probable that it was not of frequent 

 occurrence, because with this fearful punishment for contumacy before 

 their eyes men would naturally for the most part (as Hale says) 

 " bethink themselves and plead." It is, however, repeatedly mentioned 

 in the Year Books as an existing proceeding ; it is stated as the law 

 of the land by Staundforde, Coke, Hale, and Hawkins, in their several 

 treatises on the criminal law, and the number of the recorded instances 

 in which it is directly or incidentally mentioned seem to show that it 

 was much more prevalent than has been commonly supposed. The 

 motive of the prisoner in standing mute and submitting to this heavy 

 punishment was to save his attainder, and prevent the corruption of 

 his blood and consequent forfeiture of his lands in case he was 

 attainted of felony. In 21 Hen. VI. (1442), Juliana Quicke, who was 

 indicted for high treason in speaking contemptuous words of the king, 

 had the peine forte et dure because she would not plead (Cro. ' Car." 

 118) ; in the margin of an inquisitio post mortem of Anthony Arrow- 

 smith, in 40 Eliz. (1598), are the words "Prestto death" (Surtees's 

 ' History of Durham,' vol. iii., p. 271) ; and in 1659, Major Strange- 

 ways was tried for the murder of John Fussell before Lord Chief 

 Justice Glynn, and, refusing to plead, was pressed to death in New- 

 gate. In the pamphlet which very minutely relates the particulars of 

 this execution, it is stated that the prisoner died in about eight 

 minutes, many people in the press-yard humanely casting stones upon 

 him to hasten his death. (BarringtonV Antient Statutes,' p. 85, note.) 

 In still more recent times it appears from the Old Bailey Sessions 

 Papers that at the January Sessions in 1720, one Phillips was pressed 

 for a considerable time, until he begged to stand his trial ; and at the 

 December Sessions, 1721, Nathaniel Haws continued under the press 

 with 250 Ibs., for seven minutes, and was released upon his submis- 

 sion. Mr. Barrington says that he had been furnished with two 

 instances in the reign of George II., one of which happened at the 

 Sussex assizes before Baron Thompson, and the other at Cambridge, 

 in 1741, when Mr. Baron Carter was the judge. (Barrington's ' Antient 

 Statutes,' p. 86.) In these later instances the press was not inflicted 

 until by direction of the judges the experiment of a minor torture 

 had been tried, by tying the culprit's thumbs tightly together with 

 strings. It is said in Kelyng's ' Reports,' p. 27, to have been the 

 constant practice at Newgate in the reign, of Charles II., that the two 

 thumbs should be tied together with whipcord, that the pain of that 

 might compel the culprit to plead. The adoption of this course was no 

 doubt dictated by merciful motives, and was intended by the judges 

 to prevent the necessity of having recourse to the peine forte et dure ; 

 but it was wholly unauthorised by law. The practice was finally discon- 

 tinued in consequence of the statute 12 Geo. III.,c. 20, which provides 

 that every person who shall stand mute when arraigned for felony or 

 piracy shall be convicted of the same, and the same judgment and 

 execution shall be awarded against him as if he had been convicted by 

 verdict or confession. But the law in thia respect has been altered 

 by the statute 7 ft 8 Geo. IV., c. 27, a plea of 'not guilty 1 being entered 

 on the record if the prisoner refuses to plead. 



PELAGIANISM. [PELAOIUS, in Bioo. Drv.] 



PELARGONE. [PELAROONIC GROUP.] 



PELARGONIC ACID, C,,H 17 O., + HO, is found in the oil of Pelar- 

 gonium roseum. It is an acid oily liquid, with a rancid smell. It 

 becomes solid at low temperatures, and its salts form soap. It forms a 

 Pelargonate of Ike oxide <if Kthyl, C.H^O + C^H^O,, which is an oily 

 li(|viici of a very peculiar smell. Frankland states that whiskey owes 

 its peculiar flavour to the presence of this compound. It is manu- 

 factured for the purpose of giving new whiskey the flavour of old. 

 [I'KI.ABOONIC GROUP.] 



PELARGONIC GROUP. A family of organic substances [PELAR- 

 OONIC SERIES] derived from a peculiar acid found in geraniums 

 (I'tlar;iuium roseum). The following are the names and formuhe of 

 the principal members of this group : 



C 18 H 17 3 , HO 

 C I8 H, ,>., 



I'elargonic acid . 



Pclargonc .... 



Pclargonic ether 



Chloride of pelargyl . . . . C^IIuOjCl 



Pclargyl Ci B H l7 



PELARGONIC SERIES. A division of organic bodies in Gerhardt's 

 system of classification. It contains the following three groups : 

 Octylic group. Pelargonio group. Sebaoic group. 



