CHARGE AGAINST MR. LUMSDEN, &c. 157 



that place the state is as it were respondent to 

 make good the body of a prisoner. And if any 

 thing happen to him there, it may, though not 

 in this case, yet in some others, make an asper 

 sion and reflection upon the state itself. For the 

 person is utterly out of his own defence ; his own 

 care and providence can serve him nothing. He is 

 in custody and preservation of law ; and we have a 

 maxim in our law, as my lords the judges know, 

 that when a state is in preservation of law, nothing 

 can destroy it, or hurt it. And God forbid but the like 

 should be for the persons of those that are in cus 

 tody of law ; and therefore this was a circumstance 

 of great aggravation. 



Lastly, To have a man chased to death in such 

 manner, as it appears now by matter of record ; for 

 other privacy of the cause I know not, by poison 

 after poison, first roseaker, then arsenick, then mer 

 cury sublimate, then sublimate again ; it is a thing 

 would astonish man s nature to hear it. The poets 

 feign, that the Furies had whips, that they were 

 corded with poisonous snakes ; and a man would 

 think that this were the very case, to have a man 

 tied to a post, and to scourge him to death with 

 snakes : for so may truly be termed diversity of 

 poisons. 



Now I will come to that which is the principal ; 

 that is, his majesty s princely, yea, and as I may 

 truly term it, sacred proceeding in this cause. 

 Wherein I will speak of the temper of his justice, 

 and then of the strength thereof. 



