CHARGE AGAINST MR. LUMSDEN, &c. 163 



sure to have had all things well weighed, and truly 

 informed : and therefore it should have been far 

 from M. L. to have presumed to have put forth his 

 hand to so high and tender a business, which was 

 not to be touched but by employed hands. Thirdly, 

 I note to your lordships, that this infusion of a 

 slander into a king s ear, is of all forms of libels and 

 slanders the worst. It is true, that kings may keep 

 secret their informations, and then no man ought to 

 enquire after them, while they are shrined in their 

 breast. But where a king is pleased that a man 

 shall answer for his false information ; there, I say, 

 the false information to a king exceeds in offence 

 the false information of any other kind ; being a 

 kind, since we are in a matter of poison, of impoison- 

 ment of a king s ear. And thus much for the offence 

 of M. L. 



For the offence of S. W. and H. I. which I said 

 was in consort, it was shortly this. At the time and 

 place of the execution of Weston, to supplant his 

 Christian resolution, and to scandalize the justice 

 already past, and perhaps to cut off the thread of 

 that which is to come, these gentlemen, with others, 

 came mounted on horseback, and in a ruffling and 

 facing manner put themselves forward to re-examine 

 Weston upon questions : and what questions ? Di? 

 rectly cross to that that had been tried and judged. 

 For what was the point tried ? That Weston had 

 poisoned Overbury. What was S. W. s question ? 

 Whether Weston did poison Overbury or no ? A 

 contradictory directly : Weston answered only, that 



