

400 



aiding, by zealous practice, 



future I.i- 



will e.ivc specimens <>f i HtylcH of writing ml. ; 



! ptirpotturt and for candidates : 

 .aiiimtioiiH, etc. 



HISTORIC SKI XI If. 



V A TRUE VKUU1CT UAVK, ACCORDING 

 TO TUK KVIUL 



are many great men in tho world who never got 



unity of asserting th> there are many 



ry which ILIV si-lil.nn i: 



.in' important, enough, not iH'-n-ly in :i political but 

 and it is well not to mil!, rtlii'in to languish 



in t lc of olilivion. Such an c. Mihjuct of 



u soloctodnot only because of its 



inirin-i.' importance, but also AS showing liow great privileges 

 may In- won and valuable rights established by very humb.o 



HIS. 



Iii tho report books of proceedings in tho law courts in It;?') 

 is an account of a scene in which tho principal actors wore 

 tho Recorder of London, King Charles's Attorney-General, 

 :ind a citizen, Bushell, member of a jury. Tho case is called 

 " Bushell' H Case," and it is ono of tho most important pos- 

 for upon it was established once and for ever the grand right of 

 a juryman " a true verdict to give according to the evidence," 

 without reference to whether that verdict was or was not accept- 

 able to tho court to whom it was returned. Now-a-days, when 

 juries are chosen with tho utmost regard to tho ends of. justice, 

 and with a single eye to perfect impartiality, and, when chosen, 

 are treated with tho fullest respect, neither being worried into 

 verdicts nor molested after they have given them, wo who have 

 ni'vor seen a different state of things, are apt to suppose that 

 there never was one, and to take it for granted that the thing 

 which is, is the same that hath been. Let us look for a few 

 uiiiriteii at " BusheU's case." 



Tho circumstances under which Bushell, tho juryman, came 

 upon the scene were these : Two Quakers, Penn and Mead, had 

 thought fit to preach to tho people from tho steps of a house 

 in Gracechurch Street. In tho course of their address they 

 had used language which was interpreted as convoying, and 

 perhaps was meant to convey, animadversions upon the govern- 

 ment. For this they were arrested, and, having been committed 

 by a city magistrate on the charge of stirring up a riot, were 

 put upon their trial. Like many of tho charges preferred at 

 that time by tho over-zealous agents of tho government, tho 

 accusation was an extravagant one, and considerable sympathy 

 was shown by tho Londoners in favour of tho prisoners. If 

 what the two men had said amounted to sedition, then, it was 

 felt, no man could safely talk politics even in tho mildest way ; 

 and it was further felt that tho prosecution was a tyrannical act 

 on the part of the government, and people were getting rather 

 tired of the thing. Notwithstanding such was tho case popular 

 sympathy at that time was but a whet to tho prosecuting spirit 

 of the crown lawyers tho trial was urged, and it came on 

 before tho Recorder of London at the Old Bailey. 



Tho following scene, illustrative of tho manner in which 

 prisoners were treated under Charles II., presented itself on tho 

 entrance of Penn and Mead into the court : After the manner of 

 their brethren, tho two Friends kept their hats on in tho presence 

 of tho jud^'e, as they would have done in tho presence of tho 

 king himself. The gaoler rudely knocked their hats off, where- 

 upon the Recorder, not with a view to rebuking the man's 

 roughness, but to having a preliminary fling at tho prisoners, 

 ordered him to replace them. Being put in the dock, the 

 prisoners were thus addressed by their judge : 



RECORDER : Do you know where you are ? 



PENN : Yes. 



RECORDER : Do you not know it is the king's court ? 



PENN : I know it to be a court, and I suppose it to be tho 

 king's court. 



RECORDER : Do you not know there is respect due to the 

 court? 



Yes. 



Why do you not pay it then ? 



RDKK : Why do yon not pull off your hat than f 

 Because I do not believe that to bo any respect 



!, tho court set* forty marks apiece upon 

 id*, ft* a fine for tho contempt of tho court. 



it might bo observed that wo came into the 

 court with our huts off (that U, taken off), and if they hare boon 

 it wan by order from tho bench ; and therefore not 

 hhould bo fined. 



inoncru, undoubtedly with much pert. 



and Homo show of disrespect to the court, refuted to plead to 

 tinent, which charged them with having caoaed a 

 tiirnultuouM asHeml .<> questions they ralaed as to the 



legality of it in point of form should have been answered. The 

 Recorder and tho Lord Mayor tried in rain to silence them, 

 resorting to threats, and abuse of a very ooane deaeription, and 

 not succeeding, tin . effect enter a plea of "not 



guilty" for them, and had t ;,i,n th-ir trial. 



Among tho jury was ono man, Bushell, who*e character 

 for conduct displeasing to tho court wan already well known, 

 and to whom several unworthy remarks had been made at the 

 time ho was sworn. Under hi guidance the jury retired, and 

 in a short time return-id into court with a 

 Mead, and saying that Penn was " guilty of speaking in Grace- 

 church Street." This vcrd ; ot angered the court exceedingly. 

 Is that all r" they asked the foreman. "That is all I hare in 

 commission," was the reply. " You had as good aay nothing." 

 Being further pressed, and also told, - the law of England will 

 not allow you to part till you have given your verdict," tho jory 

 replied, " We have given in our verdict, and we can give in no 

 other." 



Tho Recorder refused to take such a verdict, and sent the 

 jury back again to reconsider it. In half an hour's tin: 

 camo back into court, and handed in a written verdict to the 

 same effect as before, and signed by all of them. Up 

 being received, tho Lord Mayor rated tho jury in these words: 



MAYOR : What, will you bo led by such a silly fellow a* 

 Bushell ? An impudent, canting fellow. I warrant you, you 

 shall come no more upon juries in haste. You are a foreman, 

 indeed (addressing Bushell). I thought you had undcrstoo . 

 place better. 



RECORDER : Gentlemen, you shall not bo dismissed till we 

 have a verdict that tho court will accept ; and you Khali be 

 locked up, without meat, drink, fire, and tobacco. Yon shall 

 not think thus to abuse tho court. Wo will have a verdict by 

 the help of God ; or you shall starve for it. 



Tho jury declined to alter their verdict, and Penn, ono of the 

 prisoners, claimed to havo it recorded. " The agreement of 

 twelve men is tho verdict in law ; and such a one being gi 

 tho jury, I require the clerk of tho peace to record it, as he will 

 answer at his peril. And if the jury bring in another verdict 

 contradictory to this, I affirm they are perjured men in law;" 

 and looking upon tho jury, he said : ' You are Englishmen ! 

 Mind your privilege ! Give not away your right !" 



The court was adjourned till next morning at seven o'clock, 

 tho prisoners were sent back to Newgate, and the jury were 

 ordered into tho custody of those who swore to keep them 

 without fire, food, (kink, or any other accommodation till the 

 adjourned sitting of tho court. 



While tho jury are thus away in their retiring room, making 

 up their minds what verdi ! th.-y shall give chafing, some of 

 them, at tho manner in which they have been treated by the 

 court, and, under tho guidance of their foreman, resolving that 

 they will not submit to dictation, but act upon the exordium 

 delivered to them by the prisoner as they quitted their box 

 - -let us consider for a moment what right it was for which 

 they were contending, and the way in which that right waa ' 

 acqui: 



Trial by jury was an old-established institution in England, a* 

 old, some think, as the Anglo-Saxon laws. Something lil. 

 certainly to be found in tho history which has come down to n* 

 of those times, but tho jury system, as wo understand it now, WM 

 tho creation of a period subsequent to the Norman Conquest, 

 1066. Before that date the jury which tried causes consisted of 

 n number of " compnrgators " as they were called, that 

 is to say, persons who did not give their opinion upon e\ 

 adduced before them ou oath, but who merely swore that they 



