102 The Star Chamber : its Practice and Procedure. 



collisions at sea, and the people of Jersey and Guernsey, 

 appeared as parties to actions in this court. No other means 

 of redress were available for them, and so long as the Star 

 Chamber furnished the means, it was doing good service, and 

 no one felt disposed to question too closely the soundness of 

 its jurisdiction. 



Whenever a question arose involving the title to a freehold, 

 the practice of the court was to send the issue to be tried in 

 one of the common law courts, and when the return was made 

 to proceed with the cause to which such question had been 

 incidental. As a court of appeal, it does not seem to have 

 done much, though theoretically an appeal lay to it from the 

 courts of the Wardens of the Marches, the courts of the 

 Stanaries, and those of the counties Palatine ; and there are 

 instances recorded of writs of certiorari addressed to these 

 courts, ordering cases which had been brought before them 

 to be transferred to the Court of Star Chamber. 



As a criminal court, the jurisdiction extended to " cases 

 which in strictness of law cannot be otherwise questioned, and 

 may be here examined" ; causes of special limitation by Act 

 of Parliament ; and causes which were also cognizable by the 

 courts of common law. The way in which the court laid hold 

 of offences of the class last mentioned may be best stated in 

 Hudson's own words. He says : " Being now to treat of 

 criminal causes I must begin with the highest, and therein I 

 shall show that all offences may be here examined and 

 punished, if it be the king's pleasure, as treason and murder, 

 felony and trespass ; but then are not all these offences 

 punished as trespasses, and not capitally ; for if it please the 

 king to remit his justice, and yet not so that the world shall 

 have notice of the offence, he may call a traitor to this bar, and 

 take acknowledgment, and fine and ransom him." Thus it 

 was under a show of mercy, of a desire to mitigate the severity 

 of the law, without setting the law aside, that cases which 

 were properly triable at common law, were brought into the 

 Star Chamber ; and the benefit supposed to accrue to a man in 

 consequence was deemed to outweigh the disadvantage of trial 

 by persons who were not his peers, nor sworn to do justice in 

 his particular case. Hudson is of opinion that this last was 

 very far from being a disadvantage, for he says, <c subjects may 

 as safely repose themselves in the bosoms of those honourable 

 lords, reverend prelates, grave judges, and worthy chancellors, 

 as in the heady current of burgesses and meaner men, who 

 run too often in a stream of passion after their own or some 

 private man's affections." The tender considerations of tho 

 prince for his erring subjects, his refusal even at the cost of 

 violations of the constitution, to hand them over to condign 



