By W. W. Bavenhill, Esq. 



61 



But nothing could bring back the precious lives that had been 

 sacrificed by this judicial murder, and it stands out as a melancholy 

 beacon in the history of our law. 1 



" We should not 

 Hurry to realize a bloody sentence. 

 A word may be recall' d, a life can never be." 



Schiller's " Death of Wallenstein" Act 3, Sc. 6, Coleridge's trans. 



Baron Turner declined to try the prisoners, as the body of Mr. 

 Harrison had not been found ; and it is deeply to be regretted that 

 this course was not adhered to. 



A proper cross examination of the witnesses by the Judge might 

 have postponed the proceedings till the truth came out, and counsel 

 should have been employed by him to suggest any points of law 

 arising at the trial. 



That there should be caution must have been well known, for Lord 

 Coke (who lived some years before, but whose famous book was 

 re-published in 1660) mentions a case of judicial murder, which 

 occurred in the eighth year of King James I. in the neighbouring 

 county of Warwick. 8 



After Mr. Harrison's return, Chief Justice Sir Matthew Hale wrote 3 

 " I would never convict any person of murder or manslaughter, 

 unless the fact were proved to be done, or at least the body be found 

 dead."" Accordingly it was supposed that in all cases of murder 



1 In addition to the Warwick case (see the next note), Chief Justice Hale cites 

 a second judicial murder of one who had caused another to be transported, and on 

 the latter' s non-appearance was executed. There is also the case (4th Anne) of 

 Captain Green and his comrades. But there is no story so hideous as the Perrys'. 



2 See Coke's " Institutes," Ed. 1660, vol. 2, Cap. 104, p. 232. An uncle was 

 charged with the murder of his niece, to whom he was both guardian and heir. 

 She was heard by a witness to cry out " Good uncle, do not kill me." Soon after 

 she disappeared. At the trial the uncle was admonished by the judge of assize 

 to find the child by the next assizes. Not being able to find his niece he brought 

 a child exactly like her in face, figure, age, and dress. The fraud, however, 

 was discovered, and the uncle was convicted and executed. Afterwards the niece, 

 when she reached 16 years, and thus became of age, returned and successfully 

 claimed her property. She had been beaten by her uncle, and had run away to 

 the next county, and there harboured by a stranger. 



3 2 Hale, 290, 



