62 



Murder in the Seventeenth Century. 



it was necessary to prove the finding 1 of the body, 1 but if this ever 

 were so it would not appear to be the law now, and this crime may 

 be shewn legally, and yet the body disposed of {e.g., thrown into 

 the sea) in such a way that it cannot be recovered. 



How Chief Justice Hyde treated the facts and law on the trial 

 we have no means of knowing. He was a Royalist with a vengeance, 

 and could say to one praying for mercy when convicted of writing a 

 book which incited resistance to the King's government, " That he 

 would not intercede for his own father in such a case if he were 

 alive." But there was no rebellion here. His violent language, as 

 reported in Twyne's case and Keach's case, must be remembered 

 with shame and regret, and we have little confidence that the rules 

 of evidence, even such as they were then, were observed. 



He was, through the influence of Lord Clarendon, made Chief 

 Justice of the King's Bench 19th October, 16 63, 2 and, having held 

 that office little more than a year and a half, died May, 1665. 



It is stated by Mr. Foss, " Lives of the Judges/' that " the judge 

 was dead before the discovery of the innocence of the Perrys was 

 made " ; but this could not be the case if Mr. Harrison returned 

 in two years. Neither of the authorities quoted " 1 Siderfin," 2, 

 and "State Trials," V., 1030, and XIV., 1312—24, prove it. 

 Whether it would have prevented promotion, even if it had been 

 generally known, may be doubted. The matter must remain open 

 for the present. 



In the last judgment, a striking group will be formed by Joan 

 and Richard Perry and their crazy murderer. 



It is strange to find, in connection with the scene of the above 

 events, the curious monument which Juliana, Lady Campden, erected 

 in Campden Church, about this period, to the memory of her hus- 

 band, and which in due time bore her own epitaph. The lady, erect 

 and dressed in her shroud, is represented as leading her husband, 

 similarly attired, from an imaginary vault, the doors of which are 

 thrown open on either side, and have on them the inscriptions to 



1 Russell's " Crimes and Misdemeanours." 

 2 Lord Clarendon attended and made a neat little speech. See Campbell's " Lives 

 of the Lord Chief Justices of England." 



