Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 5.djvu/286

270 HARVARD LA W REVIE W. tain nor river." 1 In 1406 (Y. B. 8 H. IV. 1, pi. 2), we find Gascoigne, by advice of all the justices, awarding the penalty with further details. Two appealed of robbery and "mute of malice, to delay their death," are to lie on the ground naked, save trowsers, to have put upon them as great a weight of iron as they can bear and more {tant de ferr et pots come Us puissent porter et pints), and to have for food only the poorest bread that can be found, and standing water from the place nearest to the jail, and these only on alternate days, bread only on one day, and only water on the next, — and so to lie till death. In 1474 (Y. B. 14 Edw. IV. 8, 17), on an appeal, the terms of the judgment are given : " Needham went to Newgate and asked judgment in forma quae seqnitnr. That the appellee be remanded to his prison . . . and be put in a cell, and be naked on the bare ground without litter or rushes, or cloth or anything, and shall lie there naked on his back, . . . his head and feet covered, and that one arm be drawn with a cord to one quarter of the cell, and the other to the other quarter, and that one foot be drawn to one quarter of the cell and the other to the other, and that on his body be put a piece of iron as much as he can bear, and more {tin p'eece de ferre tant come il poit suffre et port snr luy, et pints), and the first day after, he shall have three morsels of barley bread without any drink, and the second day he shall thrice drink, without bread, as much as he can of water standing near the prison, and this shall be his diet until he be dead." At Newgate two centuries later, in 1662 (Kelyng, old ed. 27), they had made other changes. Kelyng, C. J., tells us that " George Harley, being indicted for robbery, refused to plead, and his two thumbs were tied together with whipcord that the pain of that might compel him to plead, and he was sent away so tied, and a minister persuaded to go to him to persuade him ; and an hour after he was brought again and pleaded. And this was said to be the constant practice at Newgate." This method was sometimes accompanied by the press ; at this period also a sharp stone or stake was placed under the prisoner's back. The tying with whipcord was kept up at Newgate at least as late as 1734. 2 At last came the abolition of 1 Was the original notion that of making the " irons," into which the prisoner was put, heavy enough to keep him down? 9 Pal. Com. ii. 189-191, Barrington, Obs. on Stat. (2d ed.) 61-66. As is well known there was a reason for enduring this horrid torture in the doctrine that one who was not