430
The Gn'en Bag.
on the face, the brow turned to a lively and fresh color, and the deceased opened one of her eyes and shut it again; and this opening the eye was done three several times; she likewise thrust out the ring or marriage finger three times and pulled it in again, and the finger dropped blood on the grass." What meaning these portents were supposed to have does not appear. The report breaks off abruptly without giving the result of the trial. In 1653 we have the trial of Faulconer for perjury, 4 St. Tr. 323. Many witnesses were sworn to prove that the defendant committed perjury in his testimony before the commis sioners for sequestration of royalist estates. Other witnesses were then called to show the defendant's bad character; they testified to his having drunk the devil's health in the street at Petersfield; having used bad lan guage; having been guilty of gross im morality; having been committed on sus picion of felony, and to his having "a com mon name for a robber on the highway." The trial and conviction of Rose Cullen der and Amy Duny for witchcraft, 6 St. Tr. 647 (1665), is a permanent stigma upon the name of Sir Mathew Hale. The charge against these poor creatures was that they had bewitched several children. These children were considered too young to be called as witnesses, and the testimony against the defendants was given by the parents and relatives of the children. The substance of their testimony was that the women on trial had quarreled with the parents of the children said to be bewitched; that thereafter the children had fits, during which they threw up crooked pins; they also declared that the defendants were torturing the chil dren. Many other puerile incidents were related. Then the celebrated Dr. Brown, the author of "Religio Medici," testified as an expert that the defendants were in his opinion witches. The prosecuting counsel, who seems to have been somewhat skeptical, sug gested some experiments in court. The
children were brought into court blindfolded and asked to touch several people besides the defendants, and it was observed thai the children went through the same convulsions in every case. Nevertheless Chief Justice Hale allowed the case to go to the jury, and the women were convicted and hanged. The trial of Lord Morley on a charge oi murder, 6 St. Tr. 770 (1666), is the earliest judicial proceeding to be found in these volumes. It seems that Lord Morley. in an affair of honorwith a Mr. Hastings, had come out second best. This result rankled in Lord Morley's breast and he took frequent occa sion thereafter to insult Hastings and press him to fight; but the noble lord took care that on such occasions he should be in the company of one or more of his friends. At length he and a friend deliberately attacked Hastings and killed him. The evidence proves that it was deliberate assassination. Lord Morley was prosecuted before his peers by Heneage Finch (afterwards Lord Chancellor Nottingham) in a manner which does credit to his great reputation. The trial was orderly and fair. When the depositions taken before the coroner of some witnesses who were then dead were offered in evi dence proof was first made that the wit nesses were dead and the coroner was put on the stand to testify that the depositions had not been altered. Amid the harsh and often brutal conduct of crown counsel in early times, Finch's closing argument stands out in bold relief as a model of forcible but tem perate method. "My lords," he said in con clusion, "the quality of an offender may serve to enhance the crime, but since the world stood it never was counted any abate ment. The same duty to the king, the same obedience to his laws, the same reverence to human nature, the same care to avoid the effusion of Christian blood, is expected fron; a lord which is required from the meanest commoner of England. It is the case of all the people of England who are highly con-
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