Early Criminal Trials. cerned in the present example. If they put their trust in the law as the great avenger of blood in the world and once find them selves deceived, who knows the conse quences that may follow? What feuds in private families? What massacres it may produce at last? And therefore, no doubt, all the kingdom will observe and mark the issue of this day, and will be curious to know what will become of a lord in whose eyes the blood of a gentleman hath been so vile and inconsiderable, if it were possible—I say if it were possible—that so great a tribunal as this should either mistake the fact or mis understand the law, what judicature is there left on this side of heaven for mankind to rely on? I pretend not to aggravate the matter. This is the place where no detesta tion of the crime, no passion of the prose cutor and no compassion of your lordships towards a peer of the realm is to have any ingredient in the verdict. And, therefore, having observed to your lordships that there is malice implied by the law, and in a manner confessed by the party, besides the direct and formal malice which hath been proved, I shall now submit all to the judg ment which the law hath wisely placed in your lordships' most noble breasts, with this only consideration: it is the voice of blood that crieth. I know your lordships will give it such an audience as it ought to have; such an audience as may quiet it and keep it from crying any more; such an audience as may cleanse the land from blood, and be a means to continue to your lordships that due veneration which all men have for your lordships' most righteous and impartial pro ceedings." This speech is the first specimen of genuine eloquence to be found in the State trials. The result shows that Finch's exhortation to the court was not irrelevant. A majority of the peers adjudged Lord Morley guilty of manslaughter, whereupon he claimed the benefit of clergy and went scot free. The trial of Hawkins for theft before Hale,
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6 St. Tr. 922 (1669), is curious in many ways, if the defendant's report be true. Hawkins, in the course of the trial, raised the novel point that a proposed witness had not been baptized. The prosecutor introduced evi dence to show that the defendant had com mitted two other unconnected thefts, which, said Hale, "if true would render the prisoner now at the bar obnoxious to any jury." If the defendant's report is correct the case disclosed a conspiracy between Mr. Justice John Croke and the prosecuting witness to railroad Hawkins to prison. Croke sat on the bench with Hale, and when directly im plicated by the evidence for the defendant, Hawkins says, he sneaked from the bench. No action seems to have been taken against Croke; but Hale warmly espoused Hawkins' cause and he was acquitted. The trial of the Earl of Pembroke by his peers on a charge of murder, 6 St. Tr. 1310 (1679), was orderly and judicial. Lord Xottingham, who was then Chancellor, pre sided as Lord High Steward, and controlled the proceedings with his customary dignity. When the defendant was arraigned Xotting ham addressed him in an admirable speech, in the course of which he said: "Doubtless the shame of being made a spectacle to such an assembly as this, and the having of a man's faults and weaknesses exposed to the notice and observation of such a presence as this, to a generous mind must needs be a penance worse than death itself; for he that outlives his own honor can have very little joy in whatsoever else he lives to possess. In such a state and condition as this is, it will be very fit for your lordship to recollect yourself with all the care and caution you can; it will be necessary for you to make use of the best temper and the best thoughts you have when you come to make your defense; let not the disgrace of standing as a felon at the bar too much deject you; no man's credit can fall so low but that if he bear his shame as he should do, and profit by it as he ought to do, it is in his own power to redeem his
