ed an extrajudicial opinion of the Judges appointed for
such services,--irregularly given, out of court, that they would
declare such an act high treason.

But a manuscript sermon, neither preached nor designed for the public,
was hardly evidence enough of treason even for such Judges--so
purchased, for such an Attorney--so greedy of preferment, with such a
Cabinet and such a King. For all those, like the Pharisees of old,
"feared the People." So their victim was tortured on the rack, and
twelve leading questions prepared by the Government officials, were
put to him there. I quote Secretary Winwood's record--still extant in
his own handwriting--"He was this day examined before torture, in
torture, between torture, and after torture; notwithstanding nothing
could be drawn from him, he still persisting in his obstinate and
insensible denials and former answers." Bacon was present at the
torture, which took place in the Tower, Jan. 19, 1614, O.S. (30th Jan.
1615, N.S.). In August he was tried for high treason--"compassing and
imagining the King's death"--before a packed jury; against law, and
without legal evidence. He was of course found guilty under the ruling
of the Court! But public opinion, even then making tyrants "tremble in
their capitals," was so indignant at the outrage that the execution
was not ventured on, and he was left to languish in Jail, till on the
27th of March, 1616, a King more merciful took the old minister where
the wicked cease from troubling.[25]

[Footnote 25: 2 St. Tr. 869; 16 Montagu's Bacon, clxvi.; 2 Campbell,
291.]

In this case, Gentlemen of the Jury, you will notice three violations
of the law.

(1.) The opinion of the Judges before the trial was extrajudicial and
illegal.

(2.) The application of torture was contrary to law.

(3.) The statute of Treason was wrested to apply to this case--and a
crime was constructed by the servants of the court.

It is curious to read the opinion of James himself. "The British
Solomon" thus wrote:--

"So the only thing the Judges can doubt of is of the
delinquent's intention, on his bare denial to clear him
[himself], since nature teaches every man to defend his life
as he may; and whether in case there was a doubt herein, the
Judges should not rather incline to that side [namely, the
side of the Government,] wherein all probability lies: but
if Judges will needs trust rather the bare negative of an
_infa