A simple majority, provided that it consisted of
twelve, was sufficient to convict. The High Steward was sole judge of
the law; and the Lords Triers formed merely a jury to pronounce on
the question of fact. Jeffreys was appointed High Steward. He selected
thirty Triers; and the selection was characteristic of the man and of
the times. All the thirty were in politics vehemently opposed to the
prisoner. Fifteen of them were colonels of regiments, and might be
removed from their lucrative commands at the pleasure of the King. Among
the remaining fifteen were the Lord Treasurer, the principal Secretary
of State, the Steward of the Household, the Comptroller of the
Household, the Captain of the Band of Gentlemen Pensioners, the Queen's
Chamberlain, and other persons who were bound by strong ties of interest
to the court. Nevertheless, Delamere had some great advantages over the
humbler culprits who had been arraigned at the Old Bailey. There the
jurymen, violent partisans, taken for a single day by courtly Sheriffs
from the mass of society and speedily sent back to mingle with that
mass, were under no restraint of shame, and being little accustomed to
weigh evidence, followed without scruple the directions of the bench.
But in the High Steward's Court every Trier was a man of some experience
in grave affairs. Every Trier filled a considerable space in the public
eye. Every Trier, beginning from the lowest, had to rise separately and
to give in his verdict, on his honour, before a great concourse. That
verdict, accompanied with his name, would go to every part of the world,
and would live in history. Moreover, though the selected nobles were
all Tories, and almost all placemen, many of them had begun to look with
uneasiness on the King's proceedings, and to doubt whether the case of
Delamere might not soon be their own.

Jeffreys conducted himself, as was his wont, insolently and unjustly.
He had indeed an old grudge to stimulate his zeal. He had been Chief
Justice of Chester when Delamere, then Mr. Booth, represented that
county in Parliament. Booth had bitterly complained to the Commons that
the dearest interests of his constituents were intrusted to a drunken
jackpudding. [41] The revengeful judge was now not ashamed to resort
to artifices which even in an advocate would have been culpable. He
reminded the Lords Triers, in very significant language, that Delamere
had, in Parliament, objected to the bill for attainting Mon