the muscles and the sensibility of the nerves of an
innocent person being given, it is required to find the degree of pain
necessary to make himself guilty of a given crime."--_1 Bl. Com. 327.
n._

A prisoner standing mute at the present day would be sentenced to undergo
the punishment that would be awarded to him, if found guilty of the crime
laid to his charge.

INVESTIGATOR.

Manchester, April 4, 1854.

Blackstone (book iv. chap. 25.) speaks of the cases in which punishment of
"peine forte et dure" was inflicted according to the ancient law. It would
occupy too great space to quote what he says on this point, and, therefore
I must refer your correspondent to his work itself, where he will also find
an inquiry into its origin. The punishment is described almost in the words
of your correspondent's quotation; thus:

"That the prisoner be remanded to the prison from whence he came, and
be put into a low, dark chamber; and there be laid on his back, on the
bare floor, naked, unless where decency forbids, that there be placed
upon his body as great a weight of iron as he could bear, and more;
that he have no sustenance, save only, on the first day, three morsels
of the worst bread, and, on the second day, three draughts of standing
water, that should be nearest to the prison door; and in this situation
this should be alternately his daily diet, _till he died_, or (as
anciently the judgment ran) till he answered."

Blackstone farther intimates that this punishment was abolished by statute
12 Geo. III. c. 20., which shows, of course, that it continued to be
according to law for more than thirty years after the date mentioned by
ABHBA.

R. O.

The punishment, or more properly torture, alluded to by ABHBA, was the
"peine forte et dure," commonly applied in the early part of the last
century to such criminals as refused to plead. Many died under it in order
to save their estates, &c. from forfeiture to the crowns. In my forthcoming
anecdotes of "The Eighteenth Century," several cases are cited from the
newspapers of the time; but, as the MS. is now in the printer's hands, I
cannot refer to them. Writing from memory, I think that the last case in
which this torture was applied at the Old Bailey in London was in 1735, and
reported in the _London Magazine_ of that year. The "Press-yard" at Newgate
derives its name from being the scene of these tortures.

ALEXANDER ANDREWS