ner
stands charged, but of all the circumstances from which his guilt can
be collected, suspected, or inferred. All the jurors were acquainted
with him; eight out of the twelve have often been heard to declare
upon their oath, that they were sure one day he would come to the
gallows; and the remainder are fully of opinion that he deserves the
halter. My lord, I should ill have performed my duty, if I should
have allowed my bailiffs to summon the jury at hap-hazard, and
without previously ascertaining the extent of their testimony. Some
perhaps know more, and some less; but the least informed of them have
taken great pains to go up and down every corner of Westminster, they
and their wives, and to know all that they could hear concerning his
past and present life and conversation. Never had any culprit a
chance of a fairer trial.'"

An extract from the archives of the Record room, gives another specimen
of the mode of dealing with jurymen, if they proved refractory or
obstinate. It bears the date of the 8th year of King Henry VIII., and is
to the purport that the jury that "acquitted Walter, James, and John Doo,
Benet Bullok, and Edmund Stuttlie, notwithstanding that they had good and
substantial evidence given against the said felons, at the last gaol
delivery of Norwich; as the chief Justice of the King's Bench, the Lord
Edmund Howard, and William Ellis, one of the justices of the peace there,
openly declared before the lords, in the presence of the said jury; for
the which perjury so by them committed, it is by the lords' most
honourable council adjudged and decreed, that the said jury shall do the
penance following, that is to say, they shall be committed to the Fleet,
there to remain till to-morrow, and that then, at six of the clock, they
shall be brought by the warden of the Fleet into Westminster Hall, with
papers on their heads, whereon shall be written in great letters, 'these
men be wilfully perjured;' and with the same papers on their heads they
shall be led thrice about the hall of Westminster aforesaid, and then to
be led by the warden of the Fleet to the Fleet again, there to remain
till Monday; and on Monday, in the morning, to be had into Cheapside, and
there shall go about the cross in Chepe thrice, and then they shall
return to the Fleet, and there to remain till Tuesday, and then to be
brought again before the lords, to be bound by recognizances