murder, being read, the gaoler delivered up his prisoner to the care
of the black rod, and he was immediately committed to the Tower. He
appeared very calm, composed, and unconcerned, from the time of his
being apprehended; conversed coolly on the subject of his imprisonment;
made very pertinent remarks upon the nature of the _habeas-corpus_
act of parliament, of which he hoped to avail himself; and when they
withdrew from the house of peers, desired he might not be visited by
any of his relations or acquaintances. His understanding, which was
naturally good, had been well cultivated; his arguments were rational,
but his conduct was frantic.

TRIED BY THE HOUSE OF PEERS.

The circumstances of the assassination appeared so cruel and deliberate,
that the people cried aloud for vengeance; and the government gave up
the offender to the justice of his country. The lord-keeper Henley was
appointed lord high-steward for the trial of earl Ferrers, and sat in
state with all the peers and judges in Westminster-hall, which was for
this purpose converted into a very august tribunal. On the sixteenth day
of April the delinquent was brought from the Tower in a coach, attended
by the major of the Tower, the gentleman-gaoler, the warders, and a
detachment of the foot-guards. He was brought into court about ten; and
the lord-steward with the peers taking their places, he was arraigned
aloud in the midst of an infinite concourse of people, including many
foreigners, who seemed wonderfully struck with the magnificence and
solemnity of the tribunal. The murder was fully proved by unquestionable
evidence; but the earl pleaded insanity of mind; and, in order to
establish this plea, called many witnesses to attest his lunacy in a
variety of instances, which seemed too plainly to indicate a disordered
imagination: unfounded jealousy of plots and conspiracies, unconnected
ravings, fits of musing, incoherent ejaculations, sudden starts of
fury, denunciations of unprovoked revenge, frantic gesticulations, and a
strange caprice of temper, were proved to have distinguished his conduct
and deportment. It appeared that lunacy had been a family taint,
and affected divers of his lordship's relations; that a solicitor of
reputation had renounced his business on the full persuasion of his
being disordered in his brain; that long before this unhappy event, his
nearest relations had deliberated upon the expediency of taking out a
commission of lunac