According to the narrative written by Penn and Mead, and quoted in
Forsyth's "History of Trial by Jury," this scene took place on Sunday
morning, and the court adjourned again to the following day, when, unless
they were supplied with food surreptitiously, they must have fasted since
Saturday. The foreman gave in their verdict in writing, as before, to
which they had severally subscribed their names. The clerk received it,
but was prevented from reading it by the Recorder, who desired him to ask
for a "positive verdict."
"That is our verdict," said the foreman. "We have subscribed to it."
"Then hearken to your verdict," said the clerk. "You say that William Penn
is not guilty in manner and form as he stands indicted; you say that
William Mead is not guilty in manner and form as he stands indicted; and
so say you all."
The jury responded affirmatively, and their names were then called over,
and each juror was commanded to give his separate verdict, which they did
unanimously.
"I am sorry, gentlemen," the Recorder then said, "you have followed your
own judgments and opinions, rather than the good and wholesome advice
which was given you. God keep my life out of your hands! But for this the
court fines you forty marks a man, and imprisonment till paid."
Penn was about to leave the dock, but was prevented from doing so, upon
which he said, "I demand my liberty, being freed by the jury."
"You are in for your fines," the Lord Mayor told the prisoners.
"Fines, for what?" demanded Penn.
"For contempt of court," replied the Lord Mayor.
"I ask," exclaimed Penn, "if it be according to the fundamental laws of
England, that any Englishman should be fined or amerced but by the
judgment of his peers or jury; since it expressly contradicts the
fourteenth and twenty-ninth chapters of the Great Charter of England,
which say, 'No freeman ought to be amerced but by the oath of good and
lawful men of the vicinage.'"
"Take him away," cried the Recorder.
"They then," continues the narrative, "hauled the prisoners into the
bail-dock, and from thence sent them to Newgate, for non-payment of their
fines; and so were their jury. But the jury were afterwards discharged
upon an _habeas corpus_, returnable in the Common Pleas, where their
commitment was adjudged illegal." Even then, judges appear to have
remained unconvinced of the illegality of the practice, or stubborn in
their desire to enforce their own views or wishes upon juries; for the
question was not regarded as finally settled until the decision in the
Court of Common Pleas was clinched, in the same year, by a similar
judgment of the Court of King's Bench.
Barbarous Punishments.
BY SIDNEY W. CLARKE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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