For the greater part of this reign the application of torture in the examination of State offenders seems to have been in common use, and its legality not disputed. Mr. Daines Barrington says,[23] that among the manuscript papers of Lord Ellesmere, is a copy of instructions to him, as Lord President of the Marches, to use the torture on the taking of some examinations at Ludlow; and Sir Edward Coke himself,[24] in the year 1600, (the 43d of Elizabeth’s reign) then being Attorney General, at the trials of the Earls of Essex and Southampton, boasted of the clemency of the Queen, because, though the rebellious attempts were so exceedingly heinous, yet out of her princely mercy “no person was racked, tortured, or pressed to speak any thing further than of their own accord.” And in the Countess of Shrewsbury’s case (10 James 1st) when Sir Edward was Chief Justice, in enumerating the privileges of the nobility, he mentions as one, that their bodies were not subject to torture _in causa criminis læsæ majestatis_. Barrington justly observes[25] there was a regular establishment for torture, for at his trial,[26] in the first year of James the first, Sir Walter Raleigh stated that Kemish had been threatened with the rack, and the keeper of the instrument sent for. Sir William Wade, who, with the Solicitor General had taken his examination, denied it, but admitted they had told him he deserved it, and Lord Howard declared, “Kemish was never on the rack, _the king gave charge that no rigour should be used_.” Barrington mentions[27] that Sir John Hayward, the historian, was threatened with the rack, which Dr. Granger confirms; and the former also remarks that it is stated in King James’s works, that the rack was shewn to Guy Faukes when under examination. Down to this period we do not find the legality of the practice questioned, though it has been said by high authority, as will be stated presently, that some doubts had been suggested to Queen Elizabeth. State Prisoners were confined usually in the Tower, and commissioners, attended by the law officers of the crown, were sent to examine them, who applied the rack at their own discretion, or according to the order of the privy council, or the king’s, without any objection being made to their authority.