was naturally impossible, nothing could be done.[543] The inability of the court to allow real favour to the accused receives constant illustration from the trial of Lord Stafford. It might have been expected that a venerable peer, standing to be judged by his peers and surrounded by his relatives and old acquaintances, would receive an amount of respect and favour which was denied to meaner folk. But this was far from being the case. In spite of the evident desire of the Lord Chancellor, who presided in the capacity of Lord High Steward, to allow to the accused every advantage that was consistent with his duty, he found it impossible to contest against the managers of the prosecution in their demand that the rules should be exerted against him in all their usual harshness. Time after time the counsel pressed home points of procedure which lay in their favour. It roused the indignation of Jones and Maynard that the barristers retained by Lord Stafford to be his counsel on matters of law stood so near him that they might be suspected of wishing to prompt him in matters of fact, and they were forced to move to a greater distance from the prisoner.[544] When at the end of the second day of the trial Finch urged that before further proceedings a day’s rest should be given to the prisoner to recover from his great physical fatigue, the managers withstood his proposal eagerly. The Lord High Steward asked what inconvenience would ensue. They could suggest none of consequence, but said that the delay would be highly unusual and that it was a most unreasonable thing to demand. Jones’ zeal was such that he exposed himself to a well-deserved snub from the court.[545] Without being in the least abashed he pursued his speech and finally carried the point triumphantly.[546] A similar violation of the maxim _De vitâ hominis nulla est cunctatio longa_, which the Lord Chancellor quoted on this occasion, occurred during the trial of Lord Russell, when Chief Justice Pemberton would have granted a short respite to the prisoner but for the opposition of the prosecuting counsel. “Mr. Attorney, why may not this trial be respited till the afternoon?” To which the Attorney-General rudely replied, “Pray call the jury”; and Pemberton had nothing for it but to say to the prisoner, “My Lord, the king’s counsel think it not reasonable to put off the trial longer, and we cannot put it off without their consent.” On the last day of Lord Stafford’s trial the court again displayed its weakness as a protector of the accused. Owing to the prisoner’s excessive weakness and failure to make his voice heard, the Lord High Steward ordered a clerk to read the paper from which he was struggling to propose certain points of law to be argued. The managers immediately objected. It was contrary to custom and might be turned into a dangerous precedent. Finch was compelled to give way to their harsh insistence, and Stafford,