1. In April, 1554, just three hundred and one years ago this very month, in England, Sir Nicolas Throckmorton, a gentleman of distinguished family, was brought to trial for high treason. He had held a high military office under Henry VIII. and Edward VI., but "made himself obnoxious to the Papists, by his adherence to some of the persecuted Reformers." With his two brothers he attended Anne Askew to her martyrdom when she was burnt for heresy, where they were told to "take heed to your lives for you are marked men." He was brought to trial April 17th, 1554, the first year of Bloody Mary. Of course he was allowed no counsel; the court was insolent, and demanded his condemnation. But the jury acquitted him; whereupon the _court shut the twelve jurors in prison_! Four of them made their peace with the judges, and were delivered: but eight were kept in jail till the next December, and then fined,--three of them L60 apiece, and five L225 apiece. This is one of the earliest cases that I find, where an English jury in a political trial refused to return such a verdict as the tyrant demanded.[121] [Footnote 121: See the case in 1 St. Tr. 869, and 1 Jardine, 40, also 115. The great juridical attacks upon English Liberty were directed against the Person of the Subject, and appear in the trials for Treason, but as in such trials the defendant had no counsel, the great legal battle for English Liberty was fought over the less important cases where only property was directly concerned. Hence the chief questions seem only to relate to money.]