LETTERS Donkeys
Sir: Before making the ridiculous sugges- tion as you did in your leader of 6 July (`The Jury is an ass') that a property qualification and literacy test be applied to prospective jurors, you should have gone to the Old Bailey, where a plaque is inscribed: 'Near this site William Penn and William Mead were tried in 1670 for preaching to an unlawful assembly in Grace Church Street. This tablet com- memorates the courage and endurance of the Jury Thos. Vere, Edward Bushell and ten others, who refused to give a verdict against them, although locked up without food for two nights, and were fined for their final verdict of Not Guilty. The case of these Jurymen was reviewed on a writ of habeas corpus and Chief Justice Vaughan delivered the opinion of the court which established "The Right of Juries" to give their Verdict according to their convic- tions.'
If only property owners are to be jurors, and each defendant shall have the right to trial by a jury of his peers, then one must assume non-propertied defendants are not to be tried at all.
Perhaps the editor is an ass.
Co. Waterford, Ireland.
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