CRIMINAL TRIALS.
A SERIES of State Trials, popularly drawn up, and reduced within a reasonable compass, is likely to prove as instructive as enter- taining. This commencement bids fair to realize all we could wish on the subject. There is no reading more attractive or fixing than the perusal of judicial proceedings, involving the life and fame of the parties themselves, and indicative of the amount of personal liberty and the securities for their rights enjoyed by the People of England in all ages. A perusal of this volume will prove, that our boasted Constitutional privileges are plants of a late and slow growth ; and that state trials, previous to the Revolution, were little more than solemn mockeries, got up for the purpose of destroying an odious individual, or of producing an effect upon the minds of the multitude.
The Trials in this volume are preceded by a luminous intro- duction, comprising a sketch of the History of Criminal Proceed- ings in England ; from which we extract a very interesting pa- rallel between the ancient modes of procedure in case of treason and that which is now the right of every Englishman.
The advantage which the liberty of the subject has gained in modern times, cannot, perhaps, be better illustrated, than by contrasting the situation of two individuals charged with the crime of treason, at the two extremes of a period of two hundred years. In the boasted age of Elizabeth, the practice was to arrest the suspected person, and to keep him in strict imprisonment till it suited the purposes of the Crown to try Lim. During this interval (which was quite without limit in practice, however there beinginstances of imprisonment for many years without trial), the prisoner was left to ruminate upon his mis- fortune in solitude, no friend or adviser being admitted to him- his gaoler, per- haps, or some expert underling of state, was occasionally introduced to examine him.—to extort confessions an him ; or, failing in this object, to do what Tacitus describes as the 11;.ight of imperial tyranny at Rome, suspiria subseribere, —to write down and register the sighs and groans of the captive, for the pur- pose of making them the subject of criminal charges. Conlin.. to his trial with Iris powers both of body and mind wasted by confinement, he was literally brought out to "fight without a weapon." Ile heard the charge against him fur the first time, when the indictment was read upon his arraignment ; he was left to puzzle out his way to the meaning of the charge, involved, as it was, in technical jargon, and was compelled to plead instantly to it. If he denied it, evidence was produced against him, consisting of written, or even verbal ac- counts of the examinations of persons, not brought into court, not cross-ex- amined by him, nor confronted with him in. any way ; sometimes convicted traitors waiting for execution; sometimes men charged with the same offence which was imputed to him, and hoping for, and even promised pardon for them- selves, if they succeeded in fixing guilt upon him. He was not allowed to call witnesses to prove his innocence of the charge, or to impeach the testimony of the witnesses for the Crown ; counsel were not to assist him in making his defence ; and, during the whole proceeding, the judges and King's counsel were accustomed to display their ingenuity by perplexing the prisoner with questions, and endeavouring to extract his condemnation from his own mouth. If the jury found him guilty, his life and property were in the King's hands; and the old observation which has been applied to princes may with equal justice be ap- plied to persons convicted of state offences in ancient times, namely, that " the interval between their prisons and their graves was usually but a short one :" if, on the other hand, he was acquitted, the jury were reprimanded, or even punished, and the prisoner was sent back to confinement till the materials for a new charge were compounded, or till it pleased the caprice of Government to discharge him. Such was the law and practice in the time of Queen Elizabeth ; let us now look at the law and practice in the time of George the Third. In modern times, a person imprisoned on a charge of treason is entitled imme- diately to a copy of the warrant of commitment, which the gaoler is bound to deliver to him under a very heavy penalty ; friends and advisers arc admitted to consult with him at all reasonable times ; if upon the warrant of his commit- ment or otherwise he has reason to believe, or is advised that his imprisonment is illegal, or that he is entitled to bail, he may demand to be brought personally before some court of superior jurisdiction, and after being heard publicly and openly, he will be either bailed, remanded, or discharged; he must be brought to trial within a reasonable time, and if not indicted in the course of the next term or sessions after his commitment, he is entitled to be bailed; and if not indicted and tried at the second term or sessions, he may be discharged. There must be an interval of fifteen days between his arraignment and trial. A copy of the indictment, together with a list of the witnesses to appear against him, and also of the jury by whom he is to be tried, with a full description of each person, in order that he may know how to direct his challenges, must be delivered to him ten days at least before his trial; counsel are assigned to him by the court upon his own nomination, who are permitted to assist him in every part of the trial by examining witnesses and addressing the jury in his behalf; there must be two witnesses to support every article of the treason charged against him ; all the evidence is given in open court, and the prisoner or his counsel are allowed to cross-examine the witnesses for the prosecution; no questions arc asked of the prisoner during the whole of the proceedings as to the facts of the case ;. he may call as many witnesses as )e pleases, who are- examined Ilion oath; and he has the same means of compelling their attendance as the Crown; on a verdict of acquittal, he is instantly discharged, and the jury are never questioned fur their conduct.
The history of the practice of torture iu Krwland, is likewise ably and forcibly done. The file-similes of poor GUY FAWKES'S signature, before and after torture, now published for the first time from a document in the State Paper Office, discovered by Mr. LEMON, are affecting. The first is a stout, bold piece of calli- graphy; the last, all fluttering and trembling, bearinab marks of agony in every stroke, and left unfinished, as if for want of power to proceed. Guido alone is written : the poor wretch seems to have sunk under his agony as he was fashioning the first letter of his surname : the blur indicates that the pen fell from his hand in making the first stroke of the F. The trials included in this volume are those of Sir NICHOLAS THROCKMORTON, the Duke of NORFOLK, PARRY, ESSEX, and Sir WALTER RALEIGH.
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