Volume 3
The Percy anecdotes / collected and edited by Reuben and Sholto Percy [pseud.].
- Date:
- pref. 1868
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The Percy anecdotes / collected and edited by Reuben and Sholto Percy [pseud.]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
20/658 (page 10)
![vizier,’ said he, ‘in passing by early in the morning, stopped and ordered the loaves to be weighed ; and finding them short of weight, immediately ordered the execution of the person in the shop.’ ‘ How severe a punish- ment for so slight a crime !’ ‘ It was thought severe,’ replied the Turk, ‘for the Christian was but a servant, whose wages were twenty 1iara> a day, and whose master derived the .vhole benefit from the deficiency in the weight of the bread.’ And yet other Armenians had already occupied the vacant place, and were serving the customers with the greatest in- difference. Common Law of England. The appellation of common lam originated with Edward the Confessor. The Saxons, though divided into many kingdoms, yet in their manners, laws, and languages, were similar. The slight differences which existed between the Mercian law, the West Saxon law, and the Danish law, were removed by Edward with great facility, and without any dissatisfaction; and he made his alteration rather famous by a new name, than by new matter ; for, abolishing the three distinctions above mentioned, he called it the Common Law of England, and ordained that no part of the kingdom should be governed by any particular law, but all by one. The common law, as contradistinguished from the statute law, con- sists or those rules and maxims concerning the p. sons and property of men, that have obtained by the tacit assent and usage of the inhabitants of this country ; the consent and approbation of the people being signified by their immemorial use and practice. Escapes from the Gallows. In Plott’s ‘ History of Staffordshire,’ we are told that in the reign of Henry III., one Judith de Balsham was condemned for re- ceiving and concealing thieves, and hanged from nine o’clock 01 Monday morning, till sun-rise on Tuesday following, and yet escaped with life ! In evidence of this most incredible story, Plott recites verbatim, a royal pardon granted to the woman, in which the fact is circumstantially recorded. ‘Quia Inetta.de Balsham pro receptamento Latronum ei im- posito nuper, per considerationem Curie nostre suspendio adjudicataet ab horanona diei Lune usque post ortum solis diei Martis sequen. sus- pensa,viva evasit sicutex tes Union iofide dign o - rum accepimus.’ What can be said against such testimony as this? Nothing perhaps but that the thing is impossible. The days of Henry 111. were days of priestly imposture ; and there have been grosser juggles in the annals of unholy craft, than hanging a woman for twenty-four hours without killing her ! In the account of Oxfordshire, by the same author, we find a remarkable notice of the Woman Greene, who, after being hanged. was recovered by Sir William Petty. [See Anecdotes of Science, p. 519.] The time of suspension, it may be necessary to observe, was not quite so long as that of Judith de Balsham ; she hung only about half an hour. ‘ What was most remarkable,’ says Plott, ‘an! distinguished the hand of Providence in her recovery, she was found to be innocent of the crime for which she suffered.’ Confinement in Irons. When it was once urged to Lord Chief Justice King, that irons were absolutely necessary to safe custody, his lordship, who was of opinion with Bracton, that such a mode of confinement is as contrary to law as to humanity, replied, ‘ That they might build their walls higher.’ The neglect of this legal precaution can certainly be no excuse for the infliction of an illegal punishment. The truth is, as Mr. Buxton justly observes, ‘ a man is very rarely ironed for his own misdeeds, but very frequently for those of others : additiorfal irons on his person are cheaper than addi- tional elevation to the walls. Thus we cover our own negligence by increased severity on captives.’ In 1782, Lord Loughborough imposed a fine of twenty pounds on the keeper of Norwich Castle, for putting irons on a woman. And yet we are told by Mr. Neild, that on a recent survey of the gaol at Brecon, there were, among other persons, half-starved and cruelly treated, two women, without shoes and stock- ings, heavily loaded with double irons ! ! ! Sufferer for Conscience’ Sake. Among the prosecutions for conscience’ sake, which disgraced the reign of Henry the Fourth, none is more interesting than that of Mr. William Thorpe, a follower of Wickliffe, of which an account, written by himself, is preserved in Fox’s ‘ Acts and Monuments.’ It is not only interesting as an apparently au- thentic record of the proceedings, but as a specimen of the language and manners of the times. The trial took place before Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1407. In the pious exhortations of the Archbishop to this heretic, there is a mixture of argument, and scolding, and swearing, which is altogether very amusing. After a long conference, in which the archbishop seldom condescended to address him by any other appellation than that of ‘ Lcwde Lossel,’ he asked him defini- tively to submit to the ordinances of the church; but receiving only a conditional answer?—‘ Than the archebishop, striking with his honde ferseylye upon a cupborde, spake to me with a greate spyrite, saying, “ But yf thou leave soche additions, obliging the now here without ony excepcion to mine ordinaunce. or that 1 go out of this place, I shall make the as sure as ony thefe that is in the pryson of Lantern. Advyse the now what thou wilt do.’” And in the same spirit of Christian meek-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2487274x_0003_0022.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
