Daily evening star. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1852-1854, 1854-09-05
EVENING STAR.
TRIkL OF WILLIAN PENN.

4SS&hA We W k641 u IhNv-
Miss Milford has been reading through
"Hargrave's State Trials" and thus re-
lates something very amusing and in
teresting she found therein:
One Of the trials relates to a man about
whom much has been written lately: and
who, certainly. although no doubt be had
faults in plenty, was puffed up with vani.
ty, as your professors of humanity sell
dom fail to be, and took no small delight
in courts and princes, as was to be ex-
pected from the leader of sect whose
chief tenet was an ostentatious renuncia-
ton of the p0mps and vanities of the
world-must be admitted to have had
his merits also-among which sliaIl al
ways include the manner in which he
turned the Mayor and Mr. Recorder round
his fingers. I am talking of William
Penn, and the process in question is the
trial of William Penn and William Mead
for a tumuituous assembly, Odd Charles
II. 1870 before the Mayor, Recorder,
and divers Aldermen of the Old Bailey.
/ do not know any cause pleasanter to
read than this, because from first to last
the parties with whom orr sympathies 60
have the best not only of the reasoning
but of the result; such arrant blunderers
were the whole of the court. To begin
at the beginning:
Clerk.-Bring William Penn and Viii.
liam Mead to the bar. .s..
Mayor.-Sirrah! Who bid you put off
their hats Put on their hats again.
Whereupon one of the officers putting
the prisoners hats upon their heads, pur-
suant to the orders Of the Court, brought
them to the bar.
Recorder.-Do you know where you
are? 30
Penn.-Yes.
Recorder.-Do you not know it is the
Kings Court2
PENN know it to be a Court, and
suppose it to be the Kings Court. Ia.
Recorder.-Do you not know there is
q respect due to the Court2
Pennies. .-...
Recorder.-Why do you not pay it,
then?
PENN DO so.
Recorder-Why do you not pull of
your hat, then!
Penn. Because 1 do not believe that
to be any respect.
Recorder.-Well, the Court sets forty
marks piece upon your heads, as a fine
for your contempt of Court.
PENN desire it might b observed,
that we came into the Court with our hats
Oft THAT is, taken off and if they have
been put on since, it was by order from
the bench, and therefore not we but the
bench should te fined.
T: Then Penn, finding the advantage he
had got, began to ask questions of the
Recorder. much to the discontinue of
that learned official. Here is a sample:
Recorder.-Sir, you are troublesome
fellow, and it is not for the honor of the
Court to suffer you to go on.
Penn.-I have asked but one question.
and you have not answered me, though
the right and privilege of every English
man be concerned in it.
Recorder.-If | should suffer you to
ask questions till tomorrow morning,
you would be none the wiser.
Penn.-That is according as the an
swers be. n,
Finally, although the real offence THAT
of preaching in Grace.church street, was,
l suppose, pretty clearly established, it
was found absolutely impossible to get
the jury to convict, They brought in a
temporizing and modified verdict, which
deprived the court of the few wits with
which they seem to have been originally
gifted. The Mayor scolded, the Recor.
der stormed. The jury were locked up,
sent back: sent back again, locked up
again for something like TWO days: and
must have been made of very stubborn
stuff to haveresisted the starvation. They
did resist, however. The more they
were pressed, the more favorable the yer.
dict became, and the bench were at last
compelled to accept complete and tri-
umphant acnuitfal