The Columbus journal., 1882-07-26
BRITISH LAW OF TREASON.

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For the perfect fruit in the time of flower.
-JOsephtne Pollard. In Hdrpcr's Weekly.
BRITISH LAW OF TREASON.
Trials for high treason have been
most rare in modern times, and the
whole subject is invested with singu-
lar interest even for the general read
ing public From the beginning of the
common law treason was recognized
and punished as crime, the cause of
the crime always being some act Of hos
tility against the Crown by some one
owing allegiance to it. With an un-
written law and corrupt or subservient
Judges, it may readily be imagined
what bloody injustices were possible.
The laws of Alfred declared that if any
man plotted against the King, either
himself or by karboring exiles. he
should be liable in his life and all bis
possessions. During the two centuries
that followed the conquest, however,
trials for treason were rare, and the
literature Of the subject is scanty. The
Ring being merely regarded as q sort
Of Premier-Baron, and there be-
ing no difficulty In finding a
daw in bis title, reasonable enterprises
were frequent; per contra, when
those engaged in such enterprises came
70 grief. they were got rid of without
excessive formality. William de Braose,
when King John invited him to send
bis son as page to Queen Isabella.
hesitated, and his wife declared that
she would never trust her child in the
hands of man who had murdered his
own nephew. The result was that the
whole family. having vainly fed to the
Irish wilds, was shut up in a room in
the tower and starved to death. The
punishments varied, but were often
barbarOus. The Barons under Mortimer
and Isabella hanged LIE Despencer and
burned out Edward lis bowels with
red-hot iron introduced through cows
horn The NOrsemen had an interest
ing way of insinuating an adder into
prisoner stomach in a similar fashion,
while Edward LII. when he caught
Mortimer. his mothers paramour, mere
ly hanged him. In the twenty fifth
year Of his reign, Edward made a
creditable attempt at remedying the un-
certainty of the earlier law under which
counterfeiting was treason, whether
the Kings seal or his coin were copied.
and 1t was treason to encrOach upon
the royal power" The new statute
mado it treason to compass the sover-
eign's death, to levy war against him.
or to adhere to his enemies, etc, though
al such offenses had to be proved by
an over act Composing the Kings
bic of almost indefinite expansions; and
when the phrase could not be stretched
70 take in an obnoxious opponent, the
law was disregarded. or a new act was
passed for his benefit. Not alone was
prosecution for treason a convenient
method of getting rid of political op-
ponent, but very small fish were scooped
In in the net. Under Edward w., one
man, whose deer the King had killed,
was put to death for wishing that the
King had the deer's horns in his belly,
and another was hanged, drawn and
quartered for making pun. He called
his inn the Crown, and his son the heir
70 the Crown. The Judges must have
resembled that loyal magistrate of the
last century who sent man to
Jail for declaring that the Prince
OF Wales was born without q shirt
70 his back. A special statute of
Henry VIII. made it treason to believe
the Kings marriage with Anne of Cleves
valid. The statute of Edward vi. re-
Quired for the conviction of one charged
with treason two sufficient and lawful
witnesses. but this provision was eluded
In dozen ways. Bacon. when Attor-
ney-General, convicted the decrepit old
Parson Peacham of treason by bringing
in q sermon found in his study which
had never been preached--more by
token. the great philosopher stood by
him when he was racked to extort a
confession. The punishment of treason
IN the "good old times was something
too horrible almost for description. The
average reader has mild and very er-
roneous idea of what changing. draw
ing and quartering" really meant, but
he will be instructed if he reads the his
tory of the Jesuit Ballard's conspiracy
In favor of Mary Queen of Scots. in
which he enlisted Anthony Darlington,
Chidiock Ttchbourne and other gen.
erous young men; or turns to the recital
by Mrs. Elizabeth Willoughby of the
execution of the Jesuit Hugh Green, in
l642. The hangman," we read, ''either
through unskillfulness or for want of q
sufficient presence of mind. had so i'll
performed his first duty of hanging him
that when he was cut down he was per-
fectly sensible and able to sit upright
upon the ground. viewing the crowd
That stood about him. The person who
undertook to quarter him was one Bare
foot. barber, who. being very timor-
Gus when he found he was to attack
living man, it was near half an hour be-
fore the sufferer was rendered entirely
insensible Of pain. The mob pulled at
the rope and threw the Jesuit on his
back. Then the barber immediately
fell to work. ripped up his belly, and
laid the flaps of skin on both sides, the
poor gentleman being SO present to HIM
self as to make the sign of the cross
with one hand. During this operation
the writer of this kneeled at the Jesuit's
head and held it fast between her hands.
His face was covered with thick sweat,
and blood issued from his mouth. ears
and eyes. and his forehead burned with
so much heat that she could scarce en-
dure her hand upon it The barber be-
ing still under q great consternation"-
but enough.
When Titus Oates Matched the Popish
plot of 1873, the infamous Chief-Justice
Scroggs aided the perjurer most vigor-
ously. No second witness appearing
when the Jesuit Whitbread was put up
on trial. Scroggs discharged the jury
TO enable the Crown to supplement its
evidence. and. on subsequent occasion.
Whitbread was duly convicted and ex-
ecuted. But Scroggs was outdone by
Jeffreys. when Lord William Rus
eel and Algernon Sidney were brought
before him in 1853, on charge of com