[545] Sir W. Jones: “My Lords, we do not presume at all to offer our consent to what time the court shall be adjourned.” L.H.S.; “No, we do not ask your consent.”
[546] 7 State Trials 1371–1373.
[547] 7 State Trials 1544.
[548] The trial of Hawkins for theft in 1669 is of great interest in this connection. It was evidently considered to be an extreme piece of good fortune that the accused was able to prove the conspiracy against him, and it was only owing to the folly and clumsiness of the prosecutor that he could clearly prove the perjury. 6 State Trials 922–952.
[549] Sometimes this gave rise to great hardship, as in Oates’ second trial for perjury, where a witness named Sarah Paine was summoned, but the wrong Sarah coming, the mistake was not detected until she was put in the witness-box. 10 State Trials 1287.
[550] This however was considered rather unfair at the time. See the case of Atkins. 6 State Trials 1491. The action of the government and the judges in Colledge’s case (8 State Trials 570–587) in depriving the prisoner of papers which leave had been given him to write, that the crown case might be managed accordingly, strained this practice still further, and is justly termed by Sir J. F. Stephen “one of the most wholly inexcusable transactions that ever occurred in an English court.” Hist. Crim. Law i. 406.
[551] This was certainly so in Newgate and the other London prisons, but Reading’s intrigue with the Five Popish Lords seems to shew that the rule was relaxed for the Tower. 7 State Trials 301.
[552] See the cases of Coleman and Fitzharris. Mrs. Coleman managed to convey letters to her husband in prison after his arrest. House of Lords MSS. 8. Mrs. Fitzharris also was used, according to the information received by the government, to convey messages to her husband from the leaders of his party. She used, while talking to him in the presence of a warder, to lower her voice so that he alone could hear, and then repeat the message in the middle of their ordinary conversation. Information of Lewis the spy. May 30, 1681. S.P. Dom. Charles II 415: 334.
[553] Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy ii. 310.
[554] That this was recognised at the time is evident from the attention which they received in the debates in the Commons on the Duke of York. That on the Lords’ Provision in the Popery bill exempting the duke was carried on amid cries of “Coleman’s letters! Coleman’s letters!” 4 Parl. Hist. 1044. And see the whole of the Debate on a Motion for Removing the Duke of York, where they had the greatest weight. Ibid. 1026–1034.