His associates chimed in with accordant howl. Puny Judge Jones declared,—
"We have a particular case here before us, as a matter of scandal against a great Judge, the greatest Judge in the kingdom, in criminal causes [the Lord Chancellor Nottingham was greater in civil causes]; and it is a great and an high charge upon him. And certainly there was never any age, I think, more licentious than this in aspersing governors, scattering of libels and scandalous speeches against those that are in authority: and without all doubt it doth become the court to show their zeal in suppressing it." [It was 'resisting an officer.'] "That trial [of Dr. Wakeman] was managed with exact justice and perfect integrity. And therefore I do think it very fit that this person be proceeded against by an information, that he may be made a public example to all such as shall presume to scandalize the government, and the governors, with any false aspersions and accusations."
Accordingly Mr. Radley, for that act, was convicted of speaking "scandalous words against the Lord Chief Justice Scroggs" and fined £200.[86]
Mr. Hudson says of the Star-Chamber, "So tender the court is of upholding the honor of the sentence, as they will punish them who speak against it with great severity."[87]
6. In 1680 Benjamin Harris, a bookseller, sold a work called "An Appeal from the country to the city for the Preservation of his Majesty's Person, Liberty, Property, and the Protestant Religion." He was brought to trial for a libel, before Recorder Jeffreys and Chief Justice Scroggs who instructed the jury they were only to inquire if Harris sold the book, and if so, find him "guilty." It was for the court to determine what was a libel. He was fined five hundred pounds and placed in the pillory; the Chief Justice wished that he might be also whipped.[88]
7. The same year Henry Carr was brought to trial. He published a periodical—"the Weekly Packet of advice from Rome, or the History of Popery"—hostile to Romanism. Before the case came to court, Scroggs prohibited the publication on his own authority. Mr. Carr was prosecuted for a libel before the same authority, and of course found guilty. The character of that court also was judgment against natural right. Jane Curtis and other women were in like manner punished for speaking or publishing words against the same "great judge."[89] And it was held to be a "misdemeanor" to publish a book reflecting on the justice of the nation—the truer the book the worse the libel! It was "obstructing an officer," and of course it was a greater offence to "obstruct" him with Justice and Truth than with wrong and lies. The greater the justice of the act the more dangerous the "crime!" If the language did not hit any one person it was "malice against all mankind."
8. In 1684 Sir Samuel Barnardiston was brought to trial charged with a "High Misdemeanor." He had written three private letters to be sent—it was alleged—by post to his friend, also a private man. The letters do not appear designed for any further publication or use; they related to matters of news, the events of the day and comments thereon, and spoke in praise of Algernon Sidney and Lord Russell who were so wickedly beheaded about the time the letters were written. It would require a microscopic eye to detect any evil lurking there. Jeffreys presided at the trial, and told the jury:—
"The letters are factious, seditious, and malicious letters, and as base as the worst of mankind could ever have invented." "And if he be guilty of it—the greater the man is the greater the crime, and the more understanding he has, the more malicious he seems to be; for your little ordinary sort of people, that are of common mean understanding, they may be wheedled and drawn in, and surprised into such things; but men of a public figure and of some value in the world that have been taken to be men of the greatest interest and reputation in a party, it cannot be thought a hidden surprise upon them; no, it is a work of time and thought, it is a thing fixed in his very nature, and it shows so much venom as would make one think the whole mass of his blood were corrupt." "Here is the matter he is now accused of, and here is in it malice against the king, malice against the government, malice against both Church and State, malice against any man that bears any share in the government, indeed malice against all mankind that are not of the same persuasion with these bloody miscreants." "Here is ... the sainting of two horrid conspirators! Here is the Lord Russell sainted, that blessed martyr; Lord Russell, that good man, that excellent Protestant, he is lamented! And here is Mr. Sidney sainted, what an extraordinary man he was! Yes, surely he was a very good man—and it is a shame to think that such bloody miscreants should be sainted and lamented who had any hand in that horrid murder [the execution of Charles I.] and treason ... who could confidently bless God for their being engaged in that good cause (as they call it) which was the rebellion which brought that blessed martyr to his death. It is high time for all mankind that have any Christianity, or fear of Heaven or Hell, to bestir themselves, to rid the nation of such caterpillars, such monsters of villany as those are!"
Of course the packed jury found him guilty; he was fined £10,000.[90]