PREFACE

TO THE SEVENTH AND EIGHTH VOLUMES OF THE STATE TRIALS: PRINTED IN THE YEAR 1735.

AFTER the publication of a Collection of State-Trials, which consists of Six Volumes in folio; the Reader may possibly be surprised at the appearance of two Volumes more of Collections on the same subject. For this reason it may be proper to premise some particulars prefatory to the Work, concerning the inducements there were to it, and the method wherein it has been pursued. And here we would by no means be understood to lay an imputation on the gentleman who prepared the last Edition of that Work for the press. The judicious Preface he prefixed to it, plainly shewed him to be entirely master of the subject; and he performed with eminent sufficiency the part he undertook, which was, to prepare and methodize such Tracts, printed or manuscript, as were brought to him; to insert them in their proper places, and to make Remarks and References where ever there was occasion. The business of collecting the several pieces was by no means his province, nor was it to be expected from one who had daily avocations in the way of his profession.

And tho' it were admitted that the then Undertakers did every thing they possibly could, to render the Work entire and complete, and spared neither pains nor expence to procure materials fit for the purpose; yet it is no wonder, that in so fruitful a field, they should after all their diligence leave some gleanings to reward the industry of those that came after them. They proceed in the first Edition upon a very scanty plan, proposing to take in no Trials, but what were really State-Trials, and were taken at length and entire; and to this plan they adhered strictly, except in a few instances: but in preparing the second Edition, by the advice of several gentlemen of learning and curiosity, a greater latitude was taken, and as well several Cases heard before the Court of Star-Chamber were inserted, as other Proceedings at Law, which could not properly be called State-Trials; and Trials which were well taken, tho' not of a Criminal nature, were inserted, together with the dying Behaviour and Speeches of such unfortunate persons as suffered death upon their con

victions.

In almost every of these particulars, these Supplemental Volumes will appear to have received many Additions and Improvements. The Cases here inserted, which were debated in the Star-Chamber, are such only as were considerable for the curiosity of the fact enquired into; as the Case of Davidson for sending down the Warrant for beheading the queen of Scots, contrary to queen Elizabeth's order; or for the figure and station of the Persons concerned, as lord Chancellor Bacon and others. The Trial for a large Estate in Shadwell, wherein the lady Ivy was a party; that of Mr. Denew and others, for assaulting Mr. Colepeper; the Proceedings between the duke and dutchess of Norfolk, and his grace's Trial with Mr. Germaine; and some others, were taken from printed pieces, which, for their price and scarcity, were almost equivalent to Manuscripts: and we can with truth say, that most of the printed Tracts here made use of, cost above ten times the price, that an ordinary piece of the same size is commonly sold for.

As for the Trials in these Volumes which were never before printed, we are not at liberty to give the reasons why we believe them to be authentick; but we conceive the intrinsick marks they bear will be so evident and convincing, to every one that reads them, of their being genuine, as to make any proofs on that head to be absolutely unnecessary.

We have been obliged in a few places to transcribe here and there some passages from larger works: but in this particular we have been as sparing as possible, having inserted no more than was absolutely necessary to preserve the connexion, and to make the whole more intelligible. The greatest freedom taken in that kind has been in the Collection of Arguments and Debates upon the Habeas Corpus Act and Liberty of the Subject, between the years 1627 and 1640; in which we were obliged to be sometimes beholden (but as little as possible) to Mr. Rushworth's Historical Collections. As these contests, between the crown and the subject, were one of the greatest causes of the fatal confusions which afterwards followed, and of that surprising Revolution which was the astonishment of all Christendom, every Proceeding in that affair, warranted by sufficient authority, was thought worth preserving, especially as it related to what, next to the Life of the Subject, is deemed most precious in the eye of the law, his Liberty.

Some gentlemen may perhaps think that Mr. Rushworth's Collection are so full on this head, that it would be a presumption to add any thing to them: but it will appear that most of the Speeches and Proceedings here printed are not taken notice of by Mr. Rushworth. How they came to be omitted, we will not pretend to determine; only we cannot forbear observing, as a strange instance of partiality in that Editor, that after inserting the Articles against the earl of Strafford at large in his Trial, he has abridged the Answer put in by him to his Articles, with this Introduction: « The Answer held three hours, being above 200 sheets of paper, too long to be here inserted; yet take an Abstract of the said Answer to the Articles exhibited against him, which are as followeth." Which Abstract is so vastly short, as not to contain above ten pages.

For fear of being thought prolix, in order to swell the price of the Book, we have omitted the Trial at large of the earl of Strafford, it being to be had separate at a moderate price. We don't doubt but his Answer at large would have been a great ornament to this Collection, and would have enabled the world to judge more clearly of his Case, than it is now likely to do. But as all the Proceedings against him were strictly ordered to be obliterated; so, with the utmost enquiry, we have been unable to find any Copy thereof remaining with the Descendants of his family, or in any other hands.

The Case of Monopolies, between the East-India Company and Mr. Sandys, does not, it must be confest, strictly speaking, come under the description of a State-Trial; but as the publishing the Proceedings between the King and the City of London, upon a Quo Warranto, in the last Edition of the State-Trials, met with general approbation, we hope the like candid construction will be put upon the step we have taken in this Case. The Question of the Power of the Crown to grant an exclusive Charter, and the Distinction to be made between a criminal Monopoly, the regal Prerogative, and legal Property, are undoubtedly of the highest importance. The point is debated upon this occasion by the most knowing and eminent lawyers of the time, and their Arguments are now first published from Manuscripts, which have not been taken notice of in any of the Law-Books now extant, (except a very short Abstract of some of the Speeches, which is printed in Mr. Serjeant Skinner's Reports) to which are added, the learned Arguments and Reasons of the Lord Chief-Justice Jeffreys.

There are some instances where we have not been able to procure complete Trials, and yet have obtained either Speeches made in them by gentlemen of note at that time, or large and particular Relations, though not in so minute and exact a manner, as in Trials taken in Short-hand in Court. Where any thing of this kind has occurred, which we judged worth notice, we have chose to preserve them from the oblivion they would otherwise sink under, by inserting them in this Collection. And tho' they are not so valuable as entire Trials, yet they may serve to give a more clear account of the Facts there tried, than is to be found in a general History; which, as the learned Editor of the State-Trials well observes, is one considerable Benefit arising from Collections of this kind.

Concerning the other Pieces contained in this Collection, we need be the less particular in this place, as we have before most of the Articles, or in Notes at the bottom, given our reasons for inserting them: only lest it should be thought that the remark

able Case of Ashby and White, in the last Volume, contains no more than the small Book, published under that name in octavo in the year 1705, it may be proper to observe, That the whole Proceedings and Debates of that memorable Affair are deduced in order of time from the first Complaint made in the House of Commons; containing not only the Proceedings, Reports, Representations, Conferences and Resolutions, of both Houses, as published by their order; but also the Proceedings and Arguments in the Court of King's-Bench.

In fine, as no pains or expence has been spared to make this Collection complete, useful and instructive; so we must submit the whole to the judgment of the Publick, and rely upon the candour of the Readers, for a kind acceptance of our endeavours.

PREFACE

TO THE NINTH AND TENTH VOLUMES OF THE STATE TRIALS: PRINTED IN THE YEAR 1766.

THE Public may be surprized at finding a Ninth and Tenth Volume of STATE TRIALS publish'd after so voluminous a Collection already set forth; yet, if they consider it is above thirty years since the Seventh and Eighth Volumes were printed, and the great number of Trials for Treason, Murder, Perjury, Forgery, &c. which have happened since that time, likewise a Rebellion within that period (always productive of many Trials) their admiration must cease.

Besides, gentlemen must have observed, in the course of their reading, a great many Trials have happened for different Crimes and Offences, which have never yet appeared in print, but have been locked up in the studies of those who either took them, or had them taken in Short hand: those falling into other hands, by deaths or otherways, have either been purchased, procured, or generously sent in towards compleating this useful Work; such as Matthews's Trial for High Treason, in printing "Vox Populi, Vox Dei," in 1719, which has lain dormant near fifty years; Hales and Kinnersley's Trials in 1728, for forging promissory Notes, in the names of Robert Gibson and Samuel Edwards, esquires (both members of parliament), and publishing them as true ones, for large sums of money, wrote on frank'd covers given them to send into the country; Huggins and bambridge's Trials, who were Wardens of the Fleet, with Corbett the Tipstaff, and Acton the Keeper of the Marshalsea Prison, who were all prosecuted in 1729, for Murder, by order of his majesty, on an Address from the House of Commons for that purpose; Mr. Franklin's Trial, in 1730, for printing and publishing a Libel entitled, "A Letter from the Hague ;". with several other Trials which were taken at large, with the Speeches of the Court and Counsel, are now first printed from Manuscripts, and inserted in this Collection.

All the printed Trials at full length, that we could hear of (and we have frequently advertised to procure them) published since the Seventh and Eighth Volumes, are brought into this Work, with great Additions to most of them, either by Arguments on the special Verdicts, Counsel's Opinion on some of the Cases, or Accounts of the Prisoners Behaviour and dying Speeches, &c. and though several small Trials, or Parts of Trials and Proceedings, have been printed or procured in Manuscript, and were too minute to be inserted in the body of it; yet, in order to preserve even them from being buried in oblivion, we have given them a place in the Appendix; for these scarce Pieces are of value, and not to be collected but with great difficulty and expence ; and it is hoped some gentlemen of the Law, on reading them, will furnish some Speeches or Arguments towards compleating them, in case this Work comes to another edition. In this Appendix are likewise inserted two Trials in Corporation Causes, now first printed from Manuscript, viz. New Romney and the port of Hastings, which were argued by some of the most eminent Counsel then at the Bar; the first before the lord chief-justice Eyre, and the latter before Jord Hardwicke; which were not procured time enough to be inserted in the body of the Work.

Some Trials in this Collection cannot, properly speaking, be called State Trials, yet may be deemed good precedents, and determine many points of law; therefore have their use, and were thought too material to be omitted; and it would be confining the Collection in too narrow a compass, to insert only STATE TRIALS. But as the former Collection, in Six Volumes, published by Sollom Emlyn, esq. (who wrote that admirable Preface prefixed to the first Volume, and published Hale's Pleas of the Crown in folio) met with general approbation, we have endeavoured to follow his steps, and take in such Trials, for Murder, Perjury, Forgery, &c. as have been pub

lished at large; for all Trials, even in these Cases, are Helps to History, setting forth the true state of the case on both sides, and are useful to the Gentlemen of the Law as well as Historians, as they give the Opinions of the greatest lawyers on the different points brought before them.

This Work will receive considerable Addition from that upright Judge Mr. Justice Foster, who, in his Cases on the Crown Law, has given the Public several Resolutions and Determinations of the Court on some of the Trials of the Rebels, which are added after each of their Trials; but the greatest use made of that judicious Author, is his Speech on pronouncing the Judgment of the Court, in the Case of the King and Macdaniel, and his Gang of Thief-takers (which is inserted after the Arguments of Mr. Hume and others on their special Verdict, which Arguments were never before printed); and also on the Question put to the Judges, by the House of Lords in Earl Ferrers's Case, 1. Whether a Peer, indicted of Felony and Murder, and tried and convicted thereof before the Lords in Parliament, ought to receive Judgment for the same, according to the provisions of the act of parliament of the twenty-fifth year of his majesty's reign, intituled, An Act for better preventing the horrid Crime of Murder?' 2. Supposing a Peer, so indicted and convicted, ought by law to receive such Judgment as aforesaid, and the day appointed by the Judgment for Execution should lapse before such execution done, whether a new time may be appointed for the execution, and by whom?"

As the Affair of Mr. Annesley and lord Anglesea made a great noise, some years ago, and occasioned four Trials, carried on at a vast expence, we have inserted them here. 1. Mr. Annesley's for the Murder of Mr. Egglestone at Staines in Middlesex; 2. that of lord Anglesea, and others, tried in Ireland, for an Assault on Mr. Annesley, Mr. Mac Kercher, and others; 3. So much of the Trial in ejectment, in Ireland, between Mr. Annesley and lord Anglesea (which Trial at large is in almost every hand) as will make the Reader entire master of the whole affair; with the Speeches and Opinions of the lord chief baron Bowes, and the other Judges, at full length, in that remarkable Cause; which will serve for an Introduction to the Trial of Mrs. Mary Heath, lady Altham's woman, who was tried for Perjury, for the Evidence she gave on that Trial in Ejectment. The Acquittal of this woman seems to have put a stop to the further proceedings at that time; and since Mr. Annesley's death, we do not hear they are as yet revived. The Trial of Elizabeth Canning, for Perjury, is here printed, though in a much fuller and larger manner than it ever appeared in before this publication.

As Scotland is part of the United Kingdoms, and their Trials are conducted in a very sensible manner, though their method of Proceedings are different from ours, (in not bringing their Witnesses into court to be examined, only reading their Depositions taken in writing on oath) yet we shall insert three or four of the most principal of them, to shew their method of proceeding, and the reasoning and learning of their advocates.

Some people may wonder we have not obtained some of the modern Trials, as Dr. Henzie for High Treason; the Cock Lane Ghost, &c. Our Answer is, we should have been very glad to have obtained them; they would have been a great addition to the Work from the great learning of the Judge that tried them; but we never could hear they were ever printed or taken in Short-hand; and as to the former, he made no Defence or called any Evidences; so it could not be a Trial of any consequence; but if any one has a mind to peruse the Law Proceedings against him, in the Court of King's Bench, he may find them in Mr. Burrow's Reports, vol. I. part iv. p. 642.

We hope the candid Reader will excuse such Errors as he may find in this Work occasioned by the Editor's distance from the press, and judge favourably of this Collection (made more for amusement than profit), which, in all probability, had never seen the light, if the Editor had not, at great trouble and expence, undertaken it.

S. N.