ch was so troublesome to the Recorder, that
he cried, "Be silent there!" At which William Penn returned, "I am not
to be silent in a cause wherein I am so much concerned, and not only
myself, but many ten thousand families besides."

Penn being thrust into the bail-dock, William Mead was called up, and
was asked if he was present at the meeting. Which question he refused to
answer, on the ground that he could not be required to accuse himself.
He then told the jury that the indictment was false in many particulars,
and that William Penn was right in demanding the law upon which it was
based. It charged him with assembling by force and arms, tumultuously
and illegally, which was untrue; and he informed them of Lord Coke's
definition of a rout or riot, or unlawful assembly. Here the Recorder
interrupted him, and endeavored to cast ridicule on what he had said, by
taking off his hat and saying, "I thank you for telling us what the law
is." On Mead replying sharply to a taunting speech of Richard Brown, the
old and inveterate enemy of Friends, the Mayor told him "he deserved to
have his tongue cut out." He, too, was put into the bail-dock, and the
Court proceeded to charge the jury. Whereupon William Penn cried out
with a loud voice to the jury, to take notice, that it was illegal to
charge the jury in the prisoners' absence, and without giving them
opportunity to plead their cause. The Recorder ordered him to be put
down. William Mead then remonstrating against such "barbarous and unjust
proceedings," the Court ordered them both to be put into a filthy,
stinking place, called "the hole." After an absence of an hour and a
half, eight of the jury came down agreed, but four staid up and would
not assent. The Court sent for the four, and menaced them for
dissenting. When the jury was all together, the prisoners were brought
to the bar, and the verdict demanded. The Foreman said William Penn was
guilty of speaking in Grace-church Street. The Court endeavored to
extort something more, but the Foreman declared he was not authorized to
say anything but what he had given in. The Recorder, highly displeased,
told them they might as well say nothing, and they were sent back. They
soon returned with a written verdict, signed by all of them, that they
found William Penn guilty of speaking or preaching in Grace-church
Street, and William Mead not guilty. This so incensed the Court, that
they told them they _would_ have a verdict they wou