nd the early Stuarts, he comes to trials full of historic
interest; to the dramatic scenes in which Sir Thomas More, and
Throckmorton, and Raleigh played their parts. He has to show how in a
period of overpowering excitement, when social organisation was far
weaker, and the power of the rulers more dependent upon personal vigour,
the Government dealt out sharp and short justice, though juries still
had to be cajoled or bullied; how the system was influenced by the
growth of the Star Chamber, with a mode of procedure conforming to a
different type; and how, when the tyranny of such courts had provoked
indignation, they were swept away and left to the jury its still
undisputed supremacy. From the time when honest John Lilburne wrangled
successfully against Cromwell's judges, it began to assume a special
sanctity in popular belief. Then we come to the Popish plots and the
brutalities of Scroggs and Jeffreys, when the jury played a leading
part, though often perverted by popular or judicial influence, and
without any sound theory of evidence. The revolution of 1688 swept away
the grosser abuses; the administration of justice became decorous and
humane; a spirit of fair play showed itself; the laws of evidence were
gradually worked out; and, instead of political tragedies, we have a
number of picturesque cases throwing the strangest gleams of light into
all manner of odd dark social corners. Within the last century, finally,
the mode of investigating crime has become singularly dignified,
impartial, and substantially just. A survey of this long history,
bringing out at every step picturesque incidents and curious
illustrations of social and political constitutions, lights up also the
real merits and defects of the existing system. Fitzjames, with much
fuller knowledge and longer experience, adheres substantially to his
previous opinion. He has not, of course, the old-fashioned worship for
the 'palladium of our liberties'; jurors could be 'blind and cruel'
under Charles II., and as severe as the severest judge under George III.
They are not more likely to do justice than a single judge. But the
supreme advantages of placing the judge in his proper position as
mediator and adviser, and of taking the public into confidence as to the
perfect impartiality of the proceedings, outweigh all objections.

Again we have the curious history of the 'benefit of clergy.' Before
1487, a man who could read and write might commit murder as oft