out that this made the law " less careful for the preservation of a man's life than any particulars of his estate, whereas life was the greater, and all innocent blood when spilt was irreversible : as to that matter, it cannot be gathered up again." Vane then tendered a bill of exceptions, and pointed out that it was the duty of the judges, under the statute of Westminster II., chap. 31, passed in the thirteenth year of Edward I., to seal it. The judges not only refused, but fell upon him in a body with all sorts of argumerfts. After his con viction, he presented reasons for an arrest of judgment, written out by himself, which the court refused to hear. (2d State Trials, p. 435. et seq.) Upon the trial of John Crook in 1662 for a refusal to take the oath of allegiance and su premacy, the prisoner requested certain in formation of the court touching the indict ment, and then used these words : " And you that are judges upon the bench, ought to be my counsel, and not my accusers, but to inform me of the benefit of those laws; and wherein I am ignorant, you ought to inform me, that I may not suffer through my own ignorance of those advantages which the laws of England afford me as an Englishman." The Chief Judge, Sir Robert Foster, in reply said : " We sit here to do justice, and are upon our oaths, and we are to tell you what is law, and not you us; therefore, sirrah, you are too bold." Crook : " Sirrah is not a word becoming a judge; for I am no felon, neither ought you to menace the prisoner at the bar." Judge, interrupting Crook: "It is an evil zeal." Crook then refused to plead to the indict ment, but continuing his argument with the court, the judge directed his mouth to be closed with " a dirty cloth." (2 State Trials, p. 463.) Upon the trial of William Penn and Wil liam Mead at the Old Bailey, for a tumultuous
assembly, in the twenty-second year of Charles II., the Recorder asked Mead this question : — "What say you, Mr. Mead, were you there?" Mead : " It is a maxim in your own law, nemo tenctur aecusare scipsum, which if it be not true Latin I am sure it is true Eng lish, that no man is bound to accuse himself. And why dost thou offer to ensnare me with such a question? Doth not this show thy malice? Is this like unto a judge that ought to be counsel for the prisoner at the bar?" Recorder : " Sir, hold your tongue. I did not go about to ensnare you." Penn, a youth of twenty-five years of age, asked the Recorder whether he was indicted under the common law or by statute. The Recorder answered, " Upon the common law." Penn in reply : " Where is that common law?" Recorder: "You must not think that I am able to run up so many years and ever so many adjudged cases which are called common law, to answer your curiosity." Penn : " This answer, I am sure, is very short of my question, for if it be common it should not be so hard to produce." Recorder: " The question is whether you are guilty of this indictment." Penn : " The question is not whether I am guilty of this indictment, but whether this indictment be legal. It is too general and imperfect an answer to say it is the common law, unless we know both where and what it is. Where there is no law, there is no transgression, and that law which is not in being, is so far from being com mon, that it is no law at all." Recorder: "You are an impudent fel low; will you teach the court what law is?" Penn: "Certainly. If the common law be so hard to be understood, it is far from being very common." Recorder: "Sir, you are a troublesome
