to any person nor speak to them himself, except to demand of them their verdict." If the juries gave an untrue acquittal, "contrary to good and pregnant evidence," upon notice or complaint to the Lord President and others of the Council of the Marches, the jurors might be bound over, together with the Justiciar, Steward or other officer, before whom such untrue verdict was given, to appear and be examined before the Lord President and Council of the Marches as to whether they had so misbehaved, and if this were proved, the jurors were liable to fine and imprisonment.
In the same year, a measure (26 Henry 8, c. 5) was passed to prevent the escape of felons from Gloucestershire and Somersetshire "over the water of Severn" into South Wales, The keepers of ferries over the Severn were forbidden to convey in their boats any manner of persons, goods, or chattels between sunset and sunrise, excepting passengers whom they knew and could answer for.
The next Act of 1534 (26 Henry 8, c. 6) describes the turbulent state of the Welsh people, still full of discontent at the presence of the English garrison. Its preamble recites that the "people of Wales and the Marches of the same not dreading the good and wholesome statutes and laws of this realm, have of long time continued and persevered in the perpetration and commission of divers thefts, murders, rebellions, wilful burning of houses, and other scelerous deeds, to the high displeasure of God, disquiet of the King's well disposed subjects, and disturbing of the public weal, which deeds were so rooted and fixed in the same people, that they were not likely to cease unless some sharp correction and punishment was provided." All persons, when duly summoned, were to appear at the Sessions courts or the courts of the Marches. On account of the unlawful exactions by the officers in the Lordships Marchers in Wales, where they had rule and authority, and on account of their wrongful committals to prison of the King's subjects,
