court will accept. You shall be locked up, without meat, drink, fire, and tobacco. You shall not think thus to abuse the court. We will have a verdict, by the help of God, or you shall starve for it!"

Penn. The jury, who are my judges, ought not to be thus menaced. Their verdict should be free-not forced.

Recorder. Stop that fellow's mouth, or put him out of

court!

Lord Mayor (addressing the jury). You have heard that he preached; that he gathered a company of tumultuous people; and that they not only disobey the martial power, but the civil also.

Penn. That is a mistake. We did not make the tumult, but they that interrupted us. The jury cannot be so ignorant as to think we met there to disturb the peace, because it is well known that we are a peaceable people, never offering violence to any man, and were kept by force of arms out of our own house. You are Englishmen (he said to the jurors), mind your privileges; give not away your rights.

The jury were now locked up, and the prisoners carried back to Newgate. The next morning (Sunday) the court was again crowded, and every person waited with painful expectancy the appearance of the jurors. At seven o'clock their names were called over, and the clerk once more inquired if they had agreed upon a verdict. They replied in the affirmative. "Guilty, or not guilty?" "Guilty of speaking in Gracechurch Street."

Lord Mayor. To an unlawful assembly?

Bushel. No, my lord; we give no other verdict than we gave last night.

Lord Mayor. You are a factious fellow; I'll take a course with you.

Alderman Bladworth. I knew Mr. Bushel would not yield. Bushel. Sir Thomas, I have done according to my conscience.

Lord Mayor. That conscience of yours would cut my throat.

Bushel. No, my lord, it never shall.

Lord Mayor. But I will cut yours as soon as I can.

Recorder (jocosely). He has inspired the jury; he has the spirit of divination; methinks he begins to affect me! I will have a positive verdict, or else you shall starve.

Penn. I desire to ask the Recorder a question. Do you allow the verdict given of William Mead?

Recorder. It cannot be a verdict, because you are indicted for conspiracy; and one being found "Not Guilty," and not the other, it is no verdict.

Penn. If "Not Guilty" be no verdict, then you make of jury and of the Great Charter a mere nose of wax.

Mead. How! Is "Not Guilty" no verdict?

Recorder. No, it is no verdict.

Penn. I affirm that the consent of a jury is a verdict in law; and if William Mead be not guilty, it follows that I am clear, since you have indicted us for conspiracy, and I could not possibly conspire alone.

Once more the ill-fated jurors were compelled to retire, only to persist in the verdict already given. The Recorder, carried by his wrath beyond the limits of decency, exclaimed,

Your verdict is nothing. You play upon the court. I say you shall go and bring in another verdict, or you shall starve; and I will have you carted about the city as in Edward the Third's time."

Foreman. We have given in our verdict, in which we are all agreed; if we give in another, it will be by force, to save our lives.

Lord Mayor. Take them up to their room.

Officer. My lord, they will not go.

The jurors were then forcibly constrained to withdraw,

and locked up without food and water.

Subjected to so ter

rible a trial, some of the weaker minds wavered, and would have given way, but were encouraged in their resistance by the resolution of Bushel, and others who, like Bushel, understood the importance of the question at issue. So when on Monday morning, after fasting two days and nights, the court once more summoned the jurors before them, there was not a traitor or a coward among them. They looked wan and worn; but their hearts beat calmly with the consciousness that they were doing their duty, and rendering no trivial service to

their common country. Heroes these, no less than Russell and Sidney, who vindicated on the scaffold their faith in the principles they professed!

Clerk. Gentlemen, are you agreed in your verdict?

Jury. Yes.

Clerk. Who shall speak for you?

Jury. Our foreman.

Clerk. Look upon the prisoners. What say you? Is William Penn guilty of the matter whereof he stands indicted in manner and form, or not guilty?

Foreman. You have our verdict in writing.

Clerk. I will read it.

Recorder. No, it is no verdict. The court will not accept it.

Foreman. If you will not accept of it, I desire to have it back again.

Court. The paper was no verdict, and no advantage shall be taken of you for it.

Clerk. How say you? Is William Penn guilty or not guilty?

Foreman (with unfaltering voice). Not Guilty.

Recorder (after a movement of impatience.) I am sorry, gentlemen, you have followed your own judgments and opinions rather than the good advice which was given you. God keep my life out of your hands! But for this the court fines you forty marks a man, and imprisonment in Newgate till the fines be paid.

Penn. Being freed by the jury, I demand to be set at liberty.

Lord Mayor. No; you are in for your fines.

Penn. Fines! what fines?

Lord Mayor. For contempt of court.

Penn. I ask if it be according to the fundamental laws of England that any Englishman should be fined except by the judgment of his peers? Since it expressly contradicts the 14th and 29th chapters of the Great Charter of England, which says, "No free man ought to be amerced except by the oath of good and lawful men of the vicinage."

Recorder. Take him away; put him out of the court.

Penn. I can never urge the fundamental laws of England but you cry out, "Take him away! take him away!" But this is no wonder, since the Spanish Inquisition sits so near the Recorder's heart. God, who is just, will judge you all for these things.

The prisoners and their jurors, persisting in their refusal to pay the fines so illegally inflicted upon them, were removed to Newgate. The latter, at Penn's instigation, immediately brought an action against the Lord Mayor and the Recorder, for having unjustifiably imprisoned them. It was argued on the 9th of November before the twelve Judges, and, by their unanimous opinion, decided in the favor of the appellants. They were instantly set at liberty, and Penn went forth triumphant.

"In the day of courtesan influence, of unblushing venality and vice, the most odious laws might obtain the sanction of a parliamentary majority; judges even might be found to administer them; but after all, it was now discovered, with alarm and indignation, that juries chosen from the body of the nation might refuse to convict under them, and so in reality. annul them at the very moment they were brought into action. From that day the jury ceased to be a mere institution-it became a living power in the state; a power not inferior to either King or Commons."-W. H. D. ADAMS.

CAPTAIN JAMES COOK, the first English circumnavigator, had risen from humble life and gained a high reputation by his courage, sagacity and nautical skill and important discoveries, before he immortalized his name by carrying the British flag around the globe. He was born at Marton, Yorkshire, October 28, 1728, and was a son of a farm bailiff. His early education was limited, and for several years he followed the sea in the coal trade and obtained the position of mate. When the British navy was enlarged early in 1755, Cook entered as a volunteer. His intelligence and nautical skill attracted the notice of his superiors, by whom he was soon promoted.

In 1759 he took part in the siege and capture of Quebec, and was employed to make a survey of the whole river below Quebec. His chart was executed with such skill that it was published by order of the Admiralty. In September, 1759, Lord Colville appointed him master of his own ship, in which he remained on the Halifax station in the next winter. Here Cook employed his leisure in the study of mathematics and astronomy. In 1760 he helped to recapture Newfoundland from the French. Having returned to England, he married Elizabeth Batts in December, 1762. He was appointed marine surveyor of Newfoundland in April, 1764, and made valuable additions to geography and hydrography.