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Show 104 ATROCIOL.' JUDGES. (A.D.1C55. cxatnineLl the witnesses, and thus had an opportunity of presenting the facts properly to their mind ~ . Need we wonder that fr01n an humble beginner, reJOtcmg in a cause that came to hi1n, he soon becan1e "cock of the circuit"- all who had trials rejoicing to have him on their side? I shall give one specimen of his conduct ns a leader. lie wa ~ counsel for the defendant in an action tried before his friend Judge Archer, for not. setting out tithe -in which the tJ·eLle yalue was to be recovered. Finding that he hau not a leg io stand upon, he manceuvred to get his client off with the single value; so he told his lordship that this was a cause to try a right of a very intricate nature, which woulu require the reading a long series of records and ancient writing.-, aml that it ought not to be treated as a. penal action ; wherefore, they should agree upon the single value of the tithes, for which the Yerdict shoulJ be taken conditionally, and then proceed fairly to try the 1nerit.'. The judge insisted on this course being aJopted ; and the other siJe, not to jrritate him, acquie~eed in North's proposal. ~'Then did he open a long hi tory of matters upon r ecorJ, of bu 11 , monasterie~, order~, greater an<l les ·er houses, :urrcndcrs, patent:-;, and a grent deal nwre, very p1·oper 1j 'tl had been true, while the coun"el on the other side stared nL hin1; anu having Jonr, they Lid hi1n go to his evidence. lie leaned back, as ... peaking to the attorney, and then, ' Jlfy lord,' :sn.icl he, 'we a1·e 'i·ery wdwppy in th/s cause. The attorney tells n~e they forgot to examine tlteir copies with the originals at the Tower;' and ( ~o foldi~g up his brief~) 'llfy lord,' aid he, 'they 1nust have the ~·enltct, d an we must co1ne better prepared another tu· ne. ' S~ o ' not· withstanding all the mooting the other side could make, the A. D. 1668.) FRA~CIS NORTH. 105 judge held them to it, and they were chon eel of the treble Ya 1u e. " 'Vhile North had uch success on the circuit, he was equally flourishing in "\Vestminstcr Ila1l. By anf;wering ca~es ancl preparing legal nrgtnnents for S ir J cffrey Palmer, and by flouting at parliamentary privilege, he wa . t ill higher than ever in favor with that pot ' ntial fundionary. IL happened that in the year 1 G G , after the fall of the Earl of Clarendon, a writ of error was brought in the Ilou"e of Lords by Denzil Ilollis, now Lord IloUi.s, the only clefentlant . nrvi,·ing, upon the judgmeut of the Court of lGng's B ench in the great case of T'lze J(ing v. St'r !fohn E!liot, Denz£l Ifollis, mal Others, decided in the fifth year of the reign of Charlc:S I. This had been a prose ·ulion Ly the king again ·t five Jnembers of the Ilou ~e of Cotnmotr, for what had been done in the IIou--e on the la t day of the ession, when Sir John Finch was he1a in the chair while certain resolution" nllege<l to be scditiou.' bad been voted, and one of the defendants had sn.iJ "that the Council and judges had all con ·pi reel to trample under foot the liberties of the ubject." T'hey had pleaded to the juri di ·tion uf the Court of 1\:ing's Bench, ' that the ·uppo:,ed offences were committed in Parliament and ouo·ht not to be l)uni ·heel or ' 0 inquired of in this court, or elsewhere than in Parliament." But their plea had been overruled, and they were all ~ entenccd to heavy fine and imprisotnneni. AlLhough there had been re~olutions of the Ilou ·c of COlnmon , on the meetino- of the Lonrr Parliarnent, conu~.:mning 0 0 this judgment, it till stood on record, and Lord IIollis thought it was a duty he owed. to his country, before he died, to haYe it reversed. Sir Jeffrey Palmer, as attorney general, pleaded in nullo |