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Show 20 t [ \ . ll. H; :,. and starving, nut he wa I oon up with the J(ing',' 13ench, by a new and 1norc dextcron · u~ e of the "C((p ias," the ancient writ of that court- applying it to all personal net ion::-3. At this ti1ne, a judge, when appointed, selecteu a circuit, to wbich he steadily auhereu, till another, which he preferred, became vacant. Chief ~T ustice North for several years "rollc the western;" and in his charge · to juries, as well a , in his con yer ation with the conn try gentlemen, h e strongly inculcated the most slavish churcb-anu-king doctrines, insomuch that the Cavnliers ca1lell him "Delirice Occt'dentis," or" The Darling of the \Ve. t.'' The chief justice aftcrwarus went the northern circuit, attended by his brother Roger, who gives a mo t entertaining nccount of his traveh, and who I cern.' to have thought the natives of Northumberland ancl Cun1berlnnd a distant, ns little known, and a barbarous, as we should now think the Esquimaux or the aborigines of New Zealan<l. Till the Popish plot broke out, Chief ~J m;ticc North had no political trials before him; and the only cases which gave him tnuch anxiety were charg ', of witchcraft. lie docs not nppear, like Chief Justice II ale, to hn.ve ueen a believer in the l)lack art; but, with his clw.rn.ct ristic tin1idity, he was af]·aid 1o con1bat the popular prejudice, 1 st the countrymen I honltl ery, "This judge hath no religion ; he doth not believe witehe . . " Therefore he avoided. trvinrr wilche him ·elf ns w 0 n1ueh as possible, and turned them over to hi , brother judge, ~Ir. Justice Raymond, whon1 he allowed to hang them. He was once forced to try a wizaru; bnt 1 he fraud of n. young girl, whom the prisoner was supposed to l1ave enchanted Hnd m~u1e to ~pit pi.nR, wa~ RO clrarly rxposecl by the A. D. 1G70.J l<' H,A~ C l ::) N O H.TII. 205 witnesses, that the chief ju:'ticc had the l>oldne:::.s to direct an acquittal. The Popish plot he treated as he <lid \vi tchcr af't. lie di ·- believed it from the beginning, but was afraitl openly to cxpre ~s a doubt of its reality. lie tbougl1L it rnight be exposc<l by the press, and he got a n1an to publish an anonymous pamphlet against it, to which he contribu leu; but ·itting along with Chief Justice S croggs, who pre:iue<.l at the trial of those churgeu with being implicated in it, he neYer atten1pted to restrain this "butcher's son and Lutch er" from slaughtering the victims. So on the trial of Loru Stafford, though he privately affected severely to condemn the procecuing, Lc would not venture to save Lord Nottinghan1,'* the high ste·wan1, fro1n the <li8grace of a ...i. ting in that murder; and he dryly gnsc his own opinion that two wilncstSe, we re not nece ary to cac1t overt act of trea on. We have still more fl:tgrant proof of his ba. en est> on the trial of Reading, prosecuted by oruer of the IIou:;e of Commons for trying to suppres evidence of the plot. N orth hinlself now presided, and haYing procured a convi ction, in sentencing the defenuant to fine, impri ~on1nen t, and pillory, he Raid, "I will tell you your offence is so great, and hnth s11ch a relation to that which the whole nation is concerned in, because it was an atten1pt to baffle the cvi<.lcnce of that conspiracy, which, if it had not b een, by the mercy of Gocl, * This was the title taken by 1! inch on promotion to the great · C<tl. Nottingham is greatly lauded by l3lack~tone and other writers on juri prudence as a "consummate lawyer," and as the father of the moc1ern Engli ·h c.quity system. His abilities were unquestionable, but his political caree r' hke that of so many other "con ummatc lawyers," has some very black flpots. - Rd. lR |
