how many of them had refused to swear, both in the time of the ten persecutions, and in Bishop Bonner's days, thou mightest see, that to deny swearing in obedience to Christ's command, was no new thing."

Judge. "I wish the laws were otherwise."

G. Fox. Our yea is yea, and our nay is nay, and if we' transgress our yea or nay, let us suffer as they do, or should do, that swear falsely. This, we had offered to the king; and the king said, 'It was reasonable.""

Instead of obtaining his liberty by this clear exposure of the palpably gross errors of his indictment, he was reconducted to prison, there to be immured till the ensuing assizes; and in order to make his case still harder, his sufferings were increased tenfold, by a second interference of Colonel Kirby, who gave particular orders to the gaoler, "to keep him close, and suffer no flesh alive to come at him, for he was not fit to be discoursed with by men." In consequence of this order, he was removed into an upper chamber, in an old and ruinous tower of the castle, so much more dilapidated than his former abode, that he was constantly exposed to the inclemencies of the weather, and often had the greatest difficulty to preserve his bed and clothing (which was always damp and cold) from being wet through. He was also so much distressed by smoke, which penetrated into his room. from other fires in the prison, that at times he was nearly suffocated by it, and often could scarcely discern the light of a candle from its density. In this inhuman place, he was doomed to pass the whole winter (which was unusually long and severe) for no crime, and was at last so much affected by a continued exposure to the cold and wet, and the constant inhaling of such an impure atmosphere, that he was reduced to a state of great suffering: his body became swollen, and his limbs so benumbed, that he could with difficulty use them.

The whole particulars of this trial forcibly depict the persecuting temper of that period, and the unchristian spirit which prevailed among the church-party after the Restoration. They prove that no feelings were too sacred to be sacrificed at the shrine of their favourite idol" Religious Conformity." The very spirit of the law was perverted in order to accomplish the

destruction of those who refused such conformity, without the least regard to the motives which influenced their refusal.

Not only the justices at the sessions, but also the judges upon the bench, instead of protecting the prisoner, as was their bounden duty, tried every expedient of question and cross question, to extort from him a confession that would have amounted, if made, to his own condemnation. And, after they had acknowledged the errors of his indictment, they still further perverted the law by refusing him his rightful liberty, and by tendering him the same oath before he had been legally discharged from the custody of the gaoler and the court; and by a fresh indictment, they again condemned him to a whole winter's imprisonment, aggravated by extreme hardships and wants..

It is clear, that if his adversaries had even succeeded in forcing him to take the oath, they would have gained no object, save the gratification of their own malice, because the tenor of his whole life, as they well knew, placed him beyond the shadow of suspicion of contriving or abetting any of those things against which the oath had been framed. So closely is religious liberty connected with our civil rights, that the unshaken firmness with which George Fox resisted this stretch of tyranny, entitles him to the veneration of every Englishman. For we are beholden to the exertions and constancy of such men, for the establishment of our rights upon the firm basis whereon they now stand.

CHAPTER XIV.

1665, 1666. His third trial at Lancaster, before Judge TwisdenPremunired and sent prisoner to Scarbro' Castle-Visited there by Lady Fairfax, Dr. Crowther, and others-Enlarged by an order from Charles II.

"For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well-doing than for evil-doing."-1 Peter iii. 7.

"Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer: for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist."-Luke xxi. 14, 15.

"The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee."-Psalm ix. 9, 10.

1665. The next Lancaster assizes were held on the 16th of March, in this year, and Judge Twisden taking his seat this time on the crown-bench, George Fox was brought before him. He thus commences his own account. "I had informed myself of the errors of this second indictment also. For though at the previous assize, Judge Turner had cautioned the officers of the court to great diligence, saying, 'Pray, see that all the oath be in the indictment, and that the word subject be in, and that the day of the month and year of the king, be put in right for it is a shame that so many errors should be seen and found in the face of the country.' Yet many errors, and those great ones, were in this indictment as well as in the former. Surely, the hand of the Lord was in it, to confound their mischievous work against me, and to blind them therein, insomuch, that although after the indictment was drawn at the former assize, the judge examined it himself, and tried it with the clerks, yet the word 'subject,' was left out of this indictment also, the day of the month was put in wrong, and several material words of the oath were left out; yet they went on confidently against me, thinking all was safe and well. When I was set at the bar, and the jury

called over to be sworn, the clerk asked me first, 'Whether I had any objection to make against any of the jury?' I told him, 'I knew none of them.' Then having sworn the jury, they swore three of the officers of the court to prove, that the oath was tendered to me the last assizes, according to the indictment." " Judge. Come, come; it was not done in a corner. What have you to say to it? Did you take the oath at the last

assizes?"

George Fox then recapitulated what he had formerly said, and pleaded, as exactly as his memory would allow.

Judge. "I will not dispute with you but in point of law.” G. Fox. "I have something to speak to the jury concerning the indictment."

Judge. "You must not speak to the jury; but if you have anything to say, you must speak to me."

G. Fox. "Should the oath be tendered to the king's subjects only, or to the subjects of foreign princes?"

Judge. "To the subjects of this realm; for I will speak nothing to you but in point of law."

G. Fox. "Look in the indictment and thou mayst see the word 'subject' is left out of this indictment also. Therefore, seeing the oath is not tendered to any but the subjects of this realm, and ye have not put me in as a subject, the court is to take no notice of this indictment."

Judge. "Take him away gaoler, take him away."

"So I was presently hurried away. The gaoler and people looked when I should be called for again; but I was never brought into the court any more, though I had many other great errors to assign in the indictment. After I was gone, the judge asked the jury, 'If they were agreed?' They said, 'Yes;' and found for the king against me, as I was told. But I was never called to hear sentence given, nor was any given against me, that I could ever hear of. I understood when they looked narrowly into the indictment, they saw it was not good; and the judge having sworn the officers of the court, that the oath was tendered to me the assize before, upon such a day, according as was set down in the indictment, and that being the wrong day, I should have proved the officers of the court forsworn men again, if the judge would

have suffered me to plead to the indictment, which was thought to be the reason why they hurried me away so soon. The judge had passed sentence of premunire, upon Margaret Fell, before I was brought into court; and it seems, when I was hurried away, they recorded me as a premunired person, though I was never brought up to hear sentence, nor knew of it, which was very illegal. For they ought not only to have had me present to hear sentence given, but also to have asked me first, 'What I could say, why sentence should not be given against me?' But they knew I had so much to say, that they could not give sentence, if they heard me."

Thus, after being apprehended upon a false accusation of plotting, which was relinquished as soon as made, and after having lain in an unwholesome dungeon for the space of fifteen months, because he could not conscientiously take an oath that was unjustly and unfeelingly tendered, he was condemned to all the dreadful penalties of premunire, although that sentence had never been legally passed upon him, if it had been passed at all. In this instance, we behold our judges, in their judicial capacities, lending themselves to party feeling, and stooping most shamefully to pervert the course of the law in order to carry out their own unjust measures; and we see the two learned professions of the church and the bar, uniting in a tyrannical attack upon a few individuals, the peaceableness of whose lives, and the meekness of whose religious tenets disallowed of any retaliation for their unjust sufferings, heaped upon them in consequence of their religious scruples. To witness such a perversion of the ends of justice, is as revolting to our present notions, as it is gratifying to our feelings to reflect, that such bitter animosities, if they exist at all in our days, can no longer be indulged in by any party, however powerful, at the expense of our liberties and civil rights.

During the period of his incarceration in Lancaster Castle, he had two remarkable visions. Some parts of Europe, at this time, were under the greatest alarm from a sudden irruption of the Turks, which threatened to overrun all christendom; the dread of which invasion had even spread to the shores of Britain, and occupied a considerable place in the public mind. George Fox