PRESSED TO DEATH.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3841, 7 November 1883, Page 4

PRESSED TO DEATH.

In early times it was considered that criminals accused of felony could not bo properly tried unless they consented to tho trial by pleading and putting themselves .in tho country. After reading the indictment to him the question was put: "How say you—are you guilty or not guilty ?" If he said " Not guilty," the next question was, "Culprit, how will you bo triedP" To which tho prisoner had to answer: "By God and by my country." If ho had omitted cither portion of that answer he was said to stand mute, and a jury was Bworn to say whether ho stood mute of malice or mute by the visitation of God. If they found him mute of malice, that was equivalent to pleading guilty in enses of treason or misdemeanour; but in cases of felony ho was condemned after much exhortation, to the poinc forte ct dure —that is to bo stretched naked on his back, and to havo iron laid upon him, as much as he could bear, and more, mid so to continue, fed upon bad bread and stagnant water on alternato days, till he either pleaded or died. This strange rule was not abolished till the year 1772, when standing mute in cases of felony was made equivalent to a conviction. A case actually occurred as late as 1726, when one Burn water, accused at Kingston Assizes of murder, refused to plead, and was pressed for an hour and three-quarters, with nearly four hundredweight of iron, after which, he pleaded not guilty, and was convicted and hanged. In 1765, a Major Strancways was pressed to death. Tho object of refusing to plead was that, as in that case there was no conviction, no forfeiture took place, and the property of tho accused person was thus proserved for his heir.—Blackwood.