Welsh Journals

sed quali aut de quo valore penitus ignorant. Eo quod praedictus Willielmus Hughes nulla habet bona catalla terras neque tenementa, &c., super quo instanter servientes domini regis ad legis ac ipsius regis attornati petunt judicium et executionem versus eosdem Ricardum ap Gruffith et Willielmum Hughes superinde juxta debitam legis formam pro domino rege habendam et super hoc visis et per curiam hie diligenter examinatis et intellectis omni- bus et singulis praemissis constitutum est quod praedicti Ricardus ap Gruffith et Willielmus Hughes ducantur per praefatum constabularium turris Londinii seu ejus locum- tenentem usque eandem turrim et ab inde per medium civitatis Londinii usque ad furcas de Tyburn trahantur et ibidem suspendantur et uterque eorum suspendatur et viventes at terram prosternantur et uterque eorum vivens prosternatur et interiora sua extra ventres suos et utriusque eorum capiantur et ipsis viventibus comburentur et quod capita sua amputentur quodque corpora utriusque eorum in quatuor partes dividantur eo quod capita et quarteria illa ponantur ubi dominus rex ea assignare voluerit, &c." No modern lawyer can read the Indictment through without being struck with the meagreness of the evidence and the inadequacy of the crime alleged against Rhys ap Griffith. Shorn of its technical phraseology the acts on account of which Rhys was found guilty of high treason- even if proved by satisfactory evidence-were not very serious, and not worthy of the extreme penalty of the law. But treason in Henry VIII's days, and for a century after, was a very different thing from what it has come to be considered in our own days. The law of evidence, as we know it, was unborn, and our modern maxim that every man is innocent till he is proved to be guilty would have excited the ridicule of every lawyer. Prisoners were first subjected to a private examination before the Council. They had no chance of seeing or cross-examining their accusers they were not even told what the nature of the charges against them was. When, as was the case here, three men were jointly indicted, it was easy to work upon