52

HISTORY OE ENGLAND.

CHAP.

XIV .

KISS.

were all strongly biassed on one side or on the other, andamong whom there was at that time not a single person whosemind had been disciplined by the study of jurisprudence, tolook steadily at the mere point of law, abstracted from the spe-cial circumstances of the case. In the view of one party, a partywhich even among the Whig peers was probably a minority, theappellant was a man who had rendered inestimable services tothe cause of liberty and religion, and who had been requitedby long confinement, by degrading exposure, and by torturenot to be thought of without a shudder. The majority of theHouse more justly regarded him as the falsest, the mostmalignant and the most impudent being that had ever disgracedthe human form. The sight of that brazen forehead, theaccents of that lying tongue, deprived them of all mastery overthemselves. Many of them doubtless remembered with shameand remorse that they had been his dupes, and that, on thevery last occasion on which he had stood before them, he hadby perjury induced them to shed the blood of one of their ownillustrious order. It was not to be expected that a crowd ofgentlemen under the influence of feelings like these would actwith the cold impartiality of a court of justice. Before they cameto any decision on the legal question which Titus had broughtbefore them, they picked a succession of quarrels with him.He had published a paper magnifying his merits and his suffer-ings. The Lords found out some pretence for calling thispublication a breach of privilege, and sent him to the Mar-slialsea. He petitioned to be released; but an objection wasraised to his petition. He had described himself as a Doctor ofDivinity; and their lordships refused to acknowledge him assuch. He was brought to their bar, and asked where he hadgraduated. He answered, “At the university of Salamanca.”This was no new instance of his mendacity and effrontery. HisSalamanca degree had been, during many years, a favourite