194

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP.

VIII.

1688 .

Indeed, from the unwillingness of the crown lawyers to putthe Clerk of the Council into the witness box, and from thevehemence with which they objected to Pemberton’s crossexamination, it is plain that they were themselves of thisopinion.

However, the handwriting was now proved. But a newand serious objection was raised. It was not sufficient to provethat the Bishops had written the alleged libel. It was necessaryto prove also that they had written it in the county of Mid-dlesex. And not only was it out of the power of the Attorneyand Solicitor to prove this; but it was in the power of thedefendants to prove the contrary. For it so happened thatSancroft had never once left the palace at Lambeth from thetime when the Order in Council appeared till after the petitionwas in the King’s hands. The whole case for the prosecutionhad therefore completely broken down; and the audience,with great glee, expected a speedy acquittal.

The crown lawyers then changed their ground again, aban-doned altogether the charge of writing a libel, and undertookto prove that the Bishops had published a libel in the countyof Middlesex. The difficulties were great. The delivery ofthe petition to the King was undoubtedly, in the eye of the law,a publication. But how was this delivery to be proved? Noperson had been present at the audience in the royal closet,except the King and the defendants. The King could notwell be sworn. It was therefore only by the admissions of thedefendants that the fact of publication could be established.Blathwayt was again examined, but in vain. He well remem-bered, he said, that the Bishops owned their hands; but hedid not remember that they owned the paper which lay on thetable of the Privy Council to be the same paper which theyhad delivered to the King, or that they were even interroga-ted on that point. Several other official men who had been inattendance on the Council were called, and among themSamuel Pepys, Secretary of the Admiralty; but none of themcould remember that anything was said about the delivery.It was to no purpose that Williams put leading questions tillthe counsel on the other side declared that such twisting, such