Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/560

 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 46 A clause was added to the first sketch in Cecil's hand : 1 The Lord President to be careful to observe Divine serv- ice and to exhort others to observe it ; and also to keep a preacher who shall be allowed his diet in the house- hold, to whom the said President shall cause due rever- ence to be given in respect of his office which he shall ha 7 e for the service of God/ With an understanding that this arrangement for Minister should be immediately carried out, that the pre- cedent, if successful in the south, should be followed out in the other provinces, and that his other requests should be complied with, Sidney left London for Ireland in duced as a reform and as a means of justice the following clause : 'Also it shall be lawful for the President and council or any three of them, the President being one, in luses necessary, upon vehement sus- picion and presumption of any great jffen^e in any party committed Jgainsl 'Jie Queen's Majesty, to put the same psw!y to torture as they shall think convenient. Presidency of Minister, February I, 1566: Irish MSS. Rolls House. Even in England torture con- tinued to be freely used. On De- cember 28, 1566, a letter was ad- dressed by the Privy Council to the Attorney- General and others, that : ' Where they were heretofore ap- pointed to put Clement Fisher, now prisoner in the Tower, in some fear of torture whereby his lewdness and such as he might detect might the better come to light, they are re- quested, for that the said Fisher is not minded to be plain, as thereby the faults of others might be known, to cause the said Fisher according to their discretion to feel some touch of the rack, for the better boultiug out and opening of that which is re- quisite to be known.' Council Re- gister. Elizabeth, MSS. And again, January 18, 1567. A letter to the Lieutenant of the Tower : 4 One Eice, a buckler-maker,, committed there, is discovered to have been concerned in a robbery of plate four years before ; the lieu- tenant to examine the said Rice about this robbery, and if they shall perceive him not willing to confess the same then to put him in fear of the torture, and to let him feel some smart of the same whereby he may- be the better brought to confess the- truth.' Irish MSS. Rolls House.