"SAVED BY… THE INTEGRITY OF THE JURY WHO ARE JUDGE OF LAW AS WELL AS OF FACT": THE 1649 TREASON TRIAL OF LEVELER JOHN LILBURNE, RESULTING IN A SURPRISE ACQUITTAL

(LILBURNE, John) [WALKER, Clement] VERAX, Theodorus [pseudonym; here misspelled VARAX]. The Tryal of Lieutenant Colonel John Lilburn[e]… Being Exactly Pen'd and Taken in Short-Hand. London: H. Hills, [1710]. Octavo, modern full calf, raised bands, red morocco spine label. $850.

Second edition of this transcription of the trial of Leveler John Lilburne, with engraved frontispiece illustration depicting the accused reading from Coke's Institutes and reproducing the medal that was struck in Lilburne's honor after his surprising acquittal, attractively bound.

Lilburne (1618-57), "a Republican enthusiast, fought against Charles I, wrote numerous political tracts in favor of his own peculiar views, and subsequently became a preacher among the Quakers" (Allibone). "Lilburne's denial of the revolutionary regime's legitimacy, his calls to armed resistance, and suspicions of a royalist-Leveler alliance persuaded the authorities to bring him to trial for treason at the Guildhall on 24-5 October. It had been expected that he would follow the lead of King Charles and the royalist peers who had been tried in January and February and would deny the competence of a revolutionary tribunal to try him. Instead, however, he brought a barrage of objections against the details of the proceedings and against the evidence that his prosecutors provided of his authorship. Having successfully persuaded the jury—to the proper outrage of the judges—that they were judges of law as well as fact, he was pronounced guiltless. The legalities were hardly the issue. Popular enthusiasm was all, expressed in a packed court with open doors and swirling crowds outside, and his acquittal was marked with bonfires. A medal was struck in his honor, inscribed with the words: 'John Lilburne saved by the power of the Lord and the integrity of the jury who are judge of law as well of fact. Oct 26. 1649'" (ODNB). Indeed, both faces of the medal are reproduced on the frontispiece in the present volume. Despite the acquittal and the surge of popular goodwill that followed, Lilburne spent the rest of his life in exile or in prison. Hume describes him in his History of England as "the most turbulent, but the most upright and courageous, of mankind."

Political pamphleteer Clement Walker often used the pseudonym Theodorus Verax (or, as here, Varax) on his publications to avoid prosecution. "Walker was again arrested soon after the publication of the second part of The History of Independency. On 24 October 1649 his papers were seized by order of the House of Commons; soon afterwards he was committed to the Tower on a charge of treason, though he was never brought to trial… Walker died in the Tower in October 1651" (ODNB). Stated "Second Edition" on title page; the first edition appeared in 1649 in quarto, under the title Truth's Victory over Tyrants; Being the Trial of J. Lilburne. Both editions are very scarce. Harvard Law Catalogue II: 1128 (this edition).

Frontispiece, title page, and first few leaves rehinged; frontispiece remargined along lower edge, not affecting image. Title page and following leaf with excised owner signature, not affecting text; a few minor paper repairs to generally clean text. Extremely good. Calf binding attractive and fine. Scarce.