The  jurors  who  found  a  verdict  according  to  their  conscience,
and  not  according  to  the  wishes  of  the  Lord  Deputy,  were  im-
mediately brought  before  the  Castle  Chamber  in  Dublin,  and
fined  £4,000  each  and  their  estates  seized  till  the  fine  was  paid ;  a
penalty  the  equivalent  of  which  would  impoverish  many  a
noble  of  the  present  day.  The  sheriff  who  summoned  the
jurors  was  dealt  with  in  a  more  decisive  fashion :  he  was  first
fined  and  then  flung  into  prison,  where  he  was  kept  till  he  died
of  the  process;  an  example  to  future  officials  to  array  their
panels  more  discreetly.^  '

*  This  was  not  Strafford's  only  experiment  in  manipniatinff  juries.
The  House  of  Commons,  on  the  occasipn  of  his  impeachment,  cited  among
the  catalogue  of  his  offences  in  Ireland — "That  jurors  who  eave  their
verdict  according  to  their  consciences,  were  censured  in  tne  Castle
Chamber  in  grest  fines ;  sometimes  pillored,  with  loss  of  ears,  and  bored
through  the  tongue,  and  sometimes  marked  in  the  forehead  with  other
infamous  punifikoients."  Strafford,  who  was  a  wise  tyrant,  did  other
work  in  Ireland  however.  He  got  flax-seed  from  Holland,  and  workmen
from  Belgium,  and  fostered  a  linen  trade  among  the  plantators,  which
Is  prosperous  to  our  day.  Fortunately  for  Ulster  linen  was  not  a  staple  of
England.  Strafford's  most  notable  proceeding  is  still  to  be  mentioned.
