This Week's Great Day

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, Issue 217, 27 August 1927, Page 4

This Week's Great Day

MemoAiNe Events in the histom of the Empire.

Charles Corway

The Assassination of Buckingham

(Copyrighted.)

rpWO hundred and ninty-nine years ago, on the 23rd August, 1628, the infamous George Villiers, the first Duke of Buckingham, was assassinated, an event which brought a two-fold relief to the British people, for it not noly ended the career of a most unscrupulous tyrant, but it led to the abolition of the terrible tortures which had figured so prominently in the penal system of Britain for many centuries, and which had been the means ol extorting from unfortunate prisoners conlessions ol crimes of which they were entirely innocent.

George Villiers, who was born in 1592, was specially trained irom his childhood for the life of a courtier, and when he was presented to James 1. at the age or 22 the king was immediately lascmated by his handsome face, courtly manners and many gracetul accomplishments. His speedy rise to supreme power was phenomenal, and within three years of his appearance at Court he had become the wealthiest and the most powerful man in the realm. He was the virtual dictator of Britain's home and foreign policy during the last years of the reign of James 1. and the early days ol Charles 1., and no political preferment was possible without payment of heavy bribes to the Duke, while the slightest opposition to his will brought about the immediate disgrace and punishment of the offender. His reckless policy as a statesman and a soldier was largely responsible for the subsequent downfall of the Stuart throne, but he never lost the affection and confidence of his royal masters, and the many attempts which were made by Parliament to impeach him were always thwarted by the prompt dissolution of the assembly by the monarch.

The Duke continued his career of tyranny and oppression unchecked for a period of fourteen years, but at the time of his death the whole nation was seething with schemes for his removal from power, and his assassin, a man named John Felton, was ao. claimed as a hero by the people of Britain. Felton had served in the army and held the Duke responsible for his having been refused payment and promotion for his military services, and he eagerly caught at the chance of revenging his private wrongs under cover of those of his

fellow-countrymen. The murder took place at Portsmouth, and after stabbing the Duke to the heart Felton had every opportunity of escaping, but he relied on public sympathy to save him from punishment and his gave himself up.

Strenuous attempts were made to induce Belton to implicate others in the assassination, and he was examined by Archbishop Laud, who told him that he would be tortured on the rack until he had divulged the names of his accomplices, but Felton boldly replied that such a procedure would be very unwise, as in his agony he might possibly be tempted to declare that the prelnte himself had been the instigator of the murder-

Laud was greatly enibarassed by this unexpected answer and appealed to the King for further instructions, but Charles 1. evaded responsibility by directing that Felton should be tortured to the fullest extent permitted by the law. This. plaugfl the onus on the law officers of the Crown, who, after a lengthy conference, dw cided that torture was absolutely illegal according to the laws of Engl land, and from that day it was abolished. Felton was tried for the murder of the Duke and, in spite of an intense public sympathy and agitation. expiated his crime on the scaffold.