circumstance that might be urged against him, and being unwilling to be brought into trouble if he could help it and concluded his story with a solemn declaration that he had related nothing but the truth, without adding or diminishing one tittle, as he should answer it to God Almighty." Being then called upon to produce his witnesses, the prisoner answered with a steady composed countenance and resolution of voice, He had no witness but God and his own conscience.

The judge then proceeded to deliver his charge, in which he pathetically enlarged on the heinousness of the crime, and laid great stress on the force of the evidence, which, although circumstantial only, he declared he thought to be irresistible, and little inferior to the most positive proofthat the prisoner had indeed cooked up a very plausible story, but if such, or the like allegations, were to be admit ed, in a case of this kind, no murderer would ever be brought to justice, such bloody deeds being generally perpetrated in the dark, and with the greatest secresy-that the present case was exempted, in his opinion, from all possibility of doubt, and that they ought not to hesitate one moment about finding the prisoner guilty.

The foreman begged of his lordship, as this was a case of life and death, that the jury might be at liberty to withdraw, and, upon this motion, an officer was sworn to keep the jury.

This trial came on the first in the morning, and the judge having sat till nine at night, expecting the return of the jury, at last sent an officer to inquire if they were agreed in their verdict, and to signify to them that his lordship would wait no longer for them. Some of them returned for answer that eleven of their body had been of the same mind from the first, but that it was their misfortune to have a foreman that proved to be a singular instance of the most inveterate obstinacy, who having taken up a different opinion from them, was unalterably fixed in it. The messenger was no sooner returned, but the complaining members, alarmed at the thoughts of being kept under confinement all the night, and despairing of bringing their dissenting brother over to their own way of thinking, agreed to accede to his opinion, and having acquainted him with their resolution, they sent an officer to detain his lordship a few minutes, and then went into court, and by their foreman brought in the prisoner not guilty. His lordship could not help expressing the greatest surprise and indignation at this unexpected verdict, and, after giving the jury a severe admonition, he refused to

record their verdict, and sent them back again, with directions that they should be locked up all night, without fire or candle. The whole blame was publicly laid on the foreman by the rest of the members, and they spent the night in loading him with reflections, and bewailing their unhappy fate in being associated with so hardened a wretch-but he remained quite inflexible, constantly declaring he would suffer death, rather than change his opinion.

As soon as his lordship came into court the next morning, he sent again to the jury, on which all the eleven members joined in requesting their foreman to go again into court, assuring him they would adhere to their former verdict, whatever was the consequence, and, on being reproached with their former inconstancy, they promised never to desert, or recriminate upon their foreman any more-Upon these assurances, they proceeded into court, and again brought in the prisoner not guilty. The judge, unable to conceal his rage at a verdict which appeared to him in the most iniquitous light, reproached them with the severest censures, and dismissed them with this cutting reflection, That the blood of the deceased lay at their door.

The prisoner, on his part, fell on his knees, and with uplifted eyes and hands, thanked God for his deliverance, and addressing himself to the judge, cried out, You see, my Lord, that God and a good conscience are the best of witnesses.

These circumstances made a deep impression on the mind of the judge, and, as soon as he was retired from court, he entered into discourse with the high sheriff, upon what had passed, and particularly examined him as to his knowledge of this leader of the jury. The answer this gentleman gave his lordship was, that he had been acquainted with him many years-that he had an estate of his own of above 501. per annum, and that he rented a very considerable farm besides that he never knew him charged with an ill action, and that he was universally esteemed in his neighbourhood.

For further information his lordship likewise sent for the minister of the parish, who gave the same favourable account of his parishioner, with this addition, that he was a constant churchman, and a devout communicant.

These accounts rather increased his lordship's perplexity, from which he could think of no expedient to deliver himself, but by having a conference in private with the only person who could give him satisfaction. This he desired the sheriff to procure, who readily offered his service, and without delay brought about the desired interview.

Upon the juryman's being introduced to the judge, his

lordship and he retired into a closet, where his lordship opened his reasons for desiring that visit, making no scruple of acknowledging the uneasiness he was under, and conjuring his visitor frankly to discover his reasons for acquitting the prisoner. The juryman returned for answer that he had sufficient reasons to justify his conduct, and that he was neither afraid nor ashamed to reveal them, but as he had hitherto locked them up in his own breast, and was under no compulsion to disclose them, he expected his lordship would engage upon his honour to keep what he was about to unfold as secret as he himself had done; which his lordship having promised to do, the juryman then proceeded to give his lordship the following account: "That the deceased being tytheman of the parish where he (the juryman) lived, he had the morning of his decease, been in his (the juryman's) grounds amongst his corn, and had done him great injustice, by taking more than his due, and acting otherwise in a most arbitrary manner. That when he complained of this treatment, he had not only been abused with scurrilous language, but that the deceased had likewise struck at him several times with his fork, and had actually wounded him in two places, the scars of which wounds he then shewed his lordship-that the deceased seeming bent on mischief, and he (the juryman) having no weapon to defend himself, had no other way to preserve his own life, but by closing in with the deceased, and wrenching the fork out of his hands, which having effected, the deceased attempted to recover the fork, and in the scuffle received the two wounds, which had occasioned his death-that he was inexpressibly concerned at the accident, and especially when the prisoner was taken up on suspicion of the murder-that the former assizes being but just over, he was unwilling to surrender himself, and to confess the matter, because his farm and affairs would have been ruined by his lying in a gaol so long -that he was sure to have been acquitted on his trial, for that he had consulted the ablest lawyers upon the case, who had all agreed, that as the deceased had been the aggressor, he would only be guilty of man-slaughter at the most-that it was true he had suffered greatly in his own mind on the prisoner's account, but being well assured that imprisonment would be of less ill consequence to the prisoner than to himself, he had suffered the law to take its course-that in order to render the prisoner's confinement as easy to him as possible, he had given him every kind of assistance, and had wholly supported his family ever since-that in order to get him cleared of the charge laid against him, he could think

of no other expedient than that of procuring himself to be summoned on the jury, and set at the head of them, which with great labour and expence he had accomplished, having all along determined in his own breast, rather to die himself than to suffer any harm to be done to the prisoner.

His lordship expressed great satisfaction at this account, and after thanking him for it, and making this further stipulation, that in case his lordship should happen to survive him, he might then be at liberty to relate this story, that it might be delivered down to posterity, the conference broke up.

The juryman lived fifteen years afterwards; the judge inquired after him every year, and happening to survive him, delivered the above relation.

1763, Nov.

XXXVI. On the Sheep Walks in Spain.

THE following letter relates principally to the Sheep and Sheep Walks of Spain; it contains, however, many other very curious particulars relating to the face of the country and its product and contents, the revenues of the king, the character of the ecclesiastics, and the economy of a pastoral life.

I am, Sir, &c.

A Letter from a Gentleman in Spain to Mr. Peter Collinson, F. R. S.

SIR,

THERE are two kinds of Sheep in Spain. The coarsewooled sheep which remain all their lives in their native country, and are housed every night in winter; and the fine wooled-sheep, which are all their lives in the open air, which travel every summer from the cool mountains of the northern parts of Spain, to feed all the winter on the southern warm plains of Andalusia, Mancha, and Estramadura. From computations made with the utmost accuracy, it has appeared, that there are five millions of fine-wooled sheep in Spain, and that the wool and flesh of a flock of ten thousand sheep produced yearly about twenty-four reals a head, which we will suppose to be nearly the value of twelve

English sixpences; of these but one goes clear a-head to the owner yearly, three sixpences a-head go yearly to the king, and the other eight go to the expences of pasture, tythes, shepherds, dogs, salt, shearing, &c.

Thus the annual product of the five millions of sheep amounts to thirty-seven millions and a half of sixpences, à little more or less, of which there are about three millions and a half for the owners; above fifteen millions enter into the treasury, and seven millions and a half go to the benefit of the public. Hence it is the kings of Spain call these flocks in their ordinances, the precious jewel of the crown.

Formerly this jewel was really set in the crown, a succession of many kings were lords of all the flocks; hence that great number of ordinances, penal laws, privileges, and im munities which issued forth in different reigns for the preservation and special government of the sheep. Hence a royal council was formed under the title of the council of the grand royal flock, which exists to this day, though the king has not a single sheep. Various exigencies of state, in different reigns, alienated by degrees the whole grand flock from the crown, together with all its privileges, which were collected and published in the year 1731, under the title of the Laws of the Royal Flock; a volume in large folio of above 500 pages.

The wars and wants of Philip the First's reign forced that king to sell 40,000 sheep to the Marquis of Iturbieta, which was the last flock of the crown.

Ten thousand sheep compose a flock, which is divided into ten tribes. One man has the conduct of all. He must be the owner of 4 or 500 sheep, strong, active, vigilant, intelligent in pasture, in the weather, and in the diseases of sheep. He has absolute dominion over fifty shepherds and fifty dogs, five of each to a tribe. He chooses them, he chastises them, or discharges them at will; he is the prepositus or chief shepherd of the whole flock. You may judge of his importance by his salary, he has 401. a year and a horse, whereas the first shepherd of a tribe has but 40s. a year, the second 34s. the third 25s. the fourth 15s. and a boy 10s. a year. All their allowance is two pounds of bread a day each, They may keep a few goats and sheep in the flock, but the wool is for the master; they have only the lambs and the flesh. The chief shepherd gives them 3s. in April, and 3s. in October, by way of regale for the road; and these are all the sweets these miserable wretches enjoy. Exposed every day in the year to all weathers, and every night to lie in a hut. Thus fare and thus live, generally to old age, 25,000