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The amercement, besides, of the person complained of, might frequently suggest a very strong reason for finding him in the wrong, even when he had not really been so. That such abuses were far from being uncommon, the ancient history of every country in Europe bears witness.
Ten days before this event he was called upon to pay a bill of four dollars for failure to appear at the May muster. Refusing to do so, he was thereupon summoned to come into the Police Court on the glorious Fourth to show cause why he ought not to pay the amercement. He was in a quandary.
Maddox, writing of the period from William the Conqueror to John, says: "The amercement in criminal and common pleas, which were wont to be imposed during this first period and afterwards, were of so many several sorts, that it is not easy to place them under distinct heads.
The persons who applied to him for justice were always willing to pay for it, and a present never failed to accompany a petition. After the authority of the sovereign, too, was thoroughly established, the person found guilty, over and above the satisfaction which he was obliged to make to the party, was like-wise forced to pay an amercement to the sovereign.
But it is not likely that the losing party was subjected to an amercement as a matter of course, but only in those cases where the injustice of his cause was so evident as to make him inexcusable in bringing it before the courts.
The goods and personal effects belonging to the passengers and yourself have been safely landed at the Embarcadero of Todos Santos a neutral port by my directions; my interpretation of the orders of the Federal Council excepting innocent non-combatants and their official protector from confiscation or amercement.
He had given trouble, he had disturbed, he had broke the peace of his lord the king, and for those offences an amercement was thought due.
The punishment of offences by fine was discretionary; and this discretionary power had been very much abused. But by Magna Charta things were so ordered, that a delinquent might be punished, but not ruined, by a fine or amercement, because the degree of his offence, and the rank he held, were to be taken into consideration.
It is also of a piece with his pretence that there was a difference between fine and amercement, and that fines might be imposed by the king, and that juries were required only for fixing amercements. These are some of the innumerable frauds by which the English people have been cheated out of the trial by jury. Ex uno disce omnes. From one judge learn the characters of all.
And in many other statutes passed after Magna Carta, the terms fine and amercement seem to be used indifferently, in prescribing the punishments for offences. St. 2 and 3 Philip and Mary, Ch 8, uses the terms, "fines, forfeitures, and amerciaments" five times. St. 5 Elizabeth, Ch. 13, Sec. 10, uses the terms "fines, forfeitures, and amerciaments."
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