The judges waited in a body on Jeffreys, who insisted that they should impose a fine of not less than thirty thousand pounds.

Thirty thousand pounds, when compared with the revenues of the English grandees of that age, may be considered as equivalent to a hundred and fifty thousand pounds in the nineteenth century.

In the presence of the Chancellor not a word of disapprobation was tittered: but, when the judges had retired, Sir John Powell, in whom all the little honesty of the bench was concentrated, muttered that the proposed penalty was enormous, and that one tenth part would be amply sufficient.

His brethren did not agree with him; nor did he, on this occasion, show the courage by which, on a memorable day some months later, he signally retrieved his fame.

The Earl was accordingly condemned to a fine of thirty thousand pounds, and to imprisonment till payment should be made.