Note 161 — Chapter I · PENAL METHODS OF THE MIDDLE AGES
Reading edition
“The anecdotes which I have heard of this shameful and injurious facility I am almost ashamed to repeat. Mr. Burke once told me that on a certain occasion when he was leaving the House one of the messengers called him back, and, on his saying that he was going on urgent business, replied: ‘Oh, it will not keep you a single moment; it is only a capital felony without benefit of clergy.’”—Mackintosh, Miscellaneous Works, p. 718.