Note 221 — Chapter III

C.J. ix. 563. L’Estrange comments on this: “It makes a man tremble to think what a jail delivery of discoverers this temptation might have produced” (Brief Hist. iii. 55). Surely it is more natural to suppose that the information was directed not to the common malefactors, but to those already imprisoned in Newgate on account of the plot. If an examination of Prance was taken by the Commons’ committee, it was never reported to the House. On December 30, 1678 Parliament was prorogued, and on January 24, 1679 dissolved. The new parliament did not meet till March 6, when the trial for Godfrey’s murder had already taken place, and Green, Berry, and Hill had been hanged.