STAR-CHAMBER. The Star-Chamber is said to have been in early times one of the 'apartments of the king's palace at West minster allotted for the despatch of public business. The Painted Chamber, the White Chamber, and the Chambre Markolph, were occupied by the triers and receivers of petitions, and the king's council held its sittings in the Camera Stellata, or Chambre des Estoylles, which was so called probably from some remarkable feature in its architecture or embellishment. According to Sir Thomas Smith's conjecture "either because it was full of windows, or because at tho first all the roofc thereof was decked with images or starres gilded." (` Commonwealth of England,' book iii. cap. 4.) Sir William Black stone proposes a conjecture that the chamber received its name from its having been a place of deposit for the contracts of the Jews, called "'taus," under an ordinance of Richard I. (Blackstone's Commenta ries,' vol. iv. p. 266, note.) Whatever may be the etymology of the term, there can be little doubt that tho court of Star-Chamber derived its name from the place in which it was holden. " The lords sittirg in the Star-Chamber" is used as a well-known phrase in records of the time of Edward III., and the name became permanently attached to the jurisdiction, and continued long after the local situation of the court was changed.
The judicature of the court of Star-Chamber appears to have origi nated in the exercise of a criminal and civil jurisdiction by the king's council, or by that section of it which Lord Hale calls the Consilium Ordinariunt, in. order to distinguish it from the Privy Council, who were the deliberative advisers of the crown. (Hale's ' Jurisdiction of the Lords' House,' chap. v.; Palgrave's Essay on the Original Autho rity of the King's Council.') This exercise of jurisdiction by the king's council was considered as an encroachment upon the common law, and being the subject of frequent complaint by the Commons, was greatly abridged by several acts of parliament in the reign of Edward III. It was discouraged also by the common-law judges, although they were usually members of the council ; and from the joint operation of these and some other causes the power of the Consilium Regis as a court of justice had materially declined previously to the reign of Henry VII., although, as Lord Hale observes, there remain "some straggling footsteps of their proceeding" till near that time. The statute of the 3 Henry VII. c. 1, empowered the chancellor, trea surer, and keeper of the privy-seal, or any two of them, calling to them a 'bishop and temporal lord of the council and the two chief justices, or two other justices in their absence (to whom the president of the council Wad added by stat. 21 Henry V111., e. 20), upon bill or information exhibited to the lord ehaneellor or any other, against any person fur maintenance, giving of liveries, and retainers by indentures or promises, or other embraceriee, untrire demeaning of sheriffs in making panels and other untrue returns, for taking of money by juries, or for great riots or unlawful assemblies, to call the offenders before them and examine them, and punish them according to their demerits. The object and effect of this enactment are extremely doubtful. It appears to have been the opinion of the courts of law at the time the 'statute was passed that it established a new jurisdiction, entirely distinct from the ordinary jurisdiction of the council ; for five years afterwards, in the eighth year of Henry VII., it was resolved by all the judges, according to the plain words of the law, that the only judges of the court under tho statute wero the lord chancellor, the treasurer, and the keeper of the privy-seal, the bishop and temporal lord being merely " celled to them "tor assistants or assessors, and not ne constituent members of the court. (` Year Book,' 8 Hen. VII., 13, pl. 7.) This view of the effect of the statute is confirmed by the feet that, more than forty yearn afterwards, the president of the council was expressly added to the judges of the court by the atatute 21 Henry N'111., e. 20; "a decisive proof," as Mr. Hal am' observes " that it then existed as a tribunal perfectly distinct from the council itself' (` Constitutional History,' vol. 1., p. 70.) And this writer concludes a careful examination of the subject by the following propositions : " I. The court erected by the statute of 3 Henry VII. was not the court of Star-Chamber, 2. This court by 'statute subsisted in full force till beyond the middle of Henry VIII.'s reign, but not long afterwards went into disuse. 3. The court of Star-Chamber was the old Concilium Ordinarium, against whose jurisdiction many statutes had been enacted from the time of Edward III. 4. No part of the jurisdiction exercised by the Star-Chamber could be maintained on the authority of the statute of Henry VII." In the first of these propositions, Mr. Hallam
is confirmed by Hudson, in his 'Treatise of the Court of Star-Chamber.' ('Colleetanea Juridical vol. ii. p. 50.) On the other hand, both Lord Coke and Lord Halo consider the statute of Henry VII. as having merely introduced a modification of the ancient jurisdiction. The former calls the above resolution of the common-law judges "a sudden opinion," and says it is " contrary to law and continual experience." And he contends that the statute did not create a new court, but was merely declaratory of the mode of proceeding in an ancient court, pro vioudy known and recognised. (' Fourth Institute,' p. Lord Hale also speaks of the " erection of the court of Star-Chamber by the stat. 3 Henry VII.," and says it "was a kind of remodelling of the Consilium Regis." (' Jurisdiction of the Lords' house; chap. v., p. 35.) However this may have been, there is no doubt that, previously to the timo of Coke, this court, whether distinct or only a modification of the ancient jurisdiction, had again merged in the general jurisdiction of the lords of the council so completely as to justify his statement, that the opinion expressed in the judicial resolution was "contrary to continual experience." Sir Thomas Smith, who wrote his ' Treatise on the Commonwealth of England' in the year 1565, makes no mention of a limited court, though ho treats particularly of the court of Star Chamber, and sage that the judges were the lord chancellor, the lord treasurer, all the king's council, and all peers of the realm ; and he ascribes the merit of having renewed the vigour of the court to Cardinal Wolaey. At the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth, there fore, the court of Star-Chamber was unquestionably in full operatiou in the form in which it was known in the succeeding reigns ; and at this period, before it had degenerated into a mere engine of state, it was by no means destitute of utility. It was the only court in the land in which great and powerful offenders had no means of setting at defiance the administration of justice or corrupting its course. And during the reign of Elizabeth, when the jurisdiction of the Star Chamber had reached its maturity, it seems, except in political eases, to have been administered with wisdom and discretion. (Palgmve's Eseay on the King's Council.') The proceedings in the court of Star-Chamber were by information, or bill and answer ; interrogatories in writing were also exhibited to the defendant and witnesses, which were answered on oath. The attorney-geueml had the power of exhibiting ex-offieio informations; as had also the king's almoner to recover deodands and goods of a fele de-se, which were supposed to go in support of the king's alms. In cases of confession by accused persons, the information reid proceedings were oral, and hence arose ono of the most oppressive abuses of the court in political prosecutions. The proceeding by written information and interrogatories was tedious and troublesome, often involving much nicety in pleading, and always requiring a degree of precision in setting forth the accusation which was embarrassing in a state prosecution. It was with a view to these difficulties that Lord Bacon discouraged the king from adopting this mode of proceeding in the matter of the pursuivanta, saying that "the Star-Chamber without confession was long seas." (Bacon's ' Works,' vol. iii. p. 372.) In political charges, therefore, the attorney-general derived a great advantage over the accused by proceeding ore tenus. The consequence was, that no pains were spared to procure confessions, and pressure of every kind, including torture, was unscrupulously applied. According to the laws of the court; no person could be orally charged, unless he acknowledged his confession at the bar," freely and voluntarily, without constraint." (11pdson's Treatise of the Court of Star-Chamber.) But this check upon confessions improperly obtained seems to have been much neg lected in practise during the later periods of the history of this court. Upon admissions of hninaterial circumstances thus aggravated and distorted into confessions of guilt, the Earl of, Northumberland was prosecuted ore tenus in the Star-Chamber, for being privy to the Gun powder Plot, and WAS sentenced to pay a fine of 30,000/. and to bo imprisoned for life; "but by what rule," 'says Hudson Coll. Jurid.: vol. ii.), "that sentence wars, I know not, for it was ore tenus, and yet not upon confession." And it frequently happen0 during the last century of the existence of the Star-Chamber, that enormous fines, imprisonments for life or during the king's pleasure, banishment, muti lation, and every variation of punishment short of death, were inflicted by a court composed of members of the kings council, upon a mere oral proceeding, without hearing the accused, without a written charge or record of any kind, and without appeal.