if not all, of these circumstances.'

"Believe it not; circumstantial evidence has caused as much innocent
blood to flow, as the cimeter of Jenghiz Khan. The counsel for the
prosecution will tell you that every fact in this melancholy case stabs
the prisoner, and that facts cannot lie. Abstractly and logically
considered, facts certainly do not lie; but let us see whether the
inferences deduced from what we believe to be facts, do not sometimes
eclipse Ananias and Sapphira! Not long ago, the public heart thrilled
with horror at the tidings of the Ashtabula railway catastrophe, in
which a train of cars plunged through a bridge, took fire, and a number
of passengers were consumed, charred beyond recognition. Soon
afterward, a poor woman, mother of two children, commenced suit against
the railway company, alleging that her husband had perished in that
disaster. The evidence adduced was only of a circumstantial nature, as
the body which had been destroyed by flames, could not be found.
Searching in the debris at the fatal spot, she had found a bunch of
keys, that she positively recognized as belonging to her husband, and
in his possession when he died. One key fitted the clock in her house,
and a mechanic was ready to swear that he had made such a key for the
deceased. Another key fitted a chest she owned, and still another
fitted the door of her house; while strongest of all proof, she found a
piece of cloth which she identified as part of her husband's coat. A
physician who knew her husband, testified that he rode as far as
Buffalo on the same train with the deceased, on the fatal day of the
disaster; and another witness deposed that he saw the deceased take the
train at Buffalo, that went down to ruin at Ashtabula. Certainly the
chain of circumstantial evidence, from veracious facts, seemed
complete; but lo! during the investigation it was ascertained beyond
doubt, to the great joy of the wife, that the husband had never been
near Ashtabula, and was safe and well at a Pension Home in a Western
State.

"The fate of a very noble and innocent woman is now committed to your
hands, and only presumptive proof is laid before you. 'The circumstance
is always a fact; the presumption is the inference drawn from that
fact. It is hence called presumptive proof, because it proceeds merely
in opinion.' Suffer no brilliant sophistry to dazzle your judgment, no
remnant of prejudice to swerve you from the path of fidelity to your
oath