contempt. "Does the
gentleman," he asked, in turn, "claim for Mr. Davenport a superhuman
degree of piety? Would he have us understand that Mr. Davenport is
not a sinful man, and is the expression made use of by Mr. Holden more
than tantamount to that? I do not think the words worthy of notice,"
he said, "nor am I disposed to waste time on them." Mr. Tippit
concluded by saying, that if a man, in the honest expression of his
opinions about a book, was to be dealt with criminally, free speech,
free action, the noble inheritance of our ancestors, were gone, and
the liberties of the country no more. Collecting himself for a last
effort, he represented the Goddess of Liberty, like Niobe, all
tears, weeping over the fate of her children, should the iniquity,
contemplated by Ketchum, be consummated.

The impression made by the lawyer's speech was favorable, as was
evident from the looks of the audience, and the approving hum that
filled the room, and prepossessed as they were in favor of Holden,
they would undoubtedly have acquitted him, but, alas! they were
not the tribunal to decide his fate. We have already dilated on the
proceedings of the little court of _pied poudre_, beyond our original
intention, and for that reason shall endeavor, without designing,
"with malice prepense," to slight the eloquence of Ketchum, to
compress his remarks into as small a compass as possible. He has since
risen to the dignity of a County Court Judge, and, therefore, needs no
celebrity, which a work so unpretending as the present, can confer.

Mr. Ketchum then began by saying, that to be sure his experience in
courts was not very great, but he had some, and, so far as it went, he
never knew a case plainer than the one on trial. The gentleman (bowing
to Tippit), with all his ingenuity, and he was not going to deny him
his due, which was greater than his knowledge of the law, had been
unable to affect his own mind, or, as he believed, the mind of his
honor, or of any one present. He felt, therefore, that the task before
him, though an unpleasant one, was lightened by the inability of his
brother Tippit to make out even a plausible defence. Peeling this,
he should, if he consulted only his own inclinations, be disposed to
leave the case where it was, without comment, but he supposed it was
expected he should say something, and in the discharge of his duty,
he would comply with the expectation. As for the character of the
prisoner, he had nothing