almost blind. It was
understood that some systematized scheme of imposture, of
mispersonation, was at work to produce these results, and I was
instructed to inquire into it. I did so. I came to the conclusion that
only one person was concerned in the matter--the prisoner at the bar. I
had had my suspicions of him for some time. I had seen him on three
separate occasions as a candidate at public examinations. His nomination
was correct and genuine, but (as I have since discovered) it had been
issued to another person. He succeeded in every instance in obtaining
the appointments in question for his employers, who received them in due
course, though they have, I believe, since been canceled. In the case of
Chandos, a letter was written, by the supposed successful candidate, to
the authorities of the government branch--the India Board--under which
he was to serve, so grossly misspelled that the fraud was at once
suspected. In this instance the guilt was brought home to the prisoner
by the confession of the young man Chandos himself, who paid over to him
a considerable sum of money for the service in question. But I am now in
a position to prove that on several other occasions the prisoner has
committed the same offense; and, in short, if he may be said to have a
calling, it is that of personating, at competitive examinations, young
gentlemen of small ability, who are thus enabled to secure situations
and appointments which they could otherwise never obtain."

Mr. Justice Bantam had his prejudices, but he had a fair and honest
mind.

"This is a most unlooked-for communication, Brother Balais," said he,
doubtfully; "and it is not permitted you to cross-examine upon a point
of character."

"I am sorry to say, my lud," returned Mr. Balais, after a hurried
conversation with the little attorney, "that my client is not in a
position to dispute the evidence just adduced. He prefers to throw
himself upon the mercy of the court, on the ground--a very tenable one,
I think--of his youth and," he was going to add "inexperience," but,
under the circumstances, he thought it better not--"of his extreme
youth, my lud; my unhappy client is barely eighteen years of age."

"Very good," said Mr. Justice Bantam, looking as if it could not be
worse. "Hem! Prisoner at the bar: after a careful and fair trial, in
which you have had the benefit of the best legal aid, you have been
found _guilty_ of the charge of which you are accused. In that ve