so tell you that, two days after the
prisoner's arrest, he went with Jones, the village constable, and
found the marks where the horse and trap had stood; while, just
inside the field, the grass was trampled with feet; and in the
bottom of the dry ditch was a great dark patch, which he was able
to ascertain to be blood. Doctor Hewitt will tell you that he was
called in to strap up the prisoner's head, after his arrest; and
that the cut was a very severe one, and must have been inflicted by
a heavy weapon, with great force.

"I am convinced, gentlemen, that after hearing this evidence you
will agree with me, not only that the prisoner is perfectly
innocent of the charge, but that he is a most ill-used person; and
that it is a matter of surprise and regret that the magistrates
should have committed him for trial, when the only shadow of
evidence against him was the discovery of these tools, a discovery
which he at once explained. Of other evidence, there is not one jot
or tittle. No attempt has been made to prove that the prisoner was
in the habit of consorting with bad characters; no attempt has been
made to show any connection, whatever, between him and the men who
came in a horse and trap across the hills, for the purpose of
effecting a burglary at Mr. Ellison's; and who, as we know, did
effect it. No scrap of the property stolen from the house has been
found upon him and, in order to account for the severe wound on his
head, the counsel for the prosecution has started the hypothesis
that it was given in the course of a quarrel, during the division
of the plunder.

"But had that been the case, gentlemen, the prisoner would not have
been standing here alone. Robbed and ill-treated by these
companions of his, he would naturally have put the officers of
justice on their track and, as he must have been in communication
with them, and well acquainted with their ways and haunts, he could
have given information which would have led to their early arrest.
He could well have done this, for the crown would have made no
difficulty, whatever, in promising a lad like this a free pardon,
on condition of his turning evidence against these burglars; whose
mode of procedure shows them to have been old hands, and who are,
no doubt, the same who have committed the various robberies which
have lately taken place in this part of the country.

"The prisoner is the son of highly respectable parents. His
employer will come before you, an