show the same question has engaged the best minds of the country
as an open question. Can it be possible that the defendant is to
be convicted for acting upon such advice as she could obtain
while the question is an open and undecided one?"

THE COURT.--You have made a much better argument than that, sir.

JUDGE SELDEN.--As long as it is an open question, I submit that
she has not been guilty of an offense. At all events, it is for
the jury.

THE COURT.--I can not charge these propositions of course. The
question, gentlemen of the jury, in the form it finally takes, is
wholly a question or questions of law, and I have decided as a
question of law, in the first place, that under the XIV.
Amendment, which Miss Anthony claims protects her, she was not
protected in a right to vote. And I have decided also that her
belief and the advice which she took do not protect her in the
act which she committed. If I am right in this, the result must
be a verdict on your part of guilty, and I therefore direct that
you find a verdict of guilty.

JUDGE SELDEN.--That is a direction no Court has power to make in
a criminal case.

THE COURT.--Take the verdict, Mr. Clerk.

THE CLERK.--Gentlemen of the jury, hearken to your verdict as the
Court has recorded it. You say you find the defendant guilty of
the offense whereof she stands indicted, and so say you all?

JUDGE SELDEN.--I don't know whether an exception is available,
but I certainly must except to the refusal of the Court to submit
those propositions, and especially to the direction of the Court
that the jury should find a verdict of guilty. I claim that it is
a power that is not given to any Court in a criminal case. Will
the Clerk poll the jury? THE COURT.--No. Gentlemen of the jury,
you are discharged.

On the next day a motion for a new trial was made and argued by Judge
Selden, as follows:

_May it please the Court:_--The trial of this case commenced with
a question of very great magnitude--whether by the Constitution
of the United States the right of suffrage was secured to female
equally with male citizens. It is likely to close with a question
of much greater magnitude--whether the right of trial by jury is
absolutely secured by the Federal Constitution to persons charged
with cr