.--"May it please your Lordship; gentlemen of the jury; I am
exceedingly sorry that some more able counsel has not to address you on
this most important and momentous occasion. I should have been unequal
to the task, under any circumstances."

Mr. GURNEY.--"Stop a minute." (The learned counsel for the prosecution
here intimated, that he had something to add to his case; but, after a
pause, he intimated to Mr. Cooper, that he might proceed.)

Mr. COOPER.--Gentlemen, under any circumstances, this would be a task,
for which, I fear, I am very ill qualified; but under those, in which I
stand to address you on this question, I feel my incapacity doubled and
trebled. I appear before you without notice, and almost wholly without
preparation. I was, indeed, applied to by the defendant, some months
ago, and negotiated with (if I may use the phrase) to undertake her
defence. But, after this, many days and even weeks passed, during which
I heard nothing of the case; and I began to suppose that the defendant
had determined to employ some other counsel, or trust herself to her own
address to the jury against this charge. At the end of a month, however,
I was again applied to; and, again, weeks having elapsed, without my
hearing any more of this prosecution, I dismissed it entirely, not only
from my mind, but from my memory; nor was it, till last night, that, that
I was once more informed that I was to be employed as the defendant's
counsel; and my brief at last put into my hands. I was then
unfortunately engaged in other important business: and the time, I have
taken to collect my own thoughts upon this question, and huddle together
a few extract's from writers of authority, I have been obliged to borrow
from sleep; and have, therefore, in a great measure counteracted myself;
for I have lost in strength, what I have gained in information, and
appear before you ill able, indeed, to do justice to this cause. But,
whilst I make this statement to excuse my own deficiency, I am bound to
acquit the defendant of any reproachable negligence of her own interests.
I understand, that the cause of her late application to me, is, that
having had, as a mere matter of grace, three weeks' notice of trial from
another society, by which she has been prosecuted, she mistook it for her
right; and expected the same notice from her present prosecutors. As she
had not received any such notice (and indeed she was not in law entitled
to it), she su