verdict against the prisoner in this
case,--remembering, I say, these things, I did not expect such a
total break down, such an exposure of weakness as that which has been
just made before you. Were my object merely to rescue the prisoner
from an ignominious death--had it been my mere duty on this occasion
to obtain an acquittal, I should feel no hesitation in requesting his
lordship at once to send the case before you, with such remarks as
the evidence would call forth from him; and I should consider that
I was only wasting the time of the court in pointing out to you the
insufficiency of the evidence, in which each of you must perceive
that nothing whatever is proved against the prisoner; but I have been
employed with another object; and I must own to you that so great is
my own personal anxiety--so terrible and so undeserved the present
position of that unfortunate young man, and so essentially necessary
is it for his future happiness, that I should effect my present
object;--I must own to you, I say, for these reasons, that from
the time when I first found myself standing in a crowded court to
address a jury, up to the present moment, I have never felt so little
self-confidence, or experienced so total a prostration of that
assurance, which is a lawyer's first requisite, as I do at present.

"I have said my object in addressing you is not merely that of
obtaining an acquittal; and I said so because a mere acquittal will
serve that unfortunate young man but little. Unless he can walk out
of this court with such a verdict as, damning as it may be to others,
will altogether cleanse his name from the stain of guilt in this
matter; unless he can, not only save his neck from the halter, but
also entirely clear his character from the gross charges which have
been brought against him,--he would as lief go back to the cell
whence he has come, as return to his father's house acquitted by the
voice of law, but condemned by that of opinion.

"On this account I am debarred from many of the usual resources of
counsel pleading for a prisoner; I am forbidden to make use of legal
points in his favour; I am forbidden to effect an escape by the
numerous weak points in the enemy's plan of attack; I am desired to
meet him face to face in the open field--to fight under no banner but
that of truth, and not to strike my adversary below the belt. You
are aware that this is a line of conduct as rare as it is difficult
in a criminal court-