prisoner's reach
before he had left the house;--would he have allowed this to be the
case, had it been his intention to take advantage of the opportunity?
It is absurd to argue on such a point. It is unnecessary almost
to call your attention to things which must so manifestly present
themselves to you. The whole of this case has received additional
weight and importance from official authority. It has been considered
worthy of especial government interference. My learned friend has
come express from the metropolis for the purpose of conducting it;--a
rumour has been spread abroad that most conclusive evidence would be
produced to prove that a prisoner from the better orders of society
had joined, and headed one of those illegal bodies of men whose
existence is supposed to be the cause of the troubles of this
distracted country; and that he had, in unison with these schemes,
committed a foul and deliberate murder; and my learned friend has
not hesitated to tell you that it is essentially necessary to use
the utmost extent of legal severity, that an end may be put to the
agrarian outrages which are now becoming so frightfully prevalent
in the country. Has anything been proved to warrant this official
zeal--this government interference? No, nothing; not one iota;
but still these paraphernalia of office, this more than ordinary
anxiety to obtain a verdict, may have an effect upon your minds most
prejudicial to my client. I have no doubt as to your actual verdict.
I have no doubt that you will--nay, I know that you must--acquit that
young man of murder. But I beseech you to remember that, though in
the indictment he has been charged with murder only, he has been by
the servant of government, by my learned friend on the other side,
accused of other grievous crimes; and I implore you by your verdict,
to purge his character of the stain which has been so unjustly
attached to it, if you find, on examination of the evidence, no cause
to suppose that he had been a participator in the councils of such
societies. I beseech you to do him that justice, which can now only
be done by the strong expression of your unanimous assurance of
absolute innocence. I beseech you to reject from your minds those
pre-conceived opinions so injurious to the prisoner, with which the
present unfortunate state of your country may so naturally have
influenced you, and to remember that it is your duty, as jurors, to
confine yourself to the individual case