tary, Mr. H. Matthews
(now Viscount Llandaff), who at once procured a free pardon on the
former conviction, and the prisoner was restored to liberty.

This case strikingly points to the imperative demand of justice that
every case shall be investigated in its minutest detail. The broad
features are not by any means sufficient to fix guilt on any one
accused, and it is in such cases that circumstantial evidence is often
brought in question, while, indeed, the _real_ circumstances are too
often not brought to light. Circumstantial evidence can seldom fail if
the real circumstances are brought out. Nobody had thought of raising
a doubt as to there being _five_ persons in the field.

Upon such small points the great issue of a case often depends.

Another curious case came before me on the Western Circuit. A
solicitor was charged with forging the will of a lady, which devised
to him a considerable amount of her property; but as the case
proceeded it became clear to me that the will was signed after
the lady's death, and then with a dry pen held in the hand of the
deceased, by the accused himself whilst he guided it over a signature
which he had craftily forged. A woman was present when this was done,
and as she had attested the execution of the will, she was a necessary
witness for the prisoner, and in examination-in-chief she was very
clear indeed that it was by the _hand of the deceased_ that the will
was signed, and that she herself had seen the deceased sign it.
Suspicion only existed as to what the real facts were until this woman
went into the box, and then a scene, highly dramatic, occurred in the
course of her cross-examination by Mr. Charles Mathews, who held the
brief for the prosecution.

The woman positively swore that she saw the testatrix sign the will
_with her own hand_, and no amount of the rough-and-ready, inartistic,
and disingenuous "Will you swear this?" and "Are you prepared to swear
that?" would have been of any avail. She _had_ sworn it, and was
prepared to swear it, in her own way, any number of times that any
counsel might desire.

The only mode of dealing with her was adopted. She was asked,--

"Where was the will signed?"

"On the bed."

"Was any one near?"

"Yes, the prisoner."

"How near?"

"Quite close."

"So that he could hand the ink if necessary?"

"Oh yes."

"And the pen?"

"Oh yes."

"_Did he hand the pen_?"

"He did."

"_And the ink_?"

"Yes."

"There was n