ary; those already called had said all he
cared to hear; indeed, he had been much surprised to hear testimony on
the side of the prisoner which he should have thought by right his own.
No one attempts to deny the fact of the killing, and that the deed was
done by the hand of the prisoner. The question for us to decide is, was
it murder? was it man-slaughter? or was it _nothing at all_? for to that
point my learned adversary evidently wishes to conduct us."

"The young man it appears, by the testimony of friends and school-mates,
has always been of a peculiarly quick and fiery temper; so much so it
seems, that a playful allusion, or what is commonly called a _teazing_
expression, could not be indulged in at his expense but his companion
was instantly felled to the ground. And was _he_ the one to arm himself
with bowie-knife or revolver? Should one who was perfectly conscious
that he had not the slightest control over his temper, keep about him a
murderous weapon ready to do its deed of death upon any friend who might
unwittingly, in an hour of revelry, touch upon some sore spot?"

"As soon would I approach a keg of gun-powder with a lighted candle in
my hand, as have aught to do with one so fiery and so armed for
destruction. It has been said that it is the custom for young men in
some of our colleges to go thus armed; the more need of signal vengeance
upon the work of death they do. Gentlemen of the jury, if this practice
is not loudly rebuked we shall have work of this kind accumulating
rapidly on our hands."

"'It was done in the heat of frenzied passion, and so the prisoner must
go unpunished.' My learned friend argued not so, when he appeared in
this place against the murder Wiley; poor, ignorant, and half-witted;
who with his eyes starting from his head with starvation, entered a
farmer's house, and in the extremity of his suffering demanded bread.
And on being told by the woman of the house to take himself off to the
nearest tavern and get bread, caught up a carving knife and stabbed her
to the heart, seized a piece of bread, and fled from the house. He had a
fiendish temper too; it was rendered fiercer by starvation; and when
asked why he did the dreadful deed, he said he never could have dragged
himself on three miles to the nearest tavern, and he had no money to buy
bread when he got there. He must die anyway, and it might as well be on
the gallows as by the road-side."

"He, poor fellow, had no friends; he