son and
daughter, charged as her accomplices, during the time embraced by the
mere active part of Elizabeth's narrative. From the vagrant habits of
the race, evidence to the most minute particulars had thus to be
collected over a large range of country; and the precision with which
the statements of a multitude of people--of different ranks and
pursuits, and quite unknown to each other, as well as to the person
they spoke of--are fitted to each other, is very striking and
interesting. The most trifling and unconsequential-looking facts tell
with wonderful precision on the result. Thus a lodging-house keeper
remembered the woman Squires being in her house on a certain day, and
she made it sure by an entry in an account-book, as to which she
remembered that she had consulted the almanac that she might put down
the right day. The day of the woman's presence in another place was
identical with the presence of an Excise surveyor, and the statements
of the witnesses were tested by the Excise entry-books. The position
of the wanderers was in another instance connected with the posting of
a letter, and the post-office clerks bore testimony to the fact, that
from the marks on the letter it must have been posted on that day. It
was, as we have seen, on the 1st of January that Elizabeth Canning
said she was seized. The journey of the gipsy family is traced from
day to day through distant parts of England, from the preceding
December down to the 24th of January, which was the day of their
arrival at Enfield Wash. Thus fortified by counteracting facts of an
unquestionable nature, the counsel for the prosecution felt himself in
a position to turn the whole story into ridicule, and shew the innate
absurdity of what all London had so resolutely believed.

He proceeded in this strain: 'Was it not strange that Canning should
subsist so long on so small a quantity of bread and water--four weeks,
wanting only a few hours? Strange that she should husband her store so
well as to have some of her bread left, according to her first
account, till the Wednesday; according to the last, till the Friday
before she made her escape; and that she should save some of her
miraculous pitcher till the last day? Was the twenty-fourth part of a
sixpenny loaf a day sufficient to satisfy her hunger? If not, why
should she defer the immediate gratification of her appetite in order
to make provision for a precarious, uncertain futurity? Shall we
suppose some r