incur great expense in preparation for their
defence. Before the day of trial, however, some of Canning's champions
began to feel a misgiving, and no prosecutor appeared. The counsel for
the accused complained bitterly of the hardship of their position.
They had incurred great expense. They felt that it was necessary for
the complete removal of the stain of perjury thrown on their
character, that there should be a trial. They said they had witnesses
'ready to give their testimony with such clear, ample, convincing
circumstances, as would demand universal assent, and fully prove the
innocence of the three defendants, and the falsity of Elizabeth
Canning's story in every particular;' whereas, without a trial, all
would be virtually lost to the accused, who, instead of obtaining a
triumphant acquittal, might be suspected of having agreed to some
dubious compromise.

Mrs Squires was at length convicted, and had judgment of death. But
Sir Crisp Gascoyne, the lord mayor of London, who was nominally at the
head of the commission for trying Squires, believed that she was the
victim of falsehood and public prejudice. He resolved to subject the
whole question to a searching investigation, and to obviate, if
possible, the scandal to British institutions, of perpetrating a
judicial murder, even though the victim should be among the most
obscure of the inhabitants of the realm. In the first place, an
inquiry was instituted by the law-officers of the crown, the result of
which was, that the woman Squires received a royal pardon. The lord
mayor, however, having satisfied himself that this poor woman had but
narrowly escaped death from the perfidious falsehood of Elizabeth
Canning, aided by an outbreak of popular zeal, was not content with
the gipsy woman's escape, but thought that an example should be made
of her persecutor. Accordingly, although he was met with much obloquy,
both verbal and written--for controversial pamphlets were published
against him as an enemy of Elizabeth Canning--he resolved to bring
this popular idol to justice.

On the 29th of April 1754, she was brought to trial for wilful and
corrupt perjury. Her trial lasted to the 13th of May. It is one of the
longest in the collection called the _State Trials_, and is a more
full and elaborate inquiry than the trial of Charles I. The case made
out was complete and crushing, and the perfect clearness with which
the whole truth connected with the movements from day to d