r circumstances, and that therefore some
deductions were to be made from the credibility of the testimonies.

Sinclair had declared several times before his death that he received
his wound from Savage: nor did Savage at his trial deny the fact, but
endeavoured partly to extenuate it, by urging the suddenness of the
whole action, and the impossibility of any ill design or premeditated
malice; and partly to justify it by the necessity of self-defence, and
the hazard of his own life, if he had lost that opportunity of giving
the thrust: he observed, that neither reason nor law obliged a man to
wait for the blow which was threatened, and which, if he should suffer
it, he might never be able to return; that it was allowable to prevent
an assault, and to preserve life by taking away that of the adversary
by whom it was endangered. With regard to the violence with which he
endeavoured to escape, he declared that it was not his design to
fly from justice, or decline a trial, but to avoid the expenses and
severities of a prison; and that he intended to appear at the bar
without compulsion.

This defence, which took up more than an hour, was heard by the
multitude that thronged the court with the most attentive and respectful
silence. Those who thought he ought not to be acquitted owned that
applause could not be refused him; and those who before pitied his
misfortunes now reverenced his abilities. The witnesses which appeared
against him were proved to be persons of characters which did not
entitle them to much credit; a common strumpet, a woman by whom
strumpets were entertained, a man by whom they were supported: and the
character of Savage was by several persons of distinction asserted to
be that of a modest, inoffensive man, not inclined to broils or
to insolence, and who had, to that time, been only known for his
misfortunes and his wit. Had his audience been his judges, he had
undoubtedly been acquitted, but Mr. Page, who was then upon the bench,
treated him with his usual insolence and severity, and when he had
summed up the evidence, endeavoured to exasperate the jury, as Mr.
Savage used to relate it, with this eloquent harangue:--

"Gentlemen of the jury, you are to consider that Mr. Savage is a very
great man, a much greater man than you or I, gentlemen of the jury; that
he wears very fine clothes, much finer clothes than you or I, gentlemen
of the jury; that he has abundance of money in his pockets, much more
mone