DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70301#0064
48
kirby’s wonderful museum.
the proceeding, and to make such observations as are calcu»
lated to give the greatest effect to the evidence adduced by
him. This privilege is denied by the law to the accused;
the law does not permit any counsel to speak to you in my
behalf; and. I am myself a plain unlettered man, unused to
courts of justice, and unused to speak in public : thus situ-
ated, I am in no condition to give any answer to the case that
has been made out to day, or to explain all the circumstances
which have been argued upon by the learned counsel for the
prosecution. My defence was necessarily prepared before
rny trial began, and is applied only to what I recollect of the
case, as it appeared before the magistrate, it being impossible
for me to know of any other facts that were to be proved, or
to anticipate any of the arguments to be raised on them. I
must entreat you to bear that circumstance in your minds, as
you may otherwise think there are points which I ought to
explain, to which 1 have not adverted. It is with this view I
make these observations. I am far from meaning to insist,
that the law w'hich denies to the prisoner the assistance of
counsel, if rightly understood, is liable to the objection of se-
verity and injustice; on the contrary, it is founded on the
same justice and humanity w’hich distinguishes the whole code
of English jurisprudence: the principle upon which the
practice stands is this, that all felonies were originally punish-
able with death, and no man was to be subjected to that
dreadful sentence, until the crime was established against him
by such satisfactory proof, that the ingenuity and eloquence
of counsel could raise no doubt in his favour.
Gentlemen, the case against me is merely circumstan-
tial ; it is not pretended that there is any thing w hich affords
direct evidence of my guilt. No one but the deceased saw
the man who fired the pistol, and the testimony he has left,
clearly acquits me of being that person. There is no one
circumstance, nor any chain of circumstances proved, which
necessarily shews me to be the person who fired the pistol j
kirby’s wonderful museum.
the proceeding, and to make such observations as are calcu»
lated to give the greatest effect to the evidence adduced by
him. This privilege is denied by the law to the accused;
the law does not permit any counsel to speak to you in my
behalf; and. I am myself a plain unlettered man, unused to
courts of justice, and unused to speak in public : thus situ-
ated, I am in no condition to give any answer to the case that
has been made out to day, or to explain all the circumstances
which have been argued upon by the learned counsel for the
prosecution. My defence was necessarily prepared before
rny trial began, and is applied only to what I recollect of the
case, as it appeared before the magistrate, it being impossible
for me to know of any other facts that were to be proved, or
to anticipate any of the arguments to be raised on them. I
must entreat you to bear that circumstance in your minds, as
you may otherwise think there are points which I ought to
explain, to which 1 have not adverted. It is with this view I
make these observations. I am far from meaning to insist,
that the law w'hich denies to the prisoner the assistance of
counsel, if rightly understood, is liable to the objection of se-
verity and injustice; on the contrary, it is founded on the
same justice and humanity w’hich distinguishes the whole code
of English jurisprudence: the principle upon which the
practice stands is this, that all felonies were originally punish-
able with death, and no man was to be subjected to that
dreadful sentence, until the crime was established against him
by such satisfactory proof, that the ingenuity and eloquence
of counsel could raise no doubt in his favour.
Gentlemen, the case against me is merely circumstan-
tial ; it is not pretended that there is any thing w hich affords
direct evidence of my guilt. No one but the deceased saw
the man who fired the pistol, and the testimony he has left,
clearly acquits me of being that person. There is no one
circumstance, nor any chain of circumstances proved, which
necessarily shews me to be the person who fired the pistol j