DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70301#0110
94
KIRBY S WONDERFUL MUSEUM.
submit to the public the following authentic statement rela-
tive to that point:—
“ I had,” says this gentleman, “ only two interviews with
him antecedent to his trial; for these I was indebted to the
adjournment of the Court from Kingston to the county goal.
It is very seldom that a criminal can be visited with any good
effect until his fate is determined. It is not to be expected
that he will make any confessions. His mind, if not dissi-
pated and hardened, which is too frequently the case, is so
occupied in preparing means of defence, and so deceived by
the hopes of escaping justice, that he is little disposed to
listen to the admonitions of a spiritual friend. I believe this
to have been the case with Patch. The circumstance which
I have just mentioned afforded me, however, an opportunity
which I did not neglect, of conversing with him after the bill
had been found against him, and before his trial; and it is but
just to say, that, whatever might have been the previous state
of his mind, to me there never appeared in him any thing
bordering on levity. He not only behaved with civility and
propriety, but seemed thankful for my visit, and desirous that
it should be repeated. I place the greater stress upon this,
because, in my public sermons and exhortations, at which he
was always present, I had spoken so plainly and pointedly
that it was impossible for him not to perceive that I was ad-
dressing myself immediately and directly to him; a measure
in the adoption of which I thought myself fully justified,
and which some experience had taught me to prefer to any
other.
“ I observed as little ceremony in my private conversa-
tions with him, as I had done in my public discourses. In
order, however, that I might not defeat my ow n purpose, and
to render my visit as acceptable, as would consist with the
fidelity and responsibility of my character and office, I first
told him, that T did not mean, directly or indirectly, to extort
from him any confession of his. guilt; but that, regarding him
KIRBY S WONDERFUL MUSEUM.
submit to the public the following authentic statement rela-
tive to that point:—
“ I had,” says this gentleman, “ only two interviews with
him antecedent to his trial; for these I was indebted to the
adjournment of the Court from Kingston to the county goal.
It is very seldom that a criminal can be visited with any good
effect until his fate is determined. It is not to be expected
that he will make any confessions. His mind, if not dissi-
pated and hardened, which is too frequently the case, is so
occupied in preparing means of defence, and so deceived by
the hopes of escaping justice, that he is little disposed to
listen to the admonitions of a spiritual friend. I believe this
to have been the case with Patch. The circumstance which
I have just mentioned afforded me, however, an opportunity
which I did not neglect, of conversing with him after the bill
had been found against him, and before his trial; and it is but
just to say, that, whatever might have been the previous state
of his mind, to me there never appeared in him any thing
bordering on levity. He not only behaved with civility and
propriety, but seemed thankful for my visit, and desirous that
it should be repeated. I place the greater stress upon this,
because, in my public sermons and exhortations, at which he
was always present, I had spoken so plainly and pointedly
that it was impossible for him not to perceive that I was ad-
dressing myself immediately and directly to him; a measure
in the adoption of which I thought myself fully justified,
and which some experience had taught me to prefer to any
other.
“ I observed as little ceremony in my private conversa-
tions with him, as I had done in my public discourses. In
order, however, that I might not defeat my ow n purpose, and
to render my visit as acceptable, as would consist with the
fidelity and responsibility of my character and office, I first
told him, that T did not mean, directly or indirectly, to extort
from him any confession of his. guilt; but that, regarding him