Chapter Fifteen

• Author: Richard D. Schneider
• Pages: 155-175

 

Cae Fftee

   o’clock the next day, a Saturday, Lord Chief

Justice Tindal, Mr. Justice Williams, and Mr. Justice Coleridge, ac-

companied by the lord mayor, the sheris, and other ocial persons,

entered the Old Court and took their seats upon the bench, which on

the right and left of the learned judges was soon afterwards crowded

with both ladies and gentlemen. ere were several ladies in the boxes

usually reserved for members of the City corporation and jurors-in-

waiting, and the courtroom was completely occupied, e Times re-

ported, “by attentive listeners, amongst whom was a large number of

young barristers,” to whom, very naturally, the case was a subject both

of curiosity and study. “e galleries,” it was noted, “were not as full

of visitors as they had been the previous day,” which, according to e

Times, was a result of “the extreme rudeness, in some degree approach-

ing ruanism” shown by the guards stationed at the court entrances

to the inux of extra reporters and curious spectators on the opening

day of the trial.

e jury was then called, the prisoner was placed at the bar, where

he stood some minutes, and then, as on the previous day, was given a

chair. He maintained the same quiet attitude and listless demeanour

as he had all along, not looking over at his lawyer until Cockburn had

begun his speech for the defence:

“May it please your Lordships and gentlemen of the Jury, I rise to ad-

dress you on behalf of the unfortunate prisoner at the bar, who stands

charged with the awful crime of murder, under a feeling of anxiety

so intense – of responsibility so overwhelming – that I feel almost

borne down by the weight of my solemn and dicult task. Gentle-

men, believe me when I assure you that I say this, not by way of idle

 . 

 

or common-place exordium, but as expressing the deep emotions by

which my mind is agitated.

“I believe that you – I know that the numerous professional breth-

ren by whom I see myself surrounded – will understand me when I

say that of all the positions in which, in the discharge of our various

duties in the dierent relations of life, a man may be placed, none can

be more painful or more paralyzing to the energies of the mind than

that of an advocate to whom is committed the defense of a fellow

being in a matter involving life and death, and who, while deeply con-

vinced that the defense which he has to oer is founded in truth and

justice, yet sees in the circumstances by which the case is surrounded,

that which makes him look forward with apprehension and trembling

to the result.

“Gentlemen, if this were an ordinary case – if you had heard of

it for the rst time since you entered into that box – if the individual

who has fallen a victim had been some obscure and unknown per-

son, instead of one whose character, whose excellence, and whose fate

had commanded the approbation, the love, and the sympathy of all, I

should feel no anxiety as to the issue of this trial. But alas! Can I dare

to hope that even among you, who are to pass in judgment on the

accused, there can be one who has not brought to the judgment-seat

a mind imbued with preconceived notions on the case which is the

subject of this important inquiry?

“In all classes of this great community – in every corner of this

vast metropolis, from end to end, even to the remotest connes of

this extensive empire, has this case been already canvassed, discussed,

determined, with reference only to the worth of the victim, and the

nature of the crime, not with reference to the state or condition of him

by whom that crime has been committed; and hence there has arisen

in men’s minds an insatiate desire of vengeance, nay there has gone

forth a wild and merciless cry for blood, to which you are called upon

this day to minister!

“Yet do I not complain. When I bear in mind how deeply the hor-

ror of assassination is stamped on the hearts of men, above all, on the

characters of Englishmen, and believe me, there breathes no one on

God’s earth by whom that crime is more abhorred than by him who

now addresses you, and who, deeply deploring the loss, and acknow-

ledging the goodness – dwelt upon with such touching eloquence by