I would appeal to the trader—
Appeal to the trader! If he had not come honestly by it Sir, would he ever acknowledge that you had it of him? or that he had ever seen your face before?
Well then—I would prove it by somebody else.
By somebody else, would you! Are you so very cautious—do you never go abroad without having a witness at your heels? do you never pick up anything in the street Sir, without first assuring yourself that you are observed by somebody of good character, who will appear of his own accord in your behalf, should you be arraigned for having stolen property in your possession? What would you have to say for yourself?—your oath would not be received—and if it was, there would only be oath against oath—your oath against that of the trader of whom you purchased, or the individual of whom you received the property—and his oath against yours.—How would you behave with no witnesses to help you out?—or with witnesses who would not appear and could not be made to appear on your side, though your life were at stake?—nay, for that very reason, for if your property only were at stake, they might be made to appear—
Very well!
—Or with witnesses, who having appeared on your side, are not allowed to make oath to what they say—lest they may be believed—to the prejudice of our good king?
Really, cried one of the judges, really, gentlemen, you appear to be going very wide of the mark. What have we to do with your snip-snap and gossip? Are we to have nothing but speech after speech—about nobody knows what—now smacking of outrage—now of treason? Are we to stay here all night Sirs of the bar, while you are whispering together?
With submission to the court, said the Attorney-general—we have a case put here, which would seem to require a word of reply. We are asked what we should do if we were without witnesses—and the court will perceive that the sympathy of the jury is relied on—is relied on, I say!—on the authority of a case—of a case which!—of a case which I never heard of before! The court will please to observe—to observe I say!—that the prisoner at the bar—at the bar—has no witnesses—in which case, I would ask, where is the hardship—where we cannot prove our innocence—our innocence I say!—of a particular charge—we have only to prove our character.
Here the Attorney-general sat down with a smile and a bow, and a magnificent shake of the head.
Only to prove our character, hey?