This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1876 edition. Excerpt: ...had been justly represented, must probably have been the greater part of the court, and certainly all that part of it elevated both by situation and authority above the rest, yet that there has been not only no such concurrence of testimony against the defendants, but, on the contrary, the most correct ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1876 edition. Excerpt: ...had been justly represented, must probably have been the greater part of the court, and certainly all that part of it elevated both by situation and authority above the rest, yet that there has been not only no such concurrence of testimony against the defendants, but, on the contrary, the most correct and respectable witnesses have concurred in destroying the remainder of the proof. Sixthly, That the expressions imputed to Lord Thanet cannot possibly affect him, without supposing that he publicly gave evidence against himself, even to one of the judges, who, upon the evidence of his own senses, had authority to have punished him upon the spot. Lastly, That it appears, by the whole body of the proof, that the confusion arose when the officers burst with improper and indecent precipitation into court; that it began and ended almost in the same breath; and that, during the short moment of its continuance, there was such a scene of tumult and confusion as to render it impossible for the most attentive observer to give any clear and distinct accounts of the transaction. If these conclusions, gentlemen, be the unavoidable result of the Crown's evidence when brought to the common standard of man's reason and experience, it appears to me that you are bound to return a verdict for all the defendants, even if I should call no witnesses because, to justify a verdict of guilty, it is not enough to collect from the evidence that defendants may be guilty, or probably are guilty;--no; their innocence must be quite incompatible with the fair result of the whole proof; for, if two different conclusions may be reasonably drawn from the same state of facts, you are bound in justice to adopt the one which is supported by the greater number of probabilities....
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