The trial
did not take place till I had been some months in the country, and I am
deviating from chronological order in giving an account of it here; but I
had perhaps better do so in order to exhaust this subject before
proceeding with others.
The prisoner was placed in the dock, and the jury were sworn much as in
Europe; almost all our own modes of procedure were reproduced, even to
the requiring the prisoner to plead guilty or not guilty. He pleaded not
guilty and the case proceeded. The evidence for the prosecution was very
strong, but I must do the court the justice to observe that the trial was
absolutely impartial. Counsel for the prisoner was allowed to urge
everything that could be said in his defence.
The line taken was that the prisoner was simulating consumption in order
to defraud an insurance company, from which he was about to buy an
annuity, and that he hoped thus to obtain it on more advantageous terms.
If this could have been shown to be the case he would have escaped
criminal prosecution, and been sent to a hospital as for moral ailment.
The view however was one which could not be reasonably sustained, in
spite of all the ingenuity and eloquence of one of the most celebrated
advocates of the country. The case was only too clear, for the prisoner
was almost at the point of death, and it was astonishing that he had not
been tried and convicted long previously.
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