"My lord and gentlemen of the jury,--The learned sergeant who has conducted the prosecution assured you that to do so was the most painful task of his life. I doubt it not in the least; for it must be a terrible task indeed to become the public accuser of such a man as the prisoner, with even a doubt upon the mind of his guilt: and how many doubts must have existed in this case? If such were the feelings of my learned friend, judge, gentlemen of the jury, what must be mine, when, in rising to defend the prisoner at the bar, I know that upon my feeble efforts depends not only the life of an innocent man, not only the life of one who is an ornament to the society in which he moves, but the life and honour of my dearest friend! With what anxieties must I be oppressed; how terrible must be the responsibility when the slightest failure of my powers, the least oversight on my part, any weakness, any indiscretion, may condemn to death one whom I love as a brother--one whom I know to be innocent, as I have trust in God! I am no paid advocate, retained to defend a bad cause; I am not a counsel doing merely his professional duties: but I am a friend standing forth in defence of a friend; an honest man raising his voice to save an innocent one. Terrible are the difficulties which all these cases present: more than ordinary are the difficulties in the present case; and all these are aggravated in an enormous degree by the very feelings of friendship which exist between myself and the prisoner, by the doubts and fears of myself, which make me tremble at my own incompetence, by the zeal which perplexes, by the eagerness which confounds. The burden would be too great, gentlemen of the jury; it would overwhelm me; but happily there are circumstances which lighten the load. I see upon the bench one of the most learned and clear-sighted of those judges who are an honour to the nation to which they belong: I see in that box a body of Englishmen well calculated by judgment and experience to distinguish between truth and falsehood; between the factitious glozing of an artificial oratory, and the simple eloquence of right and conviction: and I hold under my hand the means of establishing, beyond all doubt, the innocence of my friend, if friendship do not deprive me of reason, if enthusiasm do not paralyse my tongue.