the church clock. Thus it appears by testimony, which has not at all been shaken, that the murder of Mr. Roberts must have taken place between twenty minutes and half-an-hour after five; that at ten minutes past five he was in Mr. Tracy's hall, and at half-past five was seen murdered at the end of the grounds, the distance between the two places being, I see by the plan, forty yards less than half-a-mile in a direct line, and rather more than three quarters of a mile by the walks. The body was not found till past ten o'clock, or more than four hours and a half after it was seen by the boy. At this time it was quite cold and stiff. The surgeon has proved that death was occasioned by an incised wound on the head, penetrating the brain, of a kind which might be given by a Dutch hoe, and a Dutch hoe was found on the ground near the body, with blood and gray hair upon it. There can be little doubt that this hoe was the instrument by which the murderer perpetrated his crime. That it was so, struck the prisoner at once, as you have heard; and moreover that he acknowledged the hoe to be his, and said that he had left it leaning against one of the pillars of the little temple over the fish-pond. These are the admitted facts concerning the murder, of which there can be no doubt. "We will now turn to the circumstantial evidence, by which it is attempted to connect the prisoner with the crime. Now my learned friend has repeated to you an old axiom of law that circumstantial evidence is often more convincing than direct evidence; and he has reasoned ably upon that question. Nevertheless, the numerous instances of awful injustice which have been committed in consequence of giving too much weight to circumstantial evidence, has shaken the confidence of many of the wisest and most learned men in the reasoning by which the axiom is supported, and in the justice of the axiom itself. I need not call to your mind a sad instance which occurred not many years ago in France, where an amiable and excellent man, mayor of a great city, after submitting to the knife of the guillotine, was proved to be perfectly innocent; and very many such instances are on record; but I do believe that after the trial which now occupies this court has come to its conclusion, all thinking men will regard circumstantial evidence with much greater doubt than they have hitherto done, and juries will pause ere they take upon themselves the frightful responsibility of sending a fellow-creature to death while the shadow of a doubt remains. I say that the result of this trial will show that too great a dependence on circumstantial evidence may often betray wise and good men into acts which must burden their consciences for all their remaining days. I wish to produce this effect. I wish to put in the very strongest point of view, not only for the present occasion, but for future instruction, the very fallible nature of circumstantial evidence; and therefore in this instance I shall deal