Mr. Merrick resuming, said: "Where is the law? Why did you tell the jury what you did? The language is, 'And a true verdict give according to the evidence.' My learned brother has had that oath ringing in his ears for six years. Why didn't he tell you what it was? You are, gentlemen, to find a verdict according to the evidence. What sort of verdict are you to find? Guilty, or not guilty. That is all you can say. You cannot say 'Guilty,' under the Court's instruction, or 'Not guilty,' under the Court's instruction. If you say 'Guilty,' you say 'Guilty as indicted,' upon your conscience resting the weight of the guilt. If your verdict should be 'Guilty,' it will be followed by blood, for you see there is no mercy anywhere in those that represent the government. If your verdict is guilty, then, indeed, you look upon a dying man. Upon your consciences will rest the responsibility of that verdict. "And let me say to you, gentlemen of the jury, that on that awful day when you shall stand before the last tribunal to be judged, and the All-Seeing Eye shall look into your hearts and ask you why you found this verdict of guilty, think you He will harken if you say, 'The judge's instructions made me do it.' He will say to you, 'Were you not free agents, with minds and intellects, sworn as a jury in a free country? Were you not told by the counsel for the prisoner at the bar that it was your duty to find this verdict according to your judgments, your consciences, and didn't you disregard him?' "If Judge Fisher's instructions made you find it, bring Judge Fisher. Where is the Judge? Think you he will step forward and say, 'I will take the burden.' No, gentlemen. Let me say to you now, that by the laws of the land, and by the laws of God, the responsibility is on the judge to instruct you rightly, to guide you correctly, to give you wise and judicious counsel, not as mandatory and binding on your conscience, but as advisory to your judgment, to enlighten the pathway you are to tread in your investigations. We shall ask no instructions, and desire none. The law of murder is too plain to need any, and you, gentlemen, are too intelligent not to understand it. Indeed, if we desire some explanation, _we would prefer to give it to you in the way of argument, rather than trust it to the distinguished judge who presides_. We would trust it to argument, because, with regard to these plain questions, all men can comprehend what the law is. _We would prefer trusting it to the weight of our own character with the jury as men and lawyers._" After this ingenious appeal to the jury, the learned advocate then proceeded to recount and expound the propositions of law on which the District Attorney had invoked the instructions of the Court.