The Attorney-General argued very earnestly against this startling objection, denying that it had any validity--asserting that the statute had been substantially complied with; and that the objection, if valid, had been waived; and that it was made too late--viz., not till after the prisoner had pleaded to the indictment, and the jury been charged with the prisoner. The Attorney-General's astute argument, however, was interrupted by the Lord Chief-Justice, stating that the court had a sufficient degree of doubt on the point to reserve it for further consideration by the judges at Westminster, should it become necessary: for, if their objection were valid, it affected every one of the fourteen prisoners awaiting their trial! Then came another desperate attempt of Sir Frederick Pollock, to secure his client the benefit of _an acquittal_, in the event of the judges ultimately deciding that the objection ought to have been decided in the prisoner's favour at the trial. This, however, the Attorney-General again strongly opposed; and the court cautiously ruled, that, in the event contemplated, the prisoner would be entitled then to the same benefit to which he would have been entitled at the trial--without saying what that would have been. The witness thus provisionally objected to was then admitted; but only to be, at first, sworn on the _voir dire_, on which a lengthened examination and some argument ensued--each of the judges delivering judgment on the excessively refined and astute objection to the manner in which the witness's place of abode had been described in the list--which was such as that it was just imaginable, and nothing more, that an inquirer might have been misled! The objection was overruled in the case of the first witness; but on the ensuing two witnesses--and most important witnesses--being called, a similar objection was taken, but too successfully, and their evidence, consequently, altogether excluded!--excluded solely on account of the anxious "_over_-particularity" of the Crown! Nor were these the only witnesses whose testimony was, on such grounds, rendered unavailable to the Crown.