“My Lord, I am informed by your lordship that I have had sufficient time to prepare for my trial, having been in custody three weeks. How was I to prepare my defence before I had been indicted--how know what charges, if any, would be preferred against me? I have but now heard them read, and am required, without one moment’s warning, to plead to charges of the most serious nature, affecting my life! I am likewise informed by your lordship that all the witnesses requisite for my defence are present in Court, that in the present enlightened age, a judge, in a British Court of Justice, will tell a prisoner arraigned under such circumstances, that the witnesses for his defence are all present by order of the Court, and that too in the presence of a jury empanelled to try him. Is a Chief Justice of a British Court thus to sit upon a bench and pre-judge a case of life and death? Have I consulted any legal gentleman in this Province upon my case whereby by any possibility your lordship could have been apprised of the witnesses I may require, or of the nature of the defence which in so serious a case I may deem it necessary to make? How long have I known that charges were preferred against me which require either a defence or the surrender of my life without a struggle? And yet I am told by your lordship that I _shall_ abide my trial upon the testimony of witnesses of your lordship’s own choosing, in a defence predetermined by your lordship long before a grand jury had found a true bill against me. Is this your boasted British justice? Am I indeed within the sacred walls of a court, a British Court, the pride and boast of Englishmen? Shame, my l---- “CHIEF JUSTICE (in a great rage)--Silence, you d--d Yankee rebel! Not another word or-- “My Lord, I will not keep silence when my life is at stake.... A jury did I say? They are all strangers to me, but from the proceedings I have witnessed to-day, I have no doubt they are mere tools of the Government, pledged to render a verdict of guilty and perjure their own hearts. “A JURYMAN, from the box--My Lord, are we honest men to be insulted and abused in this manner? “No doubt the gentleman _is_ an honest man.... My Lord, I have done--but I again _demand_ from your lordship the full time allowed by law for my defence.... At present I have only to request to be furnished with a copy of my indictment. “CHIEF JUSTICE--The Court will not allow you a copy.”