Mr. Ashmead then submitted several points,—upon which he argued,—namely: That if the libel was published with an honest motive, then the defendant was guiltless: that the Jury, in Libel cases were judges of the law as well as of the fact, they having the right and the sole right to determine what was and what was not a libel, and this was the law in England and Ireland, also. He contended that according to the Mayor’s testimony the base of the libel was true, and if so, he begged and pleaded that the Jury would not, for the sake of truth, for the sake of an innocent man, for the sake of a newspaper publisher, who did not fabricate what he wrote, for the sake of the liberty of the press, immolate this humble citizen. But, he concluded, if Branch must be immolated, he had only to say in the words of that immortal Irishman Curran:— “If it be determined that because this man would not bow to power and authority, because he would not bow down to the golden calf and worship it, he should be cast in the fiery furnace, I do trust in God that there is a redeeming spirit in the constitution which will go with the sufferer through the flames and preserve him unhurt by the conflagration.” Mr. Ashmead sat down amid a burst of applause, which was immediately checked. His speech which occupied about an hour and a half, was spoken of by several as one of the most brilliant specimens of logical eloquence which has been heard in this Court for years. It was listened to with breathless attention by the largest audience which had assembled inside those walls since the Huntingdon trial. [_From the New York Sun._] STEPHEN H. BRANCH’S SPEECH. My counsel has done well. He has made an effort of which I am proud, and of which your Honor ought to be proud. The Recorder—I am, sir.