The twelve peers deliberately walked over the ground, and having carefully examined that portion of it through which the canal was to be constructed, seated themselves on two benches, which had been prepared for their accommodation, under the shade of a spreading beech. Simon Rump's counsel was then informed that the jury were ready to hear his argument. "Pate is going to make a great speech," said Tom Seddon, as Pate drew from his pocket a number of papers and laid them on a stump which he used as a table. "With that black coat and white cravat he looks very much like the picture of old John Bunyan in the Pilgrim's Progress." "John Banyan was an eloquent man," said the Professor. "And from the very profound and extremely solemn look of the advocate now preparing to address the jury, I expect to listen to eloquence of the highest order. Be ready with your handkerchief, Mr. Seddon, for or some burst of pathos may find you wholly unprepared for the flood of tears which you will be compelled to shed over the wrongs of Simon Rump." "Hush!" said Tom Seddon, "Pate is wiping the top of his big bald head with his handkerchief. He is about to begin." "Mr. Seddon," said the Professor, "must I continually admonish you to speak reverently of bald heads? Remember the she-bears!" "Hush!" said Tom,--"listen!" M. T. Pate spoke as follows: "Gentlemen of the jury,--No more important case than this ever came before a jury either of ancient or modern times. An outrage unparalleled in the whole history of Christian jurisprudence is about to be perpetrated upon my law-abiding, inoffensive, and patriotic client, Simon Rump. And by whom? By a powerful, an overgrown, a gigantic corporation! And, gentlemen, what is a corporation? It is defined by the great Judge Marshall to be 'an artificial being, invisible, intangible, and existing only in contemplation of law.' In addition to this, I assert, that these corporations have neither souls to be saved nor bodies to be damned. Gentlemen, we read of no such thing in the Bible as a corporation. I have carefully searched the five books of Moses, from Genesis to Deuteronomy, and I cannot find that God's chosen patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, or Noah, ever chartered a single corporation. Neither do we find that such monopolies were ever tolerated by David or Solomon, or any of the kings or judges of Israel. And I challenge my learned brother on the other side to produce from the whole of the New Testament one single text in favor of corporations. Have I not, then, a right to assert that these soulless corporations are not sanctioned by the Christian religion, but are of heathen invention?