2. In 1816, in Massachusetts, there occurred the celebrated case of Commonwealth _vs._ Bowen, to which I shall again refer in a subsequent part of this defence. These are the facts. In September, 1815, Jonathan Jewett was convicted of murder in Hampshire county, Massachusetts, and sentenced to be hanged on the 9th of the following November. He was confined at Northampton, and hung himself in his cell on the night preceding the morning appointed for his public execution. George Bowen was confined in the same jail, in an apartment adjacent to Jewett's, and in such a situation that they could freely converse together. Bowen repeatedly and frequently advised and urged Jewett to destroy himself and thus disappoint the sheriff and the expectant people. He did so, and the coroner's jury returned that he committed suicide. But nevertheless, Bowen was indicted for the wilful murder of Jewett. It was charged that he "feloniously, wilfully, and of his malice aforethought, did counsel, hire, persuade, and procure the said Jewett the said felony and murder of himself to do and commit;" or that he himself murdered the said Jewett by hanging him. At the trial Attorney-General Perez Morton contended that Bowen "was guilty of _murder as principal_;" and he cited and relied chiefly on the following authority from the Reports of our old friend Kelyng. "Memorandum, that my brother _Twisden_ showed me a report which he had of a charge given by Justice _Jones_ to the grand-jury, at the King's Bench barre, _Michaelmas Term_, 9 _Car._ 1, in which he said, that poisoning another was murder at common law. And the statute of 1 _Ed._ 6, was but declaratory of the common law, and an affirmation of it. If one drinks poison by the provocation of another, and dieth of it, this is murder in the person that persuaded it. And he took this difference. If A. give poison to J.S. to give to J.D., and J.S. knowing it to be poison, give it to J.D. who taketh it in the absence of J.S., and dieth of it; in this case J.S., who gave it to J.D., is principal; and A. who gave the poison to J.S., and was absent when it was taken, is but accessory before the fact. But if A. buyeth poison for J.S., and J.S., in the absence of A., taketh it and dieth of it, in this case A., though he be absent, yet he is principal. So it is if A. giveth poison to B. to give unto C.; and B., not knowing it to be poison, but believing it to be a good medicine, giveth it to C., who dieth of it; in this case A., who is absent, is principal, or else a man should be murdered, and there should be no principal. For B., who knoweth nothing of the poison, is in no fault, though he gave it to C. So if A. puts a sword into the hands of a madman, and bids him kill B. with it, and then A. goeth away, and the madman kills B. with the sword, as A.