Through the Fray: A Tale of the Luddite RiotsHenty, G. A. (George Alfred)
General
Through the Fray: A Tale of the Luddite Riots
Henty, G. A. (George Alfred)
Luddites -- Juvenile fiction
Dr. Green and Mr. Porson testified very strongly in favor of Ned's
character. This was all the evidence produced. Mr. Grant then addressed
the jury, urging that beyond the fact of this unfortunate quarrel, in
which the deceased appeared to have been entirely to blame and to have
behaved with extreme brutality, there was nothing whatever to associate
the prisoner with the crime. The young gentleman before them, as they
had heard from the testimony of gentlemen of the highest respectability,
bore an excellent character. That he had faults in temper he admitted,
such faults being the result of the lad having been brought up among
Indian servants; but Dr. Green and Mr. Porson had both told them that
he had made the greatest efforts to master his temper, and that they
believed that no ordinary provocation could arouse him. But after all
what did what they had heard amount to? simply this, the lad's mother
had been married a second time to a man who bore the outward reputation
of being a pleasant, jovial man, a leading character among his townsmen,
a popular fellow in the circle in which he moved.
It had been proved, however, by the evidence of those who knew him best,
of his workpeople, his servants, of this poor lad whom the prosecution
had placed in the box as a witness against his brother, that this man's
life was a long lie; that, smiling and pleasant as he appeared, he was
a tyrant, a petty despot in his family, a hard master to his hands, a
cruel master in his house, What wonder that between this lad and such
a stepfather as this there was no love lost. There were scores, ay and
thousands of boys in England who similarly hated their stepfathers, and
was it to be said that, if any of the men came to a sudden and violent
death, these boys were to be suspected of their murder. But in the
present case, although he was not in a position to lay his finger upon
the man who perpetrated this crime, they need not go far to look for
him. Had they not heard that he was hated by his workpeople? Evidence
had been laid before them to show that he was a marked man, that he had
received threatening letters from secret associations which had, as was
notorious, kept the south of Yorkshire, and indeed all that part of
the country which was the seat of manufacture, in a state of alarm. So
imminent was the danger considered that the magistrates had requested
the aid of an armed force, and at the tame this murder was committed
there were soldiers actually stationed in the mill, besides a strong
force in the town for the protection of this man from his enemies.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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