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11
opened, when the furnace is inspected, (both of which turned out
to be guilty repositories,) the Professor made no objection ; when
the private room, where nothing of importance was found, was ap-
proached and broken into, he requested the officers to be careful or
they would break the bottles 'and do great mischief ; he objected,
also, to the breaking of the drawers, because nothing,would there be
found except demijohns. The man of guilt in such an emergency
would have thought little of his property, and have been indeed
rejoiced'that attention was diverted to insignificant things.
It may be said these are trivial things : but straws show how the
wind blows ; and matters like these, even if they be trivial, are
none more so than the tees which, in all probability, will cost Dr.
Webster his life.
It is urged that Dr. Webster refused a preliminary investigation.
Dr. Webster had had time to rally his thoyghts ; his was an educated
mind; he well knew what preliminary examinations were in times
of excitement, when the very air was tainted with prejudice ; he
saw what an array of circumstances were linked against him ;his
life was not only threatened, but his character ; if there had been
machination in the case, it was the work of ingenuity; and .time and
deliberation were requisite for its overthrow. Approach any man
who has been charged with crime and gone through the ordeal of a
preliminary examination, without having immediate and irrefragable
proofs of innocence, and ask him if he would advise preliminary
examinations : What are preliminary examinations under ordinary
circumstances ? Trials where there are a thousand judges and hun-
dreds of thousands of jurymen whose voices become terribly power-
ful when the one judge and the lavelre jurymen are summoned for his
hearing.
In cases of murder-charge there are usually four trials : Ist. Be-
fore the committing, magistrate. 2ğd. Before the coroner. 3rd.
Before the grand jury. 4th. On the final arraignment. Philan-
thropic laymen may talk as loudly as they please of the might of
innocence and the power of truth at investigation, but your Old
Bailey practitioner and your Tombs lawyer, will tell you that " in-
vestigations on the spot," (as they are called) are like players at
blind-man's-buff, who use handkerchiefs of gauze and catch without.
the trouble of groping or bunting. .
What does the law imply when it says, that circumstantial evi-
dence should be such as to produce nearly the same degree of cer-
tainty as that which arises from direct testimony, and to exclude a
rational probability of innocence ? Why, that each and all of the
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