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TRIAL OF JOHN W. WEBSTER. 253
by the grand jury on two indictments., and they were both put to the jury
of Trials at the same time.
The evidence of these two classes of witnesses from both towns, nine-
teen in number, was laid before the jury. They were positive, clear, and
certain, in their testimony, that he was the person; the proof of identity
was perfect and complete, when the Government's evidence was closed.
The counsel for the defence then proved in reply the prisoner's where-
abouts through the whole week, and particularly covering the two days
of Saturday and Monday. He proved, by most respectable witnesses,
and the most undoubted corroborating circumstances and facts, that on
Saturday he rode out of Nashua on a stage-coach, and that on Monday
he was at Manchester, in New Hampshire. The alibi was so conclusive,
that the Government were compelled to abandon the prosecution; the
learned Judge saying, 'that there never was so strong a case of identity
as that made out for the Government, except the case which had been
proved for the defence. It was shown that there were two persons as
like as the two Dromios, not only in countenance, form, and gait, but even
in the accident of dress.
Now Gentleman, to talk about a. man's being satisfied by a passing
glance that he saw a particular individual, who such a mass of proof as
in this case tends to show was then numbered with the dead,-who has
never appeared since that fatal day,-and to undertake to satisfy a. jury
of this, when all the probabilities are against the conclusion, seems to
me like asking a jury to surrender everything that is proved in the case,
to the testimony of three or four witnesses about a fact in which they are
more likely to be mistaken than about any fact to which they could
testify.
But, beyond and above all this however, your minds may be affected
by this testimony, let me now meet the proposition of the counsel for the
defendant, by saying that, whether these people saw Dr. Parkman or not,
as they have testified, is entirely immaterial to your verdict in this case.
If you are satisfied upon the other branches of this case that Dr. Park-
man's remains were found in the premises of this prisoner, and if the
evidence connects him with those remains,-then what matters it whether
Dr. Parkman was seen after two o'clock on that day, or not?
The Court will tell you that the time when this homicide was coal-
mitted is immaterial. It may have been on one day, or another; it may
have been at one hour, or another. And if these witnesses did see Dr.
Parkman,-improbable as it is,-yet if Dr. Webster, by some means and
instrumental ities to us unknown, did beguile and entice him back to
the College, and there obtain those notes, and did deprive him of life,
then, Gentlemen of the Jury, it is of no importance when it was done.
But where was Dr. W ebster himself that Friday afternoon? Where
did he dine that day? Did the counsel explain that? Did his proofs
explain that? Is the fact which the Government have put in here dis-
turbed one particle,-shaken from its foundation at all,-that Dr. Web-
ster was at that laboratory, dinnerless and alone, with no lecture to
prepare, and at a time when the longest interval occurred between his
lectures,-namely, from Friday until Tuesday? And if he did dine any-
where, whether at home or abroad would he not have shown it? He
was arrested within a week. He had sagacious, acute, and intelligent
friends about him; he lacked no legal counsel, no anxious friendship, to
seize upon such a vital fact as this and prove it before you. And if he
was locked up in that laboratory all that afternoon, whether he enticed
Dr. Parkman back there and slew him at four o'clock instead of two
O'clock, what is the difference? And thus, all this testimony about the
Parkman alibi, as it is called, becomes entirely immaterial to the real
issue before you.
But I now pass to the consideration of the identity of the remains.
How is this proved, Gentlemen of the Jury? It is put to you, by the
defence, as still an open question. How is it proved? We have heard
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