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207
Now, Gentlemen of the Jury, these remains were not found, any
of them on Monday or Tuesday. On Tuesday, remember, the testi-
mony of Mr. Kingsley was, that he saw a fire burning in this furnace
-a bright fire burning there. But there is no pretence, I think, that
then the head, or the arms, or the limbs, of any human being, were
in that furnace. There is no such pretence as that. If there was a
bright fire burning, it was seen; and if human flesh or bones were
burning, they would have been noticed.
On Wednesday, it was said that there was a great fire burning in
the furnace. But Littlefield saw none. Yet he did see Websrer
carrying the materials. For what purpose we do not know. But
this we do know,-watched or not watched, Dr. Webster left early
on that day, and did not return till Friday morning. In the mean
time, the room was open to whomsoever might go there. And if
there was a person disposing of some of these remains by putting
them under the privy, finding the fire left by Prof. Webster in the
morning, might he not have conceived the idea of burning a portion
of the remains there, and so thf, whole be accomplished?
Now I have said that these were mysterious circumstances. Prob-
ably Dr. Parkman wandered round the city, and finally went, in the
evening, to the College. But there is a mystery beyond.
There is one mystery concerning what is found. The remains
found are those alone of the naked dead body of a.human being.
Where are the remnants or the traces of the garments ? In this
furnace, mark, so accurate and so exact was the examination of the
chemists, that they were enabled to detect a quantity of tea-chest lead.
It is in the report which has been read to you. So exact and
minute was one examination as that. Where is anything, or the
remains of anything, but the naked dead body of a human being?
And yet, Gentlemen, it is certain that Dr. Parkman wore garments
from head to foot, and had a coat, and under-clothes, and boots.
And there undoubtedly was, as there is about all of us, something
of an incombustible character-the buckles of our suspenders, some-
times the buttons on our coats, and the nails in our shoes. Some-
where orother,whyhavenotremnants,orspecimens of the remains of
these, been found?
Now, I put it to you, if when in that College you find nothing but
the remnants of a naked bumaq being,-if you know that Dr. Park-
man had garments upon his person, if you find that there is a proba-
bility that he may have been, in aberration of mind, wandering in dif-
ferent places-I submit to you if it is an extravagant, visionary theory,
that he w;is stripped elsewhere, that his garments never were in that
College; that he was taken in there a naked body, and treated as he
was treated till danger was thought to come, and then his body was
disposed of. You are the judges; but upon these facts, these proba-
bilities, these circumstances, you must pass. They cannot. be dis-
guised; then cannot be discarded. And if they make doubts for the
Government's case, if they leave you, with all their accumulation
of proofs, in a state that you cannot say, with positive assurance, I am
convinced, beyond reasonable doubt that every other reasonable
theory is, to a moral certaintv, excluded,-then our innocence may
not be manifest, but our salvation from conviction is, under the laws
of the land, made certain to us.
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