He said so much because he
would not wish that this case should be quoted hereafter as showing
the possible danger of circumstantial evidence. It had been a case in
which the evidence given as to character alone had been sufficient
to make him feel that the circumstances which seemed to affect the
prisoner injuriously could not be taken as establishing his guilt.
But now other and imposing circumstances had been brought to light,
and he was sure that the jury would have no difficulty with their
verdict. A most frightful murder had no doubt been committed in the
dead of the night. A gentleman coming home from his club had been
killed,--probably by the hand of one who had himself moved in the
company of gentlemen. A plot had been made,--had probably been
thought of for days and weeks before,--and had been executed with
extreme audacity, in order that an enemy might be removed. There
could, he thought, be but little doubt that Mr. Bonteen had been
killed by the instrument found in the garden, and if so, he certainly
had not been killed by the prisoner, who could not be supposed to
have carried two bludgeons in his pocket, and whose quarrel with
the murdered man had been so recent as to have admitted of no
preparation.
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