The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1880-10-30
THE PACIFIC
Commercial A6bert1ser
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 80, 1880.
THE MARCH AssIZE.
BY SAMUEL WARREN, AUTHOR OF "TEN THOU
SAND A YEAR." ETC.

everything, so fer as L was cohceIneo' was
done that man could do. But at the time
to which / refer, counsel was not allowed to
address the court on behalf Of the prisoner
"a practice since introduced from Scotland
and consequently I was allowed no oppor-
tunity to draw the attention Of the jury to
the total want of any direct evidence of the
prisoners guilt. Harvey himself tried to
point out the unlikelihood of his being
guilty but he was no man gifted with dia-
| lectic qualities, and his harangue fell point.
less on the understandings of the twelve
commonplace individuals who sat in the
Jury box. The Judge finally proceeded TO
sum the evidence, and this he did empha-
tically against the prisoner-dwelling with
much force on the suspicious circumstances
of a needy man taking up his abode at an
expensive fashionable hotel his furtive
descent from his apartments by the back
stairs; the undoubted fact of the watch be-
ing found in his trunk the im~probability Of
any one putting it there but himself and
the extreme likelihood that the robbery was
effected in q few moments of time by the
culprit, Just as he passed from the bar of the
hotel to the room which he had occupied.
:" If" said he to the Jury, in concluding his
address, " you can, after all these circum-
stances, believe the prisoner to be innocent
Of the crime laid to his charge, it is more
than I can do. The thing seems to me as
clear as the sun at MONDAY. The evidence,
in short, is irresistible and if the Just n
necessary provisions of the law are not en-
forced in such very plain cases, then society
will be dissolved, and security for property
there will be none. Gentlemen, retire and
make up your verdict"
The jury was not disposed to retire,
After communing a few minutes together.
one of them stood up and delivered the YER
dict. 1t was guilty" The Judge as
sumed the crowning badge of the Judicial
potentate-the black cap; and the clerk of
arraigns asked the prisoner at the bar, in
the usual form, if he had anything to urge
why sentence of death should not be passed
upon him.
Poor Harvey! | burst scarcely look at
him. As the sonorous words fell on his ear,
he was grasping nervously with shaking
hands at the front of the dock. He appeared
stunned, bewildered, as a man but half
awakened from a hideous dream might be
supposed to look. He had comprehended,
though he had scarcely heard, the verdict /;
for, on the instant, the voice which but a
few years before sang to him by the brook
side, was ringing through his brain, and he
COulu icCOSulLC TIC IItuC pdLtCIHlS lCCb VI
his children, as sobbing and clinging to their
shrieking mothers dress, she and they were
hurried out of court. The clerk, after a
painful pause, repeated the solemn formula.
By a strong effort the doomed man mastered
his agitation ; his pale countenance lighted
up with indignant fire, and firm and self.
possessed, he thus replied to the fearful in
terrogatory:
Much could / say in the name, not of
mercy, but of Justice, why the sentence about
to be passed on me should not be pronounced /;
but nothing, alas {! that will avail you with
me, pride-blinded ministers of death. You
fashion to yourselves-Out of your own vain
c~onceits do you fashion-modes and instru-
ments, by the aid of which you fondly
imagine tG invest yourselves with attributes
which belong only to omniscience and now
/ warn you-and it is a voice from the tomb
in whose shadow / already stand, which ad.
dresses you-that you are about to commit
a most cruel and deliberate murder"
He paused, and the jury looked into each
others eyes for the courage they could not
find in their own hearts. The voice of con-
science spoke, but was only for a few mo-
ments audible. The suggestions that what
grave parliaments, learned judges and all
classes of /" responsibility " sanctioned could
not be wrong, much less numerous or cruel,
silenced the %''still, small " tones and tran
quilted the startled jurors.
Prisoner at the bar" said the Judge with
his cold, calm voice Of destiny, " cannot
listen to such observations. You nave been
found guilty of a heinous offense by a jury
of your countrymen after a patient trial.
With that finding / need scarcely say I en-
tirely agree. | am as satisfied of your guilt
as if | had seen you commit the act with
my own bodily eyes. The circumstance of
| your being a person, who, from habits and
education. should have been above commit
ting so base a crime, only aggraVates your
guilt. However, no matter who or what
you have been, you must expiate your of
tense on the scaffold. The law has very
properly. for the safety of society, decreed
the punishment of death for such crimes.
Our only and plain duty is to execute that
law"
The prisoner did not reply. He was
leaning with his elbow on the front OF the
dock, his bowed face covered with his out
spread hands /; and the judge passed sem
tence of death in the accustomed form. The
court then rose, and a turnkey placed his
hand upon the prisoners arm to lead him
away. Suddenly he uncovered his face,
drew himself up to his full height-he was
a remarkably tall man-and glanced fercely
round upon the audience, like a wild animal
at bay. "My lord" ne cried, or rather
shouted, in an excited voice. The Judge
motioned impatiently to the ~jailer, and
strong hands impelled the prisoner from the
front of the dock. Bursting from them he
again sprang forward. and his arms out
stretched, whilst his glittering eye seemed
to hold the judge spell-bound, exclaimed !:
My lord, before another month has passed
away you will appear at the bar of another
world to answer for the life, the innocent
life, which God bestowed upon me, but
which you have ~impiously cast away as a
thing of naught and scorn." He ceased,
and was at once borne of. The court, in
some confusion, hastily departed. 1t was
thought at the time that the judges evident
ly failing health had suggested the prophecy
TO the prisoner. 1t only excited a few days
wonder and was forgotten.
The position of a barrister in such circum-
stances Is always painful. / need hardly