and subsequent to it; I am here to expose the long train of artful
villainies which have been practised against me hitherto with so much
success.

"I am persuaded, sir, that the House will easily perceive, and every
honourable man, I am sure, participate in my feelings, that the
fine, the imprisonment, the pillory--even that pillory to which I am
condemned--are nothing, that they weigh not as a feather, when put
in the balance against my desire to show that I have been unjustly
condemned. Therefore, sir, I trust that the House will give a fair and
impartial hearing to what I have to say respecting the conduct of
my enemies, to expose which conduct is a duty which I owe to my
constituents, and to my country, not less than to myself.

"In the first place, sir, I here, in the presence of this House, and
with the eyes of the country fixed upon me, most solemnly declare that
I am wholly innocent of the crime which has been laid to my
charge, and for which I have been condemned to the most infamous of
punishments. Having repeated this assertion of my innocence, I next
proceed to complain of the means that have been made use of to effect
my destruction. And first, sir, was it ever before known in this or in
any other country, that the prosecutor should form a sort of court of
his own erection, call witnesses before it of his own choosing, and,
under offers of great rewards, take minutes of the evidence of such
witnesses, and publish those minutes to the world under the forms and
appearances of a judicial proceeding? Was it ever before known, that
steps like these were taken previous to an indictment,--previous to
the bringing of an intended victim into a court of justice? Was there
ever before known so regular, so systematic a scheme for exciting
suspicion against a man, and for implanting an immovable prejudice