ambiguous in the conduct of their associates. The dreary list of slain
friendships that makes retrospect painful to those of mature years;
the disappointments that to the young have the bitterness of death;
the tale of trusts betrayed and promises broken--how would the story
be shortened and brightened if conscientious and impartial trial of
the accused preceded sentence and punishment!--if, in short, we would
only "bide a wee" before assuming that our friend is false, or our
love unworthily given.

In a court of justice previous character counts for much. The number
and respectability of the witnesses to a prisoner's excellent
reputation and good behavior have almost as much weight with the jury
as direct testimony in support of the claim that he did not commit the
crime. To prove that he could not, without change of disposition and
habit, violate the laws of his country, is the next best thing to an
established alibi. I should be almost ashamed to set down a thing
which everybody knows so well were it not that each one of us, when
his best friend's fidelity to him is questioned, flies shamelessly in
the face of reason and precedent by ignoring the record of years. He
may have given ten thousand proofs of attachment to him whom he is now
accused of wronging; have showed himself in a thousand ways to be
absolutely incapable of deception or dishonorable behavior of any
sort. A single equivocal circumstance, a word half-heard, a gesture
misunderstood; the report to his prejudice of a tale-bearer who is his
inferior in every respect,--any one of these outbalances the plea of
memory, the appeal of reason, the consciousness of the right of the
arraigned to be heard. Were not the story one of to-day and of every
day, the moral turpitude it displays would arouse the hearer to
generous indignation.