_J. N_. (_puffing and blowing with offended dignity_). Woman, woman,
have you anything more to say?

_M. P_. Not a word. Do what you will with me. I don't care.

_J. N_. (_impressively_). Gentlemen of Jury, simple as this case seems,
it is a most important one under the present condition of discontent
which afflicts this country, and of which we have had such grievous
manifestations in this Court to-day. This is not a common theft,
gentlemen--if indeed a theft has been committed--it is a revolutionary
theft, based on the claim on the part of those who happen unfortunately
to be starving, to help themselves at the expense of their more
fortunate, and probably--I may say certainly--more meritorious
countrymen. I do not indeed go so far as to say that this woman is in
collusion with those ferocious ruffians who have made these sacred
precincts of justice ring with their ribald and threatening scoff's. But
the persistence of these riotous interruptions, and the ease with which
their perpetrators have evaded arrest, have produced a strange impression
in my mind. (_Very impressively_.) However, gentlemen, that impression
I do not ask you to share; on the contrary, I warn you against it, just
as I warn you against being moved by the false sentiment uttered by this
woman, tinged as it was by the most revolutionary--nay, the most
bloodthirsty feeling. Dismiss all these non-essentials from your minds,
gentlemen, and consider the evidence only; and show this mistaken woman
the true majesty of English Law by acquitting her--if you are not
satisfied with the abundant, clear, and obviously unbiassed evidence, put
before you with that terseness and simplicity of diction which
distinguishes our noble civil force. The case is so free from intricacy,
gentlemen, that I need not call your attention to any of the details of
that evidence. You must either accept it as a whole and bring in a