benefit of assignment of counsel by the court. They have lost the benefit
of the Commonwealth's process to bring in witnesses in their behalf. When
to these circumstances it is added that they are strangers, almost wholly
without friends, and without the means for preparing their defence, it is
evident they must take their trial under great disadvantages.

But without dwelling on these considerations, I proceed, Gentlemen of the
Jury, to ask your attention to those circumstances which cannot but cast
doubts on the story of the prosecutor.

In the first place, it is impossible to believe that a robbery of this
sort could have been committed by three or four men without previous
arrangement and concert, and of course without the knowledge of the fact
that Goodridge would be there, and that he had money. They did not go on
the highway, in such a place, in a cold December's night, for the general
purpose of attacking the first passenger, running the chance of his being
somebody who had money. It is not easy to believe that a gang of robbers
existed, that they acted systematically, communicating intelligence to one
another, and meeting and dispersing as occasion required, and that this
gang had their head-quarters in such a place as Newburyport. No town is
more distinguished for the general correctness of the habits of its
citizens; and it is of such a size that every man in it may be known to
all the rest. The pursuits, occupations, and habits of every person within
it are within the observation of his neighbors. A suspicious stranger
would be instantly observed, and all his movements could be easily traced.
This is not the place to be the general rendezvous of a gang of robbers.
Offenders of this sort hang on the skirts of large towns. From the
commission of their crimes they hasten into the crowd, and hide themselves
in the populousness of great cities. If it be wholly improbable that a
gang existed in such a place for the purpose of general plunder, the next