fallibility of all conclusions of such a sort, from such a circumstance,
is too obvious to require instances. One instance is before you: this
very castle affords it.

"In June 1757, William Thompson, amidst all the vigilance of this place,
in open daylight, and double-ironed, made his escape; notwithstanding an
immediate inquiry set on foot, notwithstanding all advertisements, all
search, he was never seen or heard of since. If this man escaped unseen
through all these difficulties, how easy for Clarke, whom no difficulties
opposed. Yet what would be thought of a prosecution commenced against any
one seen last with Thompson?

"These bones are discovered! Where? Of all places in the world, can we
think of any one, except indeed the church-yard, where there is so great
a certainty of finding human bones, as a hermitage? In times past, the
hermitage was a place, not only of religious retirement, but of burial.
And it has scarce, or never been heard of, but that every cell now known,
contains, or contained these relics of humanity; some mutilated--some
entire! Give me leave to remind your Lordship, that here sat SOLITARY
SANCTITY, and here the hermit and the anchorite hoped that repose for
their bones when dead, they here enjoyed when living. I glance over a few
of the many evidences that these cells were used as repositories of the
dead, and enumerate a few of the many caves similar in origin to St.
Robert's, in which human bones have been found." Here the prisoner
instanced, with remarkable felicity, several places, in which bones had
been found, under circumstances, and in spots analogous to those in
point. [Note: See his published defence.] And the reader, who will
remember that it is the great principle of the law, that no man can be
condemned for murder unless the body of the deceased be found, will
perceive at once how important this point was to the prisoner's defence.