Weigh in the scales his criminality and the suffering he has undergone.The latter is ten times heavier already.He has lain in prison under this charge for more than two months.Is he likely ever to forget that?Imagine the anguish of his mind during that time.
He has had his punishment,gentlemen,you may depend.The rolling of the chariot-wheels of Justice over this boy began when it was decided to prosecute him.We are now already at the second stage.If you permit it to go on to the third I would not give--that for him.
He holds up finger and thumb in the form of a circle,drops his hand,and sits dozen.
The jury stir,and consult each other's faces;then they turn towards the counsel for the Crown,who rises,and,fixing his eyes on a spot that seems to give him satisfaction,slides them every now and then towards the jury.
CLEAVER.May it please your lordship--[Rising on his toes]Gentlemen of the Jury,--The facts in this case are not disputed,and the defence,if my friend will allow me to say so,is so thin that Idon't propose to waste the time of the Court by taking you over the evidence.The plea is one of temporary insanity.Well,gentlemen,Idaresay it is clearer to me than it is to you why this rather--what shall we call it?--bizarre defence has been set up.The alternative would have been to plead guilty.Now,gentlemen,if the prisoner had pleaded guilty my friend would have had to rely on a simple appeal to his lordship.Instead of that,he has gone into the byways and hedges and found this--er--peculiar plea,which has enabled him to show you the proverbial woman,to put her in the box--to give,in fact,a romantic glow to this affair.I compliment my friend;Ithink it highly ingenious of him.By these means,he has--to a certain extent--got round the Law.He has brought the whole story of motive and stress out in court,at first hand,in a way that he would not otherwise have been able to do.But when you have once grasped that fact,gentlemen,you have grasped everything.[With good-humoured contempt]For look at this plea of insanity;we can't put it lower than that.You have heard the woman.She has every reason to favour the prisoner,but what did she say?She said that the prisoner was not insane when she left him in the morning.If he were going out of his mind through distress,that was obviously the moment when insanity would have shown itself.You have heard the managing clerk,another witness for the defence.With some difficulty I elicited from him the admission that the prisoner,though jumpy [a word that he seemed to think you would understand,gentlemen,and I'm sure I hope you do],was not mad when the cheque was handed to Davis.I agree with my friend that it's unfortunate that we have not got Davis here,but the prisoner has told you the words with which Davis in turn handed him the cheque;he obviously,therefore,was not mad when he received it,or he would not have remembered those words.The cashier has told you that he was certainly in his senses when he cashed it.We have therefore the plea that a man who is sane at ten minutes past one,and sane at fifteen minutes past,may,for the purposes of avoiding the consequences of a crime,call himself insane between those points of time.Really,gentlemen,this is so peculiar a proposition that I am not disposed to weary you with further argument.You will form your own opinion of its value.My friend has adopted this way of saying a great deal to you--and very eloquently--on the score of youth,temptation,and the like.I might point out,however,that the offence with which the prisoner is charged is one of the most serious known to our law;and there are certain features in this case,such as the suspicion which he allowed to rest on his innocent fellow-clerk,and his relations with this married woman,which will render it difficult for you to attach too much importance to such pleading.
I ask you,in short,gentlemen,for that verdict of guilty which,in the circumstances,I regard you as,unfortunately,bound to record.
Letting his eyes travel from the JUDGE and the jury to FROME,he sits down.
THE JUDGE.[Bending a little towards the jury,and speaking in a business-like voice]Gentlemen,you have heard the evidence,and the comments on it.My only business is to make clear to you the issues you have to try.The facts are admitted,so far as the alteration of this cheque and counterfoil by the prisoner.The defence set up is that he was not in a responsible condition when he committed the crime.Well,you have heard the prisoner's story,and the evidence of the other witnesses--so far as it bears on the point of insanity.
If you think that what you have heard establishes the fact that the prisoner was insane at the time of the forgery,you will find him guilty,but insane.If,on the other hand,you conclude from what you have seen and heard that the prisoner was sane--and nothing short of insanity will count--you will find him guilty.In reviewing the testimony as to his mental condition you must bear in mind very carefully the evidence as to his demeanour and conduct both before and after the act of forgery--the evidence of the prisoner himself,of the woman,of the witness--er--COKESON,and--er--of the cashier.
