 a low kind of cunning: that many of
them were persons of profligate lives, who deserved no credit: that (independent
of the levity of their characters) those of them who went under the denomination
of colonels, (colonel L-fts alone excepted, who had nothing to say, and was only
brought there in order to give credit to that party) made so ridiculous a
figure, and gave so absurd, contradictory and inconsistent an evidence, as no
court or jury could give the least degree of credit to. - On the other hand, it
was observed, that the nephew and Mr. M-r his chief manager, (being absolute
strangers in that country, and unacquainted with the characters of the persons
they had to deal with) were obliged to lay before the court and jury such
evidence as came to their hand, some of whom plainly appeared to have been put
upon them by their adversaries, with a design to hurt. - It was also manifest,
that the witnesses produced for Mr. A--y were such as could have no manner of
connexion with him, nor any dependence whatsoever upon him, to influence their
evidence; for the far greatest part of them had never seen him from his infancy,
till the trial began; and that many of them (though poor and undignified with
the title of colonels) were people of unblemished character, of great
simplicity, and such as no man in his senses would pitch upon to support a bad
cause. - It is plain that the jury, (whose well-known honour, impartiality and
penetration must be revered by all who are acquainted with them) were not under
the least difficulty about their verdict; for they were not inclosed above half
an hour, when they returned with it. - These gentlemen could not help observing
the great inequality of the parties engaged, the great advantages that the uncle
had in every other respect (except the truth and justice of his case) over the
nephew, by means of his vast possessions, and of his power and influence all
round the place of his birth; nor could the contrast between the different
geniuses of the two parties escape their observation. - They could not but see
and conclude, that a person who had confessedly transported and sold his
orphan-nephew into slavery, who, on his return, had carried on so unwarrantable
and cruel a prosecution to take away his life, under colour of law, and who had
also given such glaring proofs of his skill and dexterity in the management of
witnesses for that cruel purpose, was in like manner capable of
