 his country. That, if statues were decreed in
Britain, as in ancient Greece and Rome, to public benefactors, this shining
citizen would assuredly have had one. That, as they were not so decreed, he
probably would not have one. That, Virtue, as had been observed by the poets (in
many passages which he well knew the jury would have, word for word, at the tips
of their tongues; whereat the jury's countenances displayed a guilty
consciousness that they knew nothing about the passages), was in a manner
contagious; more especially the bright virtue known as patriotism, or love of
country. That, the lofty example of this immaculate and unimpeachable witness
for the Crown, to refer to whom however unworthily was an honour, had
communicated itself to the prisoner's servant, and had engendered in him a holy
determination to examine his master's table-drawers and pockets, and secrete his
papers. That, he (Mr. Attorney-General) was prepared to hear some disparagement
attempted of this admirable servant; but that, in a general way, he preferred
him to his (Mr. Attorney-General's) brothers and sisters, and honoured him more
than his (Mr. Attorney-General's) father and mother. That, he called with
confidence on the jury to come and do likewise. That, the evidence of these two
witnesses, coupled with the documents of their discovering that would be
produced, would show the prisoner to have been furnished with lists of his
Majesty's forces, and of their disposition and preparation, both by sea and
land, and would leave no doubt that he had habitually conveyed such information
to a hostile power. That, these lists could not be proved to be in the
prisoner's handwriting; but that it was all the same; that, indeed, it was
rather the better for the prosecution, as showing the prisoner to be artful in
his precautions. That, the proof would go back five years, and would show the
prisoner already engaged in these pernicious missions, within a few weeks before
the date of the very first action fought between the British troops and the
Americans. That, for these reasons, the jury, being a loyal jury (as he knew
they were), and being a responsible jury (as they knew they were), must
positively find the prisoner Guilty, and make an end of him, whether they liked
it or not. That, they never could lay their heads upon their pillows; that, they
never could tolerate the idea of
