of talents has its limitations, and that it is not in the power of ingenuity to
subvert the distinctions of right and wrong. Take my word for it that the true
merits of the case against you will be too strong for sophistry to overturn,
that justice will prevail, and impotent malice be defeated.
    To you, Mr. Falkland, society is obliged for having placed this black affair
in its true light. Do not suffer the malignant aspersions of the criminal to
give you any uneasiness. Depend upon it that they will be found of no weight. I
have no doubt that your character in the judgment of every person that has heard
them stands higher than ever. We feel for your misfortune in being obliged to
hear such calumnies from a person who has injured you so grossly. But you must
be considered in that respect as a martyr in the public cause. The purity of
your motives and dispositions is beyond the reach of malice; and truth and
equity will not fail to award to your calumniator infamy, and to you the love
and approbation of mankind.
    I have now told you, Williams, what I think of your case. But I have no
right to assume to be your ultimate judge. Desperate as it appears to me, I will
give you one piece of advice as if I were retained as a counsel to assist you.
Leave out of it whatever tends to the disadvantage of Mr. Falkland. Defend
yourself as well as you can, but do not attack your master. It is your business
to create in those that hear you a prepossession in your favour. But the
recrimination you have been now practising will always create indignation.
Dishonesty will admit of some palliation. The deliberate malice you have now
been showing is a thousand times more atrocious. It proves you to have the mind
of a demon rather than a felon. Wherever you shall repeat it, those who hear you
will pronounce you guilty upon that, even if the proper evidence against you
were glaringly defective. If therefore you would consult your interest, which
seems to be your only consideration, it is incumbent upon you by all means
immediately to retract that. If you desire to be believed honest, you must in
the first place show that you have a due sense of merit in others. You cannot
better serve your cause than by begging pardon of your master, and doing homage
to rectitude and worth even when they are employed in vengeance against you.
    It is easy to conceive that my mind sustained an extreme shock from the
decision of Mr. Forester; but his call upon me to retract and humble myself