Sunt Leges: Vis Ultima Lex: Tunc Aut Libertas Aut Servitudo;
Mors Enim Benedicta.
On the reassembling of the Court, at three o'clock, Mr. Ireland rose to
address the Jury for the defence.
The learned Counsel spent a heap of dry yabber-yabber on the law of
high-treason, to show its absurdity and how its interpretation had ever
proved a vexation even to lawyers, then he tackled with some more tangible
solids. The British law, the boast of 'urbis et orbis terrarum',
delivered a traitor to be practised upon by a sanguinary
Jack Ketch:--I., to hang the beggar until he be dead, dead, dead;
II., then to chop the carcase in quarters; III., never mind the stench,
each piece of the treacherous flesh must remain stuck up at the top of
each gate of the town, there to dry in spite of occasional pecking from
crows and vultures. The whole performance to impress the young generation
with the fear of God and teach them to honour the King.
I soon reconciled myself to my lot, and remembering my younger days at
school, I argued thus:--
Where there are no bricks, there are no walls: but, walls are required
to enclose the gates; therefore, in Ballaarat there are no gates.
Corolarium--How the deuce can they hang up my hind-quarters on the gates
of Ballaarat Township? Hence, Toorak must possess a craft which passes
all understanding of Traitors.
The jury, however, appeared frightened at this powerful thundering from
Mr. Ireland, who now began to turn the law towards a respectable and more
congenial quarter, and proved, that if the prisoner at the bar had burnt
down all the brothels not kept on the sly in Her Majesty's dominions,
he would be a Traitor; yet, if he had left one single brothel
standing--say, in the Sandwich Islands--for the accommodation of any of
Her Majesty's well-affected subjects, then the high treason was not
high--high enough and up to the mark, that is, my fore-quarter could not
be legally stuck up on the imaginary gates of Ballaarat.
His Honour appeared to me, to assent to the line of argument of the
Learned Counsel, who concluded a very lengthy but most able address,
by calling on the jury to put an end by their verdict to the continued
incarceration of the man, and to teach the government that they could not
escape from the responsibilities they had incurred by their folly, by
trying to obtain a verdict, which would brand the subjects of Her Majesty
in this Colony with disloyalty.
The jury now appeared to me to be ready to let the high traitor go
his way in bodily integrity.
Mr. ASPINALL then rose to address the jury on behalf of the prisoner.
His speech was spirited, cutting, withering; but could only cover the
falsehood, and NOT bring to light the truth: hence to record his speech
here cannot possibly serve the purpose of this Book: hence the four
documents, and my important observation on them in the following chapter.