a man who was accused of pulmonary
consumption--an offence which was punished with death until quite
recently. It did not occur till I had been some months in the country,
and I am deviating from chronological order in giving it here; but I had
perhaps better do so in order that I may exhaust this subject before
proceeding to others. Moreover I should never come to an end were I to
keep to a strictly narrative form, and detail the infinite absurdities
with which I daily came in contact.

The prisoner was placed in the dock, and the jury were sworn much as in
Europe; almost all our own modes of procedure were reproduced, even to
the requiring the prisoner to plead guilty or not guilty. He pleaded not
guilty, and the case proceeded. The evidence for the prosecution was
very strong; but I must do the court the justice to observe that the
trial was absolutely impartial. Counsel for the prisoner was allowed to
urge everything that could be said in his defence: the line taken was
that the prisoner was simulating consumption in order to defraud an
insurance company, from which he was about to buy an annuity, and that he
hoped thus to obtain it on more advantageous terms. If this could have
been shown to be the case he would have escaped a criminal prosecution,
and been sent to a hospital as for a moral ailment. The view, however,
was one which could not be reasonably sustained, in spite of all the
ingenuity and eloquence of one of the most celebrated advocates of the
country. The case was only too clear, for the prisoner was almost at the
point of death, and it was astonishing that he had not been tried and
convicted long previously. His coughing was incessant during the whole
trial, and it was all that the two jailors in charge of him could do to
keep him on his legs until it was over.

The summing up of the judge was admirable. He dwelt upon every point
that could be construed in favour of the prisoner, but as he proceeded it
became clear that the evidence was too convincing to admit of doubt, and
there was but one opinion in the court as to the impending verdict when
the jury retired from the box. They were absent for about ten minutes,
and on their return the foreman pronounced the prisoner guilty. There
was a faint murmur of applause, but it was instantly repressed. The
judge then proceeded to pronounce sentence in words which I can never
forget, and which I copied out into a note-book next day from the repo