robbery in the possession of a fine gold watch, which he said had
been sent him from home. But the watch had not been found in Butler's
possession.

On June 18 Butler was put on his trial in the Melbourne Criminal
Court before Mr. Justice Holroyd, charged with robbery under arms. His
appearance in the dock aroused very considerable interest. "It was the
general verdict," wrote one newspaper, "that his intellectual head and
forehead compared not unfavourably with those of the judge." He
was decently dressed and wore pince-nez, which he used in the best
professional manner as he referred to the various documents that lay in
front of him. He went into the witness-box and stated that the evening
of the crime he had spent according to his custom in the Public Library.

For an hour and a half he addressed the jury. He disputed the
possibility of his identification by his alleged victim. He was "an old
gentleman of sedentary pursuits and not cast in the heroic mould." Such
a man would be naturally alarmed and confused at meeting suddenly an
armed robber. Now, under these circumstances, could his recognition of
a man whose face was hidden by a beard, his head by a boxer hat, and his
body by a long overcoat, be considered trustworthy? And such recognition
occurring in the course of a chance encounter in the darkness, that
fruitful mother of error? The elderly gentleman had described his
moustache as a slight one, but the jury could see that it was full and
overhanging. He complained that he had been put up for identification
singly, not with other men, according to the usual custom; the police
had said to the prosecutor: "We have here a man that we think robbed
you, and, if he is not the man, we shall be disappointed," to which
the prosecutor had replied: "Yes, and if he is not the man, I shall be
disappointed too." For the elderly person who had stated that he had
seen a gold watch in Butler's possession the latter had nothing but
scorn. He was a "lean and slippered pantaloon in Shakespeare's last
stage"; and he, Butler, would have been a lunatic to have confided in
such a man.

The jury acquitted Butler, adding as a rider to their verdict that there
was not sufficient evidence of identification. The third charge against
Butler was not proceeded with. He was put up to receive sentence for the
burglary at the hairdresser's shop. Butler handed to the judge a written
statement which Mr. Justice Holroyd described as a narrative t