such blunders, mistakes and neglects, as the
prisoner's counsel might point out.

On the 6th of July, I was arraigned in the criminal court, Judge
Crawford presiding, on one of the larceny indictments, to which I
pleaded not guilty; whereupon my counsel, Messrs. Hall and Mann, moved
the court for a continuance till the next term, alleging the prevailing
public excitement, and the want of time to prepare the defence and to
procure additional counsel. But the judge could only be persuaded, and
that with difficulty, to delay the trial for eighteen days.

When this unexpected information was communicated to the committee at
Boston, a correspondence was opened by telegraph with Messrs. Seward,
Chase and Fessenden. But Governor Seward had a legal engagement at
Baltimore on the very day appointed for the commencement of the trial,
and the other two gentlemen had indispensable engagements in the courts
of Ohio and Maine. Under these circumstances, as Mr. Hall was not
willing to take the responsibility of acting as counsel in the case, and
as it seemed necessary to have some one familiar with the local
practice, the Boston committee retained the services of J.M. Carlisle,
Esq., of the Washington bar, and Mr. Hildreth again proceeded to
Washington to give his assistance. Just as the trial was about to
commence, Mr. Carlisle being taken sick, the judge was, with great
difficulty, prevailed upon to grant a further delay of three days. This
delay was very warmly opposed, not only by the District Attorney, but by
the same Mr. Radcliff whom we have seen figuring as chairman of the
mob-committee to wait on Dr. Bailey, and who had been retained, at an
expense of two hundred dollars, by the friends of English, as counsel
for him, they thinking it safest not to have his defence mixed up in any
way with that of myself and Sayres. Before the three days were out,
Governor Seward, having finished his business in Baltimore, hastened to
Washington; but, as the rules of the court did not allow more than two
counsel to speak on one side, the other counsel being also fully
prepared, it was judged best to proceed as had been arranged.

The trials accordingly commenced on Thursday, the 27th of July, upon an
indictment against me for stealing two slaves, the property of one
Andrew Houver.

The District Attorney, in opening his case, which he did in a very
dogmatic, overbearing and violent manner, declared that this was no
common affair. The righ