offence before. I must apologize by charging it
upon the example set me by the learned counsel, who should better
understand the proper style for a court of justice than I can be
supposed to do. I was endeavouring to show that I am not properly a
subject of his Britannic majesty's; or, if I am, it is more than either
he or I can be sure of. To this I shall add two remarks: first, that I
was bred up among pirates--and not trained to any respect for the
institutions or law of civil societies: a circumstance which I would
wish to have its weight--not, gentlemen, in your verdict, but in the
judgments which charitable men shall hereafter pronounce upon my
character. Secondly, whereas the learned gentleman in the silk gown
insinuated that I was familiar with murderers, and that I looked with
indifference upon shedding human blood--this insinuation, gentlemen of
the jury, I am sure you will not regard; for nothing has appeared this
day in evidence to support any charge of that kind--which, as a soldier
of an honourable republic, I repel with indignation. Except in battle,
or in self-defence, I have never shed any human blood. And, if I did
not fear to be misinterpreted in one quarter where I would blush to
speak of any thing I had done (though it had been a thousand times
more) as pretending to the value of a service--I might produce cases
even in this country where I have saved the lives of others at some
hazard to my own. But I forbear; and leave this to be of service to my
memory rather than to my cause in this court.

"With that view it is that I have made these two last statements: I
press them upon your attention by no means as a prisoner at the bar,
but as a man who is not insensible, both on his own account and for
their sakes who have honoured him with some portion of their regard, to
the opinion which may be hereafter formed of his character. The first
is a consideration which certainly will have its weight with all the
candid: the second is at least as valid as the insinuation to which it
applies: it is the only sort of defence which it is possible for me to
make to a calumny so general and uncircumstantial.

"Now, gentlemen, let me say in conclusion why I do not urge any thing
to influence your verdict. In point of law, so far as I have collected
it from the speeches of the learned counsel, it would be impossible to
say any thing to the purpose. The question you have to decide upon, I
understand to be this; whethe