said so to Mr. Davis. When
Mr. Davis went out, I was just about where Mr. List is now sitting, in
front of the clerk's desk.

At this stage, the court adjourned till Monday.

* * * * *

_Monday, February_ 24.--Mr. Commissioner Hallett resumed the examination
at 10 o'clock.

_Elizur Wright_ recalled. I was in the court room fifteen or twenty
minutes. It was perfectly impossible that Mr. Davis could have gone out
and come in again without my knowing it.

_Cross Examined._ Mr. Sewall stated to me the _quo modo_ of the arrest.
About half the time I was in there I was occupied in explanations with
Mr. Riley, after the altercation which arose from my mistaking him for
the counsel for the claimant. The explanations resulted in his giving me
permission to speak to Shadrach. I then shook Shadrach by the hand, and
spoke a few words to him. While Mr. Sewall was telling me that he
thought a good defence could be made for Shadrach, that there would be a
probability of his getting off upon the proof, there were two or three
persons standing about, and some one of them said there might be an
interference on the part of the colored people. Mr. Sewall said that
would be perfectly ridiculous, and I said so too. It was in that
connection, I think, that I said there were but few persons outside. I
had come from a meeting of the persons interested in the Commonwealth.

_Mr. Lunt_--Are you one of the editors of the Commonwealth? [Witness did
not answer, but smiled].

_Mr. Dana_--I object to the question, and ask the purpose of the
district attorney in proposing to put in anything in relation to the
connection of the witness with that newspaper.

_The Commissioner_ remarked that the inquiry was irrelevant, unless the
district attorney expected to show from it a bias on the part of the
witness.

_Mr. Wright_ now, without any further questioning, stated that he was
one of the editors of the "Commonwealth." The conversation was about the
possibility of the colored people taking it quietly. Mr. Sewall said, I
hope there will be no violence.

_Richard H. Dana, Jr._ was called to the stand by Mr. Davis.

[Mr. Dana said that when he entered upon the case, he did not suppose he
should be a witness, or he would have declined acting as counsel.

_The Commissioner._ There is no impropriety in it in a preliminary
inquiry; and in your case, never.]

On Saturday morning, Mr. Davis called at my office and told