Mr. Page testifies, that on the evening of the 6th of April he was in company with Burchmore, Balch, and Forrester, and that he met the defendant about seven o’clock, near the Salem Hotel; that he afterwards met him at Remond’s, about nine o’clock, and that he was in company with him a considerable part of the evening.  This young gentleman is a member of college, and says that he came to town the Saturday evening previous; that he is now able to say that it was the night of the murder when he walked with Frank Knapp, from the recollection of the fact, that he called himself to an account, on the morning after the murder, as it is natural for men to do when an extraordinary occurrence happens.  Gentlemen, this kind of evidence is not satisfactory; general impressions as to time are not to be relied on.  If I were called on to state the particular day on which any witness testified in this cause, I could not do it.  Every man will notice the same thing in his own mind.  There is no one of these young men that could give an account of himself for any other day in the month of April.  They are made to remember the fact, and then they think they remember the time.  The witness has no means of knowing it was Tuesday rather than any other time.  He did not know it at first; he could not know it afterwards.  He says he called himself to an account.  This has no more to do with the murder than with the man in the moon.  Such testimony is not worthy to be relied on in any forty-shilling cause.  What occasion had he to call himself to an account?  Did he suppose that he should be suspected?  Had he any intimation of this conspiracy?

Suppose, Gentlemen, you were either of you asked where you were, or what you were doing, on the fifteenth day of June; you could not answer this question without calling to mind some events to make it certain.  Just as well may you remember on what you dined each day of the year past.  Time is identical.  Its subdivisions are all alike.  No man knows one day from another, or one hour from another, but by some fact connected with it.  Days and hours are not visible to the senses, nor to be apprehended and distinguished by the understanding.  The flow of time is known only by something which marks it; and he who speaks of the date of occurrences with nothing to guide his recollection speaks at random, and is not to be relied on.  This young gentleman remembers the facts and occurrences; he knows nothing why they should not have happened on the evening of the 6th; but he knows no more.  All the rest is evidently conjecture or impression.

Mr. White informs you, that he told him he could not tell what night it was.  The first thoughts are all that are valuable in such case.  They miss the mark by taking second aim.

Mr. Balch believes, but is not sure, that he was with Frank Knapp on the evening of the murder.  He has given different accounts of the time.  He has no means of making it certain.  All he knows is, that it was some evening before Fast-day.  But whether Monday, Tuesday, or Saturday, he cannot tell.