kind of murder, committed by her own hand, upon her own father?  Had she listened to his admonitions this calamity never had befallen her.  Learn hence the dreadful consequences of disobedience to parents; and know also that the same mischief in all probability may happen to such who obstinately disregard, neglect, and despise the advice of those persons who have the charge and care of their education; of governors likewise, and of magistrates, and of all others who are put in authority over them.  Let this fix in your mind the excellent maxim of the good physician, “Venienti occurrite morbo.”  Let us defend ourselves against the first temptations to sin, and guard our innocence as we would our lives; for if once we yield, though but a little, in whose power is it to say, hitherto will I go, and no further?

And now, gentlemen of the jury, those observations I had before mentioned, I shall attempt to lay before you in order to assist you in making a true judgment of the matter committed to your charge.  The author and contriver of this bloody affair is not at present here.  I sincerely wish that he was, because we should be able to convince him that such crimes as his cannot escape unpunished.  The unhappy prisoner, ruined and undone by the treacherous flattery and pernicious advice of that abandoned, insidious, and execrable wretch, who had found means of introducing himself into her father’s family, and whilst there, by false pretences of love, gained the affection of his only daughter and child.  Love! did I call it?  It deserves not the name; if it was love of anything it was of the L10,000 supposed to be the young lady’s fortune.  Could a man that had a wife of his own, and children, be really in love with another woman?  Such a thing cannot be supposed, and therefore I beg leave to call it avarice and lust only; but be it what it will, the life of the father becomes an obstacle to the criminal proceedings that were intended and designed to be carried on between them, and therefore he must be removed before that imaginary state of felicity could be obtained according to their projected scheme.  Mark how the destruction of this poor man is ushered into the world—­apparitions, noises, voices, music, reported to be heard from time to time in the deceased’s house.  Even his days are numbered out, and his own child limits the space of his life but till the following month of October.  What could be the meaning of this, but to prepare the world for a death that was predetermined?  Who could limit the days of a man’s life but a person who knew what was intended to be done towards the shortening of it?

In order to bring this about Cranstoun sends presents of pebbles, as also a powder to clean them, and this powder, gentlemen, you will find is the dreadful poison that accomplished this abominable scheme.

From time to time mention is made of the pebbles, but not a syllable of the powder.  Why not of the one as well as of the other, if there had not been a mystery concealed in it?  Preparation is made for an experiment of its power before Cranstoun’s departure.  He mixes the deadly draught, but the prisoner’s conscience, not yet hardened, forced her to turn away her eyes, and she durst not venture to behold the cup prepared that was to send the father into another world.