This crime is a constructed crime, originally manufactured by priests in the interest of their own order to put down dissent and heresy.
It now lingers amongst us as a legacy utterly alien to the spirit of our age, which unfortunately we have not resolution enough to cast among those absurdities which Time holds in his wallet of oblivion." My peroration is the only other part of the defence which I shall extract.
"Gentlemen, I have more than a personal interest in the result of this trial.

I am anxious for the rights and liberties of thousands of my countrymen.

Young as I am, I have for many years fought for my principles, taken soldier's wages when there were any, and gone cheerfully without when there were none, and fought on all the same, as I mean to do to the end; and I am doomed to the torture of twelve months' imprisonment by the verdict and judgment of thirteen men, whose sacrifices for conviction may not equal mine.

The bitterness of my fate can scarcely be enhanced by your verdict.

Yet this does not diminish my solicitude as to its character.