It was certainly not a praiseworthy procedure that this supposed popular wish should have been mentioned at all as an argument for conviction.

The most dignified of the many comments which this feature of the trial elicited was by Senator Fessenden, in the official _opinion_ which accompanied his vote:--"To the suggestion that popular opinion demands the conviction of the President on these charges, I reply that he is not now on trial before the people, but before the Senate.

In the words of Lord Eldon, upon the trial of the Queen, 'I take no notice of what is passing out of doors, because I am supposed constitutionally not to be acquainted with it.

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