48 



when the teeth are changing. From the absence of dust m the 

 abdomen, it was inferred that embowelling had taken place. 



The moral evidence is partly a cause and partly a conse- 

 quence of the foregoing. It points to the wide diffusion of 

 the convictions on the subject, which have prevailed from the 

 thirteenth century to the present time. It quotes the touch- 

 ing strains of popular poetry, which have recorded, m various 

 languages, the horrors of bloodshed, superstition, and injured 

 innocence. It appeals to the credibility of history, the holi- 

 ness of ecclesiastics, the sanctity of our courts for the adminis- 

 tration of justice ; all of which have in turn yielded to evi- 

 dence, and lent themselves to propagate the accusation against 

 the defendants. Finally, the same accusations have been 

 preferred by Mahometans as well as by Christians; and m 

 these cases, the investigations have not taken place in remote 

 or barbarous ages, but in our own. This closes the case for 

 the prosecution. 



The Counsel for the defence does not think it necessary 

 to produce any witnesses on behalf of his clients : he is satis- 

 fied that the insufficiency of the evidence produced m support 

 of the charge, entitles them to a verdict of acquittal. He 

 thinks it right, however, to state a few general principles, 

 which will enable any one to examine such accusations as the 

 present for himself, and which will serve to show the animus 

 with which the present charge has been advanced. Some of 

 these principles are so plain as to-be almost axiomatic ; and 

 others are so extensively admitted, as to be almost of univer- 

 sal acceptation. 



1. The religious ceremonials of the Jewish people have 

 been fixed for more than three thousand years, the autho- 

 rity for their original institution being before the world; 

 therefore, the introduction of a new element, in the thir- 

 teenth centurv after Christ, or at any other time, is impos- 

 sible unless in direct contravention of their own principles. 



