APPENDIX TO CHRONICLE. 



201 



gone to the house to play the 

 Hute, and went there frequently 

 for the newspaper : and, upon 

 being still closer pushed, he al- 

 lowed that he had once accom- 

 panied Miss Susannah towards 

 Olney. How much oftener these 

 meetings took place it was not his 

 interest to confess. He was at a 

 loss to know by what means Mr 

 Robert Woodward, tiie father, 

 could be made a party to their 

 crime. Had the character of that 

 gentleman been impeached in the 

 slightest degree ? Had the breath 

 of calumny in the most minute 

 instance affected his moial con- 

 duct ? Certainly not. Then what 

 were the grounds upon which his 

 guilt were supposed to rest? Why, 

 forsooth, that his daughter could 

 not have been 8 months pregnant 

 inhishouse without his knowledge. 

 Good God ! Could any thing be 

 more absurd than this ? Was a 

 father, who had brought up his 

 children in the strictest paths of 

 virtue, to be watching them with 

 suspicion, and to be viewing them 

 as common prostitutes ? Could 

 any parent, who loved and con- 

 fided in his offspring, harbour a 

 suspicion so foul as that tliey 

 would prostitute their persons in 

 the way in which they must have 

 done to have produced the appear- 

 ance flescribeil ? Of all men liNing, 

 a father, in his belief, was the last 

 man who would have made such 

 a discovery. What was Mr.\\'o<)d- 

 ward's conduct when he did find 

 out what had happened ? Did he 

 not immediately carry his daugh- 

 ters before a magistrate ? What 

 else could he have done to show 

 his indignation ? And then comes 

 the last ground upon which sus- 

 picion could be attached to him. 



It was said, that when before the 

 magistrate he prompted his daugh- 

 ter as to the kind of night on 

 which the violation had been com- 

 mitted. Why, could any thing 

 have been more natural ? The 

 unfortunate girl^ in the agony of 

 her mind, returned an answer 

 different to that which she had 

 before given him ; and iu the anx- 

 iety of a parent, alive to every 

 circumstance which she could re- 

 late, Mr. Woodward set her right, 

 openly, and in tlie hearing of every 

 person. Was here any thing like 

 secret conceit ? 



Mr. Baron Graham observed, 

 that the jury had to decide whether 

 the three defendants, two, or any 

 of them, had been guilty of the 

 offence imputed to them. In or- 

 der to commit the crime of con- 

 spiracy, two must necessarily have 

 been concerned ; therefore, in this 

 case, the jury must either find two 

 guilty, or acquit the defendants 

 altogether. The learned judge 

 then read over the whole of the 

 evidence. From this evidence, he 

 observed, it was clear that the 

 father must have known that his 

 daughter was in a state of preg- 

 nancy. In the first place it ap- 

 pears, that not a syllable of this 

 charge came to the knowledge of 

 James Harris till seven or eight 

 months after the fact was alleged 

 to have taken place ; and then 

 what was done r The charge is 

 preferred, the prosecutrix is ex- 

 amined, and upon coming into a 

 court of justice finds no credit. 

 Now it is said, not with tlie strict- 

 est and most perfect correctness, 

 that the prisoner was acquitted 

 upon a point of law, and not upon 

 the merits of the case. This, I 

 am satisfied, is not true ; the fact 



is. 



