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insurance company, from which he was about to buy an annuity, and that he
hoped thus to obtain it on more advantageous terms. If this could have
been shown to be the case he would have escaped a criminal prosecution,
and been sent to a hospital as for a moral ailment. The view, however,
was one which could not be reasonably sustained, in spite of all the
ingenuity and eloquence of one of the most celebrated advocates of the
country. The case was only too clear, for the prisoner was almost at the
point of death, and it was astonishing that he had not been tried and
convicted long previously. His coughing was incessant during the whole
trial, and it was all that the two jailors in charge of him could do to
keep him on his legs until it was over.

The summing up of the judge was admirable. He dwelt upon every point
that could be construed in favour of the prisoner, but as he proceeded it
became clear that the evidence was too convincing to admit of doubt, and
there was but one opinion in the court as to the impending verdict when
the jury retired from the box. They were absent for about ten minutes,
and on their return the foreman pronounced the prisoner guilty. There
was a faint murmur of applause, but it was instantly repressed. The
judge then proceeded to pronounce sentence in words which I can never
forget, and which I copied out into a note-book next day from the report
that was published in the leading newspaper. I must condense it
somewhat, and nothing which I could say would give more than a faint idea
of the solemn, not to say majestic, severity with which it was delivered.
The sentence was as follows:-

"Prisoner at the bar, you have been accused of the great crime of
labouring under pulmonary consumption, and after an impartial trial
before a jury of your countrymen, you have been found guilty. Against
the justice of the verdict I can say nothing: the evidence against you
was conclusive, and it only remains for me to pass such a sentence upon
you, as shall satisfy the ends of the law. That sentence must be a very
severe one. It pains me much to see one who is yet so young, and whose
prospects in life were otherwise so excellent, brought to this
distressing condition by a constitution which I can only regard as
radically vicious; but yours is no case for compassion: this is not your
first offence: you have led a career of crime, and have only profited by
the leniency shown you upon past occasions, to offend yet more seriously
against the laws and institutions of your country. You were convicted of
aggravated bronchitis last year: and I find that though you are now only
twenty-three years old, you have been imprisoned on no less than fourteen
occasions for illnesses of a more or less hateful character; in fact, it
is not too much to say that you have spent the greater part of your life
in a jail.

"It is all very well for you to say that you came of unhealthy parents,

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