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48 ''defence. They shewed the greatest impatience during the Attorney-General's speech, and made several attempts to interrupt the Judge's charge; and at last, when it came to their own turn to take the business in hand, they exclaimed unanimously, without a quarter of a minute's consultation or deliberation, that they found for the defendant''.

The case presented altogether a combination of ridiculous driftless futility, with atrocious and incredible perjury, which cannot, I think, be paralleled (in their combination) in the annals of criminal jurisprudence."

The printed law reports of the day give the result thus: —

And in another paper:—

That impression availed—for Lord Melbourne. For him, the ordeal was happily and triumphantly over; the sympathy of friends, the enthusiasm of the public, greeted his acquittal from the false charge which was to wreck him. He continued Minister to the King, and the dawn of another reign saw him confirmed in his position, with the added distinction of seeming almost the guide and guardian of the youthful Sovereign who was to receive from him her first initiation into the cares and tasks of government.