Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 9.djvu/701

 686 FEDERAL SEPOBTER. �your serious duty to determine, from the mass of evidence in the case, •whether the defendant is gaiity of sach cutting and conversion or not. The court cannot aid you in your finding upon this question, It is one wholly of fact, to be found from the weight of evidence. The question will be, what do you believe from the evjdence taken as a whole ? How are you fairly convinced from the testimony ? The evidence is apparently conflicting. Whether it be so or not is for you to determine. If you find it conflicting it will be your duty to recon- eile it if you can. If not, then it will be your duty to determine as to what part of it you will give most credit. And this question is not an arbitrary one, or to be solved by any technical rules, but is one resting in the sound discretion of the jury. You are to judge from all the circumstances in evidence, and developed on the trial, the weight to be given to the testimony of each witness. You have heard the witnesses testify, have observed their manner on the stand, have noticed their bearing and disposition or inclination to state the truth or color it. You have observed their bias, if any, their interest, their means of knowledge in reference to the things of which they are oalled to speak, their power of recollection, the consistency or inconsistency of their statements, and how they are corroborated and sustained or (Bontradicted by other testimony, or by the conceded facts in the case. It is from these circumstances, and all others bearing on the question, that you are to determine what witnesses are entitled to most credit, and the weight to be given to the statements of each and all. �Evidence is that which satisfies and eonvinces the mind in regard to the real truth of the matters in issue; and if the statements of a •witness haive not this convineing quality the jury is entitled to with- hold from them credit. In fact, they cannot help doing so, because the giving or withholding credence to the statements of another, whether under oath or not,' is not a matter of will or ohoice. The jury are convinced by ^*^hat is fltted from its nature to convince, — that is, b^^ that which illustrates and elucidates the truth, — and the truth is ever the final object of your investigations; but, of course, you are to determine the truth from the evidence given on the trial, not from that whioh you may conceive might have been given. �It is claimed, and it may be true, that the government has labored under disadvantage "in having to call witnesses that have been more or less identified with the defendant or under his influence, and when they come upon the stand are what are called "slow" witnesses for the party calling them. AU I desire to say in regard to. this is what ��� �