Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 76.djvu/383

Rh sometimes gets in where direct statements fail to enter. The speech, a master-piece for a conservative, public-spirited business man, is a fine example of Lysias's character-study. The defendants admit their guilt and apparently try to avoid the consequences by pleas in confession and avoidance. The pleas in excuse were (1) that the corn-inspectors suggested that the dealers buy up the corn; and (2) that their action had benefited the public by obtaining for it a supply of grain. Our senator replies (1) by showing, on evidence, that the corn-inspectors never made any such suggestions and that if they did it would not excuse such an open violation of a plain law; and (2) by showing that the role of public benefactor could not be very seriously assumed by men who "dodged taxes" and the other patriotic contributions and raised the price of corn in one day many fold higher than the law allowed.

Liberal extracts of the speech itself in the words of the old Greek senator follow:

The plug is put in the water-clock and the flow of water, which regulates the time for speaking, is stopped, while one of the defendants is put on the stand.