Page:Sketches of the life and character of Patrick Henry.djvu/394

 370 SKETCHES OP THE

complicated business; yet I am told, that in the British debt cause, he astonished the public not less by the mat- ter, than the manner of his speech. It was however as a criminal lawyer, that his eloquence had the fairest scope, and in that character I have seen him. He was perfect master of the passions of his auditory, whether in the tragic, or comic line. The tones of his voice, to say nothing of his matter and gesture, were in- sinuated into the feelings of his hearers, in a manner that baffles all description. It seemed to operate by mere sympathy; and by his tones alone, it seemed to me, tliat he could make you cry or laugh at pleasure. I will endeavour to give you some account of this tragic, and comic effect in two instances, which I witnessed.^^

"About the year 1792, one Holland killed a young man in Botetourt. The young man w as popular, and lived, I think, with Mr. King, a wealthy merchant in Fincastle, who employed Mr. John Brackenridge to assist in the prosecution of Holland. This Holland had gone up from the county of Louisa as a school- master, but had turned out badly, and was unpopular. The killing was in the night, and was generally believed to be murder. He was the son of one doctor Holland, who w as yet living in Louisa, and had been one of Mr. Henry^s juvenile friends and acquaintances. It was chiefly at the instance of the father, and for a xery mo- derate fee, that Mr. Henry undertook to go out to the district court of Greenbrier, to defend the prisoner. Such were the prejudices there, that the people had openly and repeatedly declared that even Patrick Henry need not come to defend Holland, unless he brought a jury with him. On the day of trial, the court house was crowded. I did not move from my seat for fourteen hours; and had no wish to do so.

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