Page:The "Trial" of Ferrer - A Clerical Judicial Murder (IA 2916970.0001.001.umich.edu).pdf/41

 lar seems to be very much afraid that they will take him for an agent provocateur; such a fear would not likely have oc- curred to him unless there was some foundation for it. Those two circulars were typewritten, they bore no date nor signature. Even if the police had actually found them in the house of Ferrer in those searches which they made under the illegal conditions already described, even then, what would they prove? Ferrer, like all men inter- ested in radical ideas, used to receive all sorts of circu- lars and manifestoes. But, let us sec how they "proved" that the authors of those two typewritten undated, unsigned documents was Ferrer himself. There were in the text two hand-written corrections: one a letter "" and the other the syllable "ba"; the experts declared that, without pos- itively affirming anything, thesc two corrections might havo been written by the same hand which wrote the writing submitted to them for comparison. There was once a mal- icious judge who prided himself on being able to condemn any man on six lines of his handwriting, but even he did not go as far as three letters! It is remarkable also, that no ,other circular was found in the hands of any of the thrce thousand pcople who were indicted and arrested in and around Barcelona! Then came the speech of the Public Prosecutor. He, of course, had been given access to the "summary" from the beginning. He had ample time to study all the charges it contained and make the most of them. After this, Ferrer's counsel made his speech. It has been said that he was not allowed to prescnt his defense, or was not given time to do it. This erroneous impression springs from a basis of truth: Ferrer's counsel was given all the time he wanted to prescnt his defense, but was not given time enough to prepare it. As this is an important point, we will study it in detail.