Page:The Catalpa Expedition (1897).djvu/54

36 counsel and prisoner were sitting, and to speak as loud as he could.

This was done, but with no more satisfactory result to counsel for the prisoner, and a request to move nearer and speak louder was repeated.

The president said the witness had spoken loud enough for any man with even ordinary faculties to hear, and if these were not possessed by counsel, some one who possessed them ought to be procured.

Counsel then handed in a statement to the effect that he did not hear the witness, nor had he heard anything distinctly that day. He was not deaf, and was possessed of ordinary faculties. He had no wish to obstruct or delay the Court, and, that he might not do so, he had asked that the witness be directed to stand nearer. The observations made by the president tended to unfit him for the discharge of his duties, and he requested that they would be withdrawn.

Subsequently Mr. McMechan sent in the following and stood waiting a reply.

",—Having remonstrated with you for what you said, and you not noticing it, I now beg to withdraw."

The president read the first communication and said, "I am sorry that my remarks should tend to unfit counsel from attending to his duty, but I refuse to withdraw them."

Mr. McMechan immediately left the court.

The president directed Mr. Lawless, the prisoner's solicitor, to be sent for.