Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 04.pdf/346

 Legal Stratagems.

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LEGAL STRATAGEMS. -DROBABLY it is not too much to say that many a cause apparently hopeless from the first has taken an unexpected turn by an accidental happy hit or the prompt adoption of some smart ruse on the part of counsel. A celebrated barrister with whom crossexamination was a fine art once confiden tially told an adverse witness in the box that he knew he possessed the key of the legal situation, that he held a most important secret. "And, mind you," added he with meas ured emphasis, " I am going to get it out of yOu." And he did, for the witness was de moralized in anticipation by the lawyer's emphatic and cock-sure warning. Brougham, while practising at the bar, once tried the experiment of magnetizing an adverse witness giving evidence, and suc ceeded in a remarkable manner without speaking a word. Seating himself immedi ately before the witness, he fixed him with his eye till the poor man blushed, stam mered, and finally collapsed in nervous confu sion, probably leaving his most important evidence unsaid. An eminent barrister still practising on the Midland Circuit, and famous for his power in cross-examination, had once to defend a man charged with poisoning his master. The principal witness for the prosecution was a fellow-servant, who swore that he detected the prisoner in the act of mixing a white powder with the hot water and spirits which it was his duty to supply his master with every night on retiring to bed. The defending counsel, in his cross-exam ination, was so deferential and polite to the witness that his manner as much excited the surprise of the court as it flattered the feelings of the witness himself. He was com plimented upon his intelligent and straight forward replies, and finally questioned as to the finding of the remains of the powder in the glass, a fact to which he had sworn.

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"After what transpired you had no doubt that it was the arsenic which caused the ill ness of your master?" asked the counsel, directing a look of indignation at his own client, the prisoner in the dock. The wit ness assented. "Then you know something of the propj erties of arsenic? " observed the other with an approving smile. The witness hesitated, , and replied in the negative. "Then," suddenly thundered the barrister, j flashing his eyes upon him, "how did you know the powder to be arsenic?" The transition was so sudden that the man was carried out in a fit. The defence was that the white powder was nothing more than the usual harmless sugar provided with hot punch, while the real poison had been added by another hand. At the next assizes the prisoner and the witness had changed places, when the latter was proved the real culprit, — a fact sus pected and worked upon by the astute coun sel from the first. A still more clever ruse was that adopted by another counsel who afterwards attained to distinction, who had to examine a witness in a disputed will case. One of the wit nesses to the will was the deceased man's valet, who swore that after signing his name at the bidding of his master, he then, also acting under instructions, carefully sealed the document by means of the taper by the bedside. The witness was induced to describe every minute detail of the whole process, the exact time, the position of the taper, the size and quality of the sealing-wax, " which," said the counsel, glancing at the document in his hand, " was of the ordinary red de scription?" "Red sealing-wax, certainly," answered the witness. "My Lord," said the counsel, handing the paper to the judge, "you will please observe that it was fastened with a wafer."