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Then, what other persons were in the shop, (meaning assistants,) besides his son and himself, when he lost his property? Ans. "Only a porter, who was cleaning some plate at the further end of the counter, at some distance from where the prisoner stood." All that Mr. Gurney, therefore, said or asked, any other person might have said without reference to a brief; and having put these simple questions, or at least put them in a simple and careless manner, Mr. Gurney sat himself down. The last question, indeed, was of a most important nature, and if properly handled, and enforced with becoming spirit, would, I have little doubt, have rendered me the most essential service. To explain my meaning, I must briefly expound a point of law, with which nine readers out of ten may be unacquainted. The Act, under which I was indicted, provides, or is interpreted to mean, that where there are two or more persons employed as shopmen, &c., it is not sufficient for one alone to attend upon the prisoner's trial; but that every one, if there was a dozen, must personally appear, to swear that he or she did not see or suspect the prisoner to commit the act of robbery; because the law (always favourable to the culprit,) presumes, that if one person out of the whole number is absent, that very person might possibly have suspected the prisoner; and then such suspicion, however slight, if confessed, proves that the robbery was not effected so privately as to
