Early Criminal Trials. to his lodgings. Miss Stout was neither seen nor heard of until the next morning, when her lifeless body was found in a mill-stream, en tangled in some stakes near the shore. At the inquest, upon evidence that she had been of a melancholy temperament, it was decided that she had drowned herself while insane. On the circumstantial evidence just nar rated, the Quakers secured an indictment against Cowper and three others, whose maudlin remarks at a tavern on the night of the young woman's disappearance had excited suspicion. The Stouts and their Quaker friends attempted to support the prosecution by the testimony of experts. There was much conflicting evidence as to whether the body, when found, was floating on the water or was held up by some stakes; and upon examination no water was found in the stomach. The doctors for the prose cution maintained the theory that " it is con trary to nature that any persons that drown themselves should float upon the water; if persons come alive into the water then they sink; if dead, then they swim." They also asserted that water is found in the stomach of persons who die of drowning, and that its absence is wholly inconsistent with death so caused. Consequently, it was asserted that Miss Stout had been murdered, and as Cow per was the last person who had been seen with her, the jury were asked to infer that he was guilty of the murder. Cowper defended himself and his fellowprisoners with great ability. He contra dicted the doctor's premise that the body had been found floating on the water, and he demolished their conclusions, on crossexamination, in a very conclusive way. He also offered some slight evidence of an alibi. Above all he produced letters from the dead woman to himself which indicated that she had fallen in love with him, and declared
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that when he refused her advances, she rushed out, and, as he supposed, drowned herself. Cowper's address to the jury may still be read with profit as an example of direct, orderly and forcible method. His opening (indeed the whole argument) is temperate and dignified : "My lord, I speak for my own part; I know not at what price other men may value their lives, but I had much rather myself was murdered than my reputation, which I am conscious hath suffered greatly hitherto by the malice and artifice of some men, who have gone pretty far in making this fact, as barbarous as it is, to be credited of me, and therefore I must beg your lordship's and the jury's patience while I not only defend my life but justify myself also from these things that have unjustly aspersed me by the con spiracy and artifice of my accusers. Now, for a man in the condition I was in, of some fortune in possession, related to a better, in a good employment, thriving in my profession, living within my income, never in debt, having no possibility of mak ing any advantage by her death, void of all malice, and, as appears by her own evidence, in perfect amity and friendship with this gentlewoman, to be guilty of the murdering her, to begin at the top of all baseness and wickedness, certainly is incredible." He evidently felt the delicacy of the position in which he was placed. With refer ence to his relations with Miss Stout, as a man of honor, he hesitated to produce the dead woman's letters; indeed, he stated that he would not have done so in his own behalf: "I shall give the clearest evidence that ever was given in any court that she mur dered herself. When I enter upon this proof I must of necessity trespass upon the char acter of the gentlewoman that is dead. I
