It  was  only  by  help  of  very  able  and  highly  paid  lawyers,
officers  of  the  courts  and  of  justice,  that  the  law  of  1^^^  Ycyct


ase  CBIMX  CBXAPSB  THAN  COMFBTtTtOS

wag  "  reformed,"  so  that  the  techoioal  parts  of  *  caae  eoold  be
to  8Qch  an  extent  disengaged  from  the  main  body,  and  sent
forward  and  backward,  up  and  down,  through  the  whole
series  of  appeals,  coQBnoiing  endless  time  and  money,  while
poor  men  seeking  jostioe  kick  their  heels  in  the  lowest
courts.  ,

As  the  time  for  pronouncing  sentence  came  on,  petitiona
for  mercy  were  circulated  in  Buffalo  and  Eocheeter.  The
members  of  tlie  jury  which  had  found  the  accused  gnil^  were
labored  with  separately  to  sign  a  recantation.  Only  nx  nio-
cumbed  and  signed  a  statement  that  the  prisoners  were  fonnd
guilty,  not  because  they  bad  conspired  to  blow  up  their  riTal't
refinery,  but  because  they  had  enticed  away  Albert.  ThU
recantation  was  in  the  face  of  the  judge's  charge,  which  had
made  the  plot  to  blow  np  the  Bu&lo  workg  the  chief  and  the
important  inquiry  in  this  case,  and  the  verdict  had  been  given
under  the  influence  of  this  view  of  the  case.  Six  of  the
jury  saw  the  impropriety  of  making  this  statement  after  they
had  disbanded  and  passed  from  under  the  legal  and  moral  re-
straints they  felt  when  sitting  under  their  oath  of  office,  and
refnsed  to  sign  it.
