| Show A brilliant peroration to the greatest speech of the century the following are the closing words of sir john duke Cole ridges opening speech for the defence in the tichborne tieh Tich borne barne trial offered with calm earnestness earnes ness A great estate and an old and honorable family await your verdict on you and you alone depends whether a young and noble lady of spotless spot lebs leas character and whether a young child too YOU young ng indeed for certainty butor butof but of whom all good things may reasonably be hoped shall enjoy the estate and represent that family crippled indeed by the ruinous expenses of this lawsuit law suit and by the falsehoods of the claimant yet still an old and honorable family and still a great estate or whether the estate is to be wasted and the family degraded by the man whom I 1 have described in words I 1 dont repent of usi using g in words I 1 have made good in words I 1 now repeat as a conspirator a perjurer a forger a slanderer and a villain applause gentlemen when lock loek tichborne came to die in the time of queen elizabeth on tower hill he spoke of the family of tichborne as b having sving lived unstained in its place iu in liam hampshire pa hire for two hundred bundred yearb years from before be fore the conquest three hundred years have rolled away since the tho th days of queen elizabeth and aud the family of tichborne is ia still there and the hopes of that great and ancient family are centered in the little child of whom I 1 have spoken for him whom I 1 most inadequately represent I 1 ask for no indulgence I 1 ask you only to do that which is j just and right according to the strictest principles of law and the clearest est rules of reason I 1 know you will do what you think right because I 1 have the most absolute trust and faith in the tho honor justice and integrity of a body of english gentlemen english justice cannot indeed through you wield the sword which is to smite down craft and crime but english justice justlee does commit to your hands its equal scales in which truth will always outweigh falsehood and gentlemen I 1 trust in no vain or braggart spirit in no unseemly overconfidence over confidence but in complete confidence fi I 1 accept the issue for my cause is right t an and d yo you a are I 1 just as t |
