believe that the very next time that it ever occurred to him that the
insanity plea was not a mere politic pretense, was when the verdict came
in. They think that the startling thought burst upon him then, that if
twelve good and true men, able to comprehend all the baseness of
perjury, proclaimed under oath that he was a lunatic, there was no
gainsaying such evidence and that he UNQUESTIONABLY WAS INSANE! Possibly
that was really the way of it. It is dreadful to think that maybe the
most awful calamity that can befall a man, namely, loss of reason, was
precipitated upon this poor prisoner's head by a jury that could have
hanged him instead, and so done him a mercy and his country a service.
POSTSCRIPT-LATER May 11--I do not expect anybody to believe so
astounding a thing, and yet it is the solemn truth that instead of
instantly sending the dangerous lunatic to the insane asylum (which I
naturally supposed they would do, and so I prematurely said they had)
the court has actually SET HIM AT LIBERTY. Comment is unnecessary. M. T.
THE EUROPEAN WARS--[From the Buffalo Express, July 25, 1870.] First Day
THE EUROPEAN WAR!!! NO BATTLE YET!!! HOSTILITIES IMMINENT!!! TREMENDOUS
EXCITEMENT. AUSTRIA ARMING! BERLIN, Tuesday. No battle has been fought
yet. But hostilities may burst forth any week. There is tremendous
excitement here over news from the front that two companies of French
soldiers are assembling there. It is rumoured that Austria is
arming--what with, is
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