This case strikingly points to the imperative demand of justice that
every case shall be investigated in its minutest detail. The broad
features are not by any means sufficient to fix guilt on any one
accused, and it is in such cases that circumstantial evidence is often
brought in question, while, indeed, the _real_ circumstances are too
often not brought to light. Circumstantial evidence can seldom fail if
the real circumstances are brought out. Nobody had thought of raising
a doubt as to there being _five_ persons in the field.
Upon such small points the great issue of a case often depends.
Another curious case came before me on the Western Circuit. A
solicitor was charged with forging the will of a lady, which devised
to him a considerable amount of her property; but as the case
proceeded it became clear to me that the will was signed after
the lady's death, and then with a dry pen held in the hand of the
deceased, by the accused himself whilst he guided it over a signature
which he had craftily forged. A woman was present when this was done,
and as she had attested the execution of the will, she was a necessary
witness for the prisoner, and in examination-in-chief she was very
clear indeed that it was by the _hand of the deceased_ that the will
was signed, and that she herself had seen the deceased sign it.
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