text:  The enormous pressure upon the accused himself who probably from the higher or middle classes with ample means at his command an ignominious death perhaps impending or at the least imprisonment probably for years in threatening prospect close before him; his friends active moving heaven and earth in his behalf no scheme left untried no plan or suggestion rejected by which it may even in the remotest degree be possible to avert the impending doom; the additional rancour which politics sometimes infuse into the proceedings the partisanship which has occasioned scenes such as should never be exhibited in the sacred arena of the halls of justice animosities which give the defence the character of a party conflict and which cause a conviction to be looked upon as a political defeat and an acquittal to be regarded as a party triumph--all these circumstances in their combined and concentrated force must also be take into consideration