The Last Chronicle of Barset [106]
Crawley shrugged his shoulders, opened his hands a little and then closed them, and bowed his head. He could not have declared more clearly by any words that he differed altogether from Mr Robarts, and that as the subject was one so peculiarly his own he had a right to expect that his opinion should be allowed to prevail against that of any other person. 'If you come to that, you know, how is anybody's tongue to be stopped?'
'That vain tongues cannot be stopped, I am well aware. I do not expect that people's tongues should be stopped. I am not saying what men will do, but what good wishes should dictate.'
'Well, perhaps you'll hear me out for a minute.' Mr Crawley again bowed his head. 'Whether we were wise or unwise, we were discussing this affair.'
'Whether I stole Mr Soames's money?'
'No; nobody supposed for a moment you had stolen it.'
'I cannot how they can suppose anything else, knowing, as they do, that the magistrates have committed me for the theft. This took place at Framley, you say, and probably in Lord Lufton's presence.'
'Exactly.'
'And Lord Lufton was chairman at the sitting of the magistrates at which I was committed. How can it be that he should think otherwise?'
'I am sure that he has not an idea that you were guilty. Nor yet has Dr Thorne, who was also one of the magistrates. I don't suppose one of them then thought so.'
'Then their action, to say the least of it, was very strange.'
'It was all because you had nobody to manage it for you. I thoroughly believe that if you had placed the matter in the hands of a good lawyer, you would never have heard a word more about it. That seems to be the opinion of everybody I speak to on the subject.'
'Then in this country a man is to be punished or not, according to ability to fee a lawyer!'
'I am not talking about punishment.'
'And presuming an innocent man to have the ability and not the will to do so, he is to be punished, to be ruined root and branch, self and family, character and pocket, simply because, knowing his own innocence, he does not choose to depend on the mercenary skill of a man whose trade he abhors for the establishment of that which should be clear as sun at noonday! You say I am innocent, and yet you tell me I am to be condemned as a guilty man, have my gown taken from me, be torn from my wife and children, be disgraced before the eyes of all men, and made a byword and a thing horrible to be mentioned, because I will not fee an attorney to fee another man to come and lie on my behalf, to browbeat witnesses, to make false appeals, and perhaps shed false tears in defending me. You have come to me asking me to do this, if I understand you, telling me that the archdeacon would so advise me.'
'That is my object.' Mr Crawley, as he had spoken, had in his vehemence, risen from his seat, and Mr Robarts was also standing.
'Then tell the archdeacon,' said Mr Crawley, 'that I will have none of his advice. I will have no one there paid by me to obstruct the course of justice or to hoodwink a jury. I have been in the courts of law, and know what is the work for which these gentlemen are hired. I will have none of it, and I will thank you to tell the archdeacon so, with my respectful acknowledgements of his consideration and condescension. I say nothing as to my own innocence, or my own guilt. But I do say that if I am dragged before that tribunal, an innocent man, and am falsely declared to be guilty, because I lack money to bribe a lawyer to speak for me, then the laws of this country deserve but little of that reverence which we are accustomed to pay them. And if I be guilty--'
'Nobody supposes you to be guilty.'
'And if I be guilty,' continued Mr Crawley, altogether ignoring the interruption, except by the repetition of his words, and a slight raising of his voice, 'I will not add to my guilt by hiring anyone to prove a falsehood or to disprove a truth.'
'I'm sorry that you should say so, Mr Crawley.'
'I speak according to what light I have, Mr Robarts; and if I have been over-warm with you--and
'That vain tongues cannot be stopped, I am well aware. I do not expect that people's tongues should be stopped. I am not saying what men will do, but what good wishes should dictate.'
'Well, perhaps you'll hear me out for a minute.' Mr Crawley again bowed his head. 'Whether we were wise or unwise, we were discussing this affair.'
'Whether I stole Mr Soames's money?'
'No; nobody supposed for a moment you had stolen it.'
'I cannot how they can suppose anything else, knowing, as they do, that the magistrates have committed me for the theft. This took place at Framley, you say, and probably in Lord Lufton's presence.'
'Exactly.'
'And Lord Lufton was chairman at the sitting of the magistrates at which I was committed. How can it be that he should think otherwise?'
'I am sure that he has not an idea that you were guilty. Nor yet has Dr Thorne, who was also one of the magistrates. I don't suppose one of them then thought so.'
'Then their action, to say the least of it, was very strange.'
'It was all because you had nobody to manage it for you. I thoroughly believe that if you had placed the matter in the hands of a good lawyer, you would never have heard a word more about it. That seems to be the opinion of everybody I speak to on the subject.'
'Then in this country a man is to be punished or not, according to ability to fee a lawyer!'
'I am not talking about punishment.'
'And presuming an innocent man to have the ability and not the will to do so, he is to be punished, to be ruined root and branch, self and family, character and pocket, simply because, knowing his own innocence, he does not choose to depend on the mercenary skill of a man whose trade he abhors for the establishment of that which should be clear as sun at noonday! You say I am innocent, and yet you tell me I am to be condemned as a guilty man, have my gown taken from me, be torn from my wife and children, be disgraced before the eyes of all men, and made a byword and a thing horrible to be mentioned, because I will not fee an attorney to fee another man to come and lie on my behalf, to browbeat witnesses, to make false appeals, and perhaps shed false tears in defending me. You have come to me asking me to do this, if I understand you, telling me that the archdeacon would so advise me.'
'That is my object.' Mr Crawley, as he had spoken, had in his vehemence, risen from his seat, and Mr Robarts was also standing.
'Then tell the archdeacon,' said Mr Crawley, 'that I will have none of his advice. I will have no one there paid by me to obstruct the course of justice or to hoodwink a jury. I have been in the courts of law, and know what is the work for which these gentlemen are hired. I will have none of it, and I will thank you to tell the archdeacon so, with my respectful acknowledgements of his consideration and condescension. I say nothing as to my own innocence, or my own guilt. But I do say that if I am dragged before that tribunal, an innocent man, and am falsely declared to be guilty, because I lack money to bribe a lawyer to speak for me, then the laws of this country deserve but little of that reverence which we are accustomed to pay them. And if I be guilty--'
'Nobody supposes you to be guilty.'
'And if I be guilty,' continued Mr Crawley, altogether ignoring the interruption, except by the repetition of his words, and a slight raising of his voice, 'I will not add to my guilt by hiring anyone to prove a falsehood or to disprove a truth.'
'I'm sorry that you should say so, Mr Crawley.'
'I speak according to what light I have, Mr Robarts; and if I have been over-warm with you--and