An unfortunate man, who was yesterday found guilty before you for the embezzlement of a bank post-bill out of a letter, was induced to cherish a faint hope of salvation from your eloquent and humane charge to the jury. To this hope he still clings, not from the consciousness of an innocence he cannot plead, but from the belief that you, sir, who seemed to think one solitary instance of error in the life of a human being was scarcely sufficient in the eye of morality or of mercy to extinguish that life; and that as one whom a transient weakness seduced, or a temporary distress impelled—as a father and a husband, he might awaken your interest in his unhappy destiny, and by benevolently recommending him to the mercy of the Lord-Lieutenant, restore him to a life of future honesty and exertion—to a young and helpless family who depend solely upon his exertions for subsistence and support.
For myself, sir, I am at a loss almost to account, still more to excuse, the liberty I take in thus presuming to address you; but your character has been long known to me.
