Phenix Gazette

AVERY'S TRIAL

The investigation will probably, according to our latest accounts, be protracted far beyond general anticipation. On Saturday week, one hundred witnesses had been examined, and as many more were to follow.

The following remarks from the correspondent of the Boston Daily Advocate, indicate the great and growing importance and deep excitement which this trial has occasioned:—

Newport, Saturday, May 18

The trial of Mr. Avery "drags its slow length along," and we cannot yet even begin to look at the end. The whole range of human sciences, professions, occupations and feelings, are more or less brought into it, and there never was a case which so thoroughly illustrated the "maxim that a lawyer ought to know a little of every thing"

There is the law of the case, that is for the lawyer; the anatomy of it for the doctor; the theology of it, (connected with points that have been introduced touching the discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and their mode of conducting Camp Meetings) for the minister; the nature and effects of different kinds of knots, and the movements of the Ferry Boats, for the Sailor; the kind of cords used in Cotton Mills, &c. for the Manufacturer; the weather and the optical medium for the Astronomer and Philosopher; the regulations of the Post office for the Post Master; coal mines and fossils for the Geologist; the nature of grounds, stack yards, hus ducks, fog grass, &c. for the Farmer; combs and paper, for the Comb and Paper Maker; the explosion of rocks for the Engineer; the measuring of distances for the Surveyor, the capacity of passing between different points for the pedestrian; the regulations of store keepers, in admitting customers behind their counters, for the trader—and in fact I might fill a sheet in enumerating the ramifications into which this most extraordinary of all extraordinary cases has been carried. The printers will come in for their full share, in publishing a cargo of Reports. Even poetry has not been wanting.

One of the witnesses to day, a prompt, pretty damsel, repeated a long piece of poetry, with most approved emphasis, which she had treasured up, and which a young man had written in praise of the unfortunate deceased, whose death has given rise to this trial.

Wherever she is traced, she seems to have carried a remarkable power of fascination, and commanding influence over those around her, whatever may have been her vices. This has been fully exemplified in her biography, which has been the subject of the two last day's examination, exclusively. On this topic alone, twenty one females and eight men, have been examined, yesterday and to day, making thirty-two witnesses for the prisoner; so that we now have had just one hundred witnesses on the stand, and as many more are to come. Those who have testified yesterday and to-day, have traced the deceased from the cradle to the fatal stack yard, and the fruitful theme of her character is by no means exhausted. It is to be resumed on Monday.

Thus far the defence has been confined to anatomical and surgical investigations upon suicide and hanging, and the private history of the deceased. The main points are yet to come, though less voluminous. The court are very indulgent to the prisoner as they should be; and the Attorney General, who always enforces the rules of law with extreme reluctance in such cases, admits evidence of every possible relation to this case, with extreme liberality. Names of individuals, who little dream of the immortality they are to receive by this trial, are called up, by the witnesses in strange shapes. The village tales of Lowell, Dover, Great Falls, Slatersville, Thompson, Bozrah, Jewett's City, Pawtucket, Woodstock, Waltham, Millville, and half the factory villages in New England, have been presented with exceeding minuteness of detail, and great vivacity of imagination. Love, murder, suicide, devotion, profanity and insanity drawn out in alternate light and shade. He would learn more of human nature in the observation of a day than he can gather in the radiance of a year, should come to Newport here any time next week he will find a witness on the stand.

Still all this is in some degree necessary, if not indispensable to the defence of the prisoner. The majesty of justice is to be upheld, and the scales which she now holds in suspense over the head of the unfortunate prisoner, are to be carefully guarded, that they may be rightfully turned.

The occasion is serious and solemn, but many of the by scenes of the melancholy tragedy are exceedingly ludicrous.