_ Hardie: and wound up with this fiery
peroration:
"This Englishman sues not merely for damages, but to recover lost rights
dearer far than money, of which he says he has been unjustly robbed: his
right to walk in daylight on the soil of his native land without being
seized and tied up for life like a nigger or a dog; his footing in
society; a chance to earn his bread; and a place among mankind: ay, among
mankind; for a lunatic is an animal in the law's eye and society's, and
an alleged lunatic is a lunatic till a jury clears him.
I appeal to you, gentlemen, is not such a suitor sacred in all wise and
good men's minds? Is he not defendant as well as plaintiff? Why, his
stake is enormous compared with the nominal defendant's; and, if I know
right from wrong, to postpone his trial a fourth time would be to insult
Divine justice, and trifle with human misery, and shock the common sense
of nations."
The doctor's pen neither clipped the words nor minced the matter, you
see. Reading this the water came into Alfred's eyes. "Ah, staunch
friend," he said, "how few are like you! To the intellectual dwarfs who
conspire with my oppressors, Hardie _v.
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