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[Page 5]
are at best merely conjectural, and are so wholly undefinable as to allow of all persons according to their various interests and pursuits to attach what meaning they please to them, but Gentlemen it would be abuse and a waste of your time and an imposition on your understandings to delay you longer on this subject, I shall therefore only observe that in law they cannot be admitted as proof against me.
With respect to Captain Kemp's testimony, I most solemnly swear that I never heard him express himself to the effect he has sworn, and against his oath is the direct evidence of Mr. Griffin. And besides it being physically impossible by any evidence howsoever strong to prove that I heard the words so sworn to, by Captain Kemp, as spoken by him to me, I humbly submit to you Gentlemen, that I have not sworn a false oath, nor am I guilty of wilful and corrupt perjury - for according to Hawkins 172, though I might be in error "I was not however guilty of perjury wilful or corrupt, because when a person even swears falsely if he mistook the true state of the question, it is not perjury." But Gentlemen although