200 DUTCH AND ENGLISH ON THE HUDSON

Bradley as attorney-general. Chambers pleaded
"not guilty" on behalf of his client; but to the
throng who crowded the court-room to suffoca-
tion, Zenger's case must have looked black indeed.
There was no question that he had published the
objectionable articles, and according to the Eng-
lish law of the day the truth of a libel could not be
set up as a defense. It was even some years later
that Lord Mansfield upheld the amazing doctrine
that "the greater the truth the greater the libel."
A part of the importance of the Zenger trial lies in
its sweeping away in this part of the world the
possibility of so monstrous a theory.

A great and overwhelming surprise, however,
awaited the prosecutors of Zenger. The secret
had been well kept and apparently every one was
amazed when there appeared for the defense one
Andrew Hamilton, a citizen of Philadelphia, of
venerable age and the most noted and able lawyer
in the colonies. From this moment he became the
central figure of the trial and his address was
followed with breathless interest. He touched
upon his own age and feebleness with consummate
tact and dramatic effect:

You see that I labour under the weight of years, and am
borne down with great infirmities of body; yet, old and