Henry Fielding

“ Are not Pride, Hatred, and the other Passions, as powerful Tyrants in the Mind of Man; and is not the Interest which these Passions propose to themselves by the Enjoyment of their Object, as prevalent a Motive to Evil as the Hope of any pecuniary Interest whatever.
But to keep more closely to the Point—Why shall not any Credit be given to the Evidence of an Accomplice?—My Lord Hale tells us, that he hath been guilty of a great Crime: and yet if he had been the convicted and burnt in the Hand, all the Authorities tell us, that his Credit had been restored ”

“ Now how is this corroborating Evidence to be obtained in this Case? Street Robberies are generally committed in the dark, the Persons on whom they are committed are often in Chairs and Coaches, and if on Foot, the Attack is usually begun by knocking the Party down, and for the Time depriving him of his Senses. But if the Thief should be less barbarous, he is seldom so incautious as to omit taking every Method to prevent his being known, by flapping the Party's Hat over his Face, and by every other Method which he can invent to avoid Discovery. ”

“ But indeed any such Methods are hardly necessary: for when we consider the Circumstance of Darkness, mentioned before, the extreme Hurry of the Action, and the Terror and Consternation in which most Persons are in at such a Time, how shall we imagine it possible, that they should afterwards be able, with any (the least) Degree of Certainty, to swear to the Identity of the Thief, whose Countenance is, perhaps, not a little altered by his subsequent Situation, and who takes care as much as possible he can, by every Alteration of Dress, and otherwise, to disguise himself. ”

“ But if, notwithstanding all the Rubs which we have seen to lie in the Way, the Indictment is found, and the Thief brought to his Trial, still he hath sufficient Hopes of escaping, either from the Caution of the Prosecutor's Evidence, or from the Hardiness of his own.
In Street Robberies the Difficulty of convicting a Criminal is extremely great. ”

“ But even these Persons can scarce be thought so very void of Understanding as to lose their Souls for nothing, and to commit the horrid Sins of Perjury and Murder without any Temptation, or Prospect of Interest, nay even against their Interest. ”

“ Such Characters are not to be found in History, nor do they exist any where but in distempered Brains, and are always rejected as Monsters, when they are produced in Works of Fiction: for surely we spoil the Verse rather than the Sense by saying, Nemo gratis suit Turpissimus. Under such Circumstances, and under the Caution of a good Judge, and the Tenderness of an English Jury, it will be the highest Improbability that any Man should be wrongfully convicted ”