"What would have been said, what believed, if this had
been an accident to the bones in question? Farther, my
Lord, it is not yet out of living memory, that a little distance
from Knaresborough in a field, part of the manor of the
worthy and patriot baronet, who does that borough the honor
to represent it in Parliament, were found in digging for gravel,
not one human skeleton only, but five or six, deposited
side by side, with each an urn placed at its head, as your
Lordship knows was usual in ancient interments. About the
same time, in another field, almost close to this borough,
was discovered also, in searching for gravel, another human
skeleton; but the piety of the same worthy gentleman ordered
both pits to be filled up again, commendably, unwilling
to disturb the dead. Is the invention of these bones
forgotten, then, or industriously concealed, that the discovery
of those in question may appear the more singular and
extraordinary? whereas, in fact, there is nothing extraordinary
in it. My Lord, almost every place conceals such
remains. In fields, in hills, in highway sides, in commons,
lie frequent and unsuspected bones. And our present
allotments for rest for the departed is but of some centuries.
"Another particular seems not to claim a little of your Lordship's notice, and that of the gentlemen of the jury, which is that perhaps no example occurs of more than one skeleton being found in one cell; and in the cell in question was found but one, agreeable in this to the peculiarity of every other known cell in Britain. Not the invention of one skeleton, but of two, would have appeared suspicious and uncommon. But it seems another skeleton has been discovered by some labourer, which was full as confidently asserted to be Clarke's as this. My Lord, must some of the living, if it promotes some interest, be made answerable for all the bones which earth has concealed and chance exposed? and might not a place where bones lay, be mentioned by a person by chance, as well as found by a labourer by chance? or is it more criminal accidentally to name where bones lie, than accidentally to find where they lie? Here too is a hu-
