MR. WHITING, (to witness.)-What was the time?
WITNESS. It was on the 19th of January.
COUNSEL.-1855 ?

WITNESS.-1855.

COUNSEL.-Whereabouts? and at what hour of the day? WITNESS.-In Madison Avenue, between Twenty-eighth and Thirty-first streets, I believe.

COUNSEL. You saw him in possession of Mr. Collins in Madison Avenue?

WITNESS.-Mr. Collins was riding on horseback.

COUNSEL.-Between what hours of the day?

WITNESS.-Between twelve and two; I could not exactly state

the time.

COUNSEL.-After twelve, and before two?

WITNESS.-Yes, sir.

COUNSEL.-In what direction was he going?

WITNESS.-He was coming down the Avenue this way, towards Madison Square.

Cross-examined by MR. STOUGHTON :

COUNSEL.--Mr. Hoffman, you saw this horse in Madison Avenue, and ridden, you say, by Mr. Collins, on the 19th January? WITNESS.-Yes, sir.

COUNSEL.--Do you recollect whether he had a blanket on, or how he looked?

WITNESS.-He had on a blanket or a horse-cloth. I don't exactly recollect.

COUNSEL.-Was his head covered?

WITNESS.-I believe it was.

WM. H. FORMAN, sworn. Examined by MR. WHITING :—

COUNSEL.-Were you witness to an interview that Mr. Jones had, at any time, with_Mr. Carlin?

WITNESS, I was.

COUNSEL.-Where?

WITNESS.-In Wall-street, nearly opposite No. 54.
COUNSEL.-Do you remember what time?

WITNESS. The 20th day of January last.

COUNSEL. Did you see Carlin with Mr. Jones?

WITNESS.-I did, sir.

COUNSEL.-Did you hear the conversation between them?
WITNESS.-Perfectly well, sir.

COUNSEL.-What passed between them?

WITNESS. The conversation opened in the first place, by Mr. Carlin saying that he was on his way to the office of Messrs. Beebe & Donohue; that he had understood they meant to discontinue this suit brought by Mr. Collins; and that they must make up their minds immediately on what they meant to do, or he should return the horse where he got it.

Mr. Jones said he must in no event discontinue the suit, without putting the horse back where he got him.

Carlin said he certainly should not; that he had been humbugged long enough in relation to the matter, and that the plaintiff must come to some positive decision, as to what he meant to do. COUNSEL.-Is that all?

WITNESS.-I believe, sir, that is the substance of it.

MR. WHITING now proposed to read the papers in evidence.
MR. STOUGHTON.-What

papers are those?

MR. WHITING.-The replevin papers.

MR. STOUGHTON.-State your purpose.

MR. WHITING.-I put them in to show that the prosecutor here had a certain suit, in which he was the defendant, and Collins and his wife the plaintiffs.

(Admitted accordingly.)

I believe that is our case.

THE DEFENCE.

Mr. CLINTON opened the case for the defendant, as follows:Gentlemen of the Jury:

I shall trouble you with but a very short statement of this case, in opening it to you. Perhaps it is hardly necessary to say anything on the evidence; when it becomes so, that duty will be performed hereafter, by my learned associate.

I understood the facts of this case to be briefly these :-Some time in the summer of '54, Mr. Jones, this gentleman of irritable temper, and remarkable philosophy, and equity, and amiability, happened to be boarding, or residing temporarily, at New Rochelle. At the same time, Mr. John Collins, a son of Mr. E. K. Collins, was residing at that place. Mr. Collins' wife owned this gray horse, and was in the habit of riding it. Mr. Jones saw it while there, took a great fancy for it, and offered Mr. Collins, as I am informed, a pretty large price; at least, considerably larger than he ultimately got the horse for. Mr. Collins did not wish to part with the horse, as it was his wife's, and he wanted to retain it for particular purposes. Subsequently Mr. Collins left, and left this horse in the custody of a gentleman up there, who kept this stable. There was no authority there, on the part of Mr. Shute, to part with this horse, or to do anything with him.

MR. WHITING.--I object to your going into anything that has been ruled out. We certainly shall not go into the title of this horse here.

MR. CLINTON.--I am stating facts, to which lengthened reference was made in the opening, by the plaintiff. It is necessary to state these facts, in order that the jury may understand this transaction, for which Carlin is sought to be convicted.

RECORDER.-The opening on the part of the prosecution, was certainly quite latitudinarian. It went over a very broad ground. This can do no harm.

MR. WHITING. The objection is, to permitting the gentleman to go on and make long openings about a matter which the Court will not allow to be proved. We should have no objection to going into that matter, if it were proper; and we would have no hesitation in submitting our claims to the property, because we defy any one to show that he is not ours, by every right, legal and moral. But that cannot be gone into. That is a matter with which the jury have no business. It is purely collateral. It is in this way that so much of the time of the Court is absorbed. We are now at a late hour on Saturday, and the case must be terminated. But how can we hope to close it, if these statements, which have nothing to do with the real issue, are to be introduced.

MR. CLINTON. After the very extraordinary opening made by the complainant in this case, there is certainly no impropriety in my stating what I propose to do. This gentleman, then, the complainant, went, as we say, in the absence of Mr. Collins, and, knowing that he could not purchase the horse at all of Mr. Collins, he entered into some collusion with this Mr. Shute, by which he got the horse. Mr. Collins, on ascertaining this, was, as appears from the complainant's own statement, very indignant. He (Coilins) then, as the complainant himself has stated before you, in conjunction with some officer of a court, or police officer, or constable, went to the stable where this horse was kept, and he, supposing he had a right to take this horse back, it having been, as he claimed, and as he thought, morally and legally, stolen from him. He went, I say, and took that horse back, believing he had been stolen, and by a party who, as he said, had no right to him; and

that is the reason why I make this statement, Mr. Jones having stated that this horse was taken from him, and they claiming that he had been stolen.

Then this complainant, by another trick-and I think it was a very unfair one-went and commenced a suit, not against Mr. Collins, who had the horse, and was the proper person to defend the suit and try the title to the property; but against the stablekeepers; and then he discontinued those proceedings, and without the papers being returned to the Sheriff's office, or anything done, those parties gave up the horse to him immediately, on the payment of his fees for keeping him. Then Mr. Collins ascertains that Mr. Jones has got the horse into his possession a second time, by a trick, as he says. Now, gentlemen, this Mr. Jones, who seems to be endowed with such universal philanthropy, went, upon his own showing, and did the very thing that he charges upon my client in this case. He went and got the Deputy Sheriff and the stablekeeper to consent that he, Jones, the plaintiff in that suit, should be put in possession of the horse the very instant the Sheriff served the replevin papers. Jones tells you himself, that he went that time, and did the identical thing, that he says you ought to convict my client for doing. It appears in his own statement, that there was no return made of the papers, and in that way he, the plaintiff, was put in possession of the horse, just as Collins was in a counter-suit of precisely the same character. Mr. Collins, after ascertaining that the horse had been again taken in this way, commences a replevin suit to get the horse back again, for the second or third time. He gets a person named Kruger to go up there, and be there at the time the Deputy Sheriff serves the papers. The Deputy Sheriff goes up there, for the purpose, as I suppose the evidence will show, and as the facts already detailed show, of serving those papers, and executing them in the ordinary way. Mr. Collins goes along also. Well, he demands the horse upon those papers, and when he has done so, Collins or Kruger engages him in conversation with Mr. Cleaver; the horse is brought out, and, while