The John Griffin

Mr. Donohue, for the appellant, argued that this attempt to confiscate a valuable vessel rested wholly on the testimony of a convicted smuggler, a man so base that he now unblushingly avows that for $500 he was, a short time since, ready to swear to what he declares was a gross lie. Such testimony, the learned counsel contended, was not fit to be received in any court. Mr. C. H. Hill, Assistant Attorney-General, contra, contended that the evidence offered in behalf of the government presented a prim a facie case, which the testimony of the claimants had failed to overcome; and that in such a case sentence of condemnation necessarily followed.