Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

or some other act to have been committed of a similar tendency. This was necessary, to invest the jury with a legal power to investigate the facts; but when this had been done, any other act committed, whether within or without the county, might be received as evidence without any objection; he meant as far as respected the locality of the evidence. The law also required on the trial, by the grand as well as the other jury, that the overt acts should be proved by the oaths of two witnesses, though one was sufficient to each particular fact. If, however, the overt act implied had any direct attempt, whereby the life of his majesty was attacked, or bodily harm threatened him, in that case, by the 39th and 40th of his present majesty, the party might be tried in like manner as if he had been tried for murder. He was not aware that any such direct attempt would form the subject of their inquiry under the present commission. It was unnecessary for him to suggest any thing further as to the form of the indictment, or the number of witnesses by which it was necessary to be supported. He would however trespass on their attention while he adverted to another subject--he meant as to the probable effect of those acts about to be laid before the jury, It was the nature of the minds of men who were busily occupied in the contemplation of offences injurious to the interests of society, to entertain a confident persuasion that the sentiments of others were congenial to their own; and this persuasion too frequently induced them to pursue their machinations. It engendered in the hearts of guilty men, that degree of rashness in their overtures to those they

wished to associate with them, which, fortunately for the public, generally was attended with the discovery of the whole scheme they were engaged in ; but the greatest and most important part of the disclosure, and which alone could develope the secret springs of their actions, could only be de tailed by those to whom the facts were disclosed, who had partici pated in the counsels of the cons spirators who had engaged in the same designs.

The evidence of accomplices, although competent, was at all times to be received and acted upon with jealousy and caus tion; and unless the evidence derived from such a source was of a nature which carried complete con viction of its truth, it ought not to constitute the ground of a conclu sion which should affect the lives, fortunes, or honour of the persons under accusation. In weighing therefore the evidence of accom plices, the jury would expect to find such a degree of consistency, in their testimony, such a general1 conformity in the relations of the several witnesses, such a coinci dence with the main rules of ordinary probability, as to render the sum and substance of such des tails credible and worthy of being relied on. If the evidence should be of the nature he had described, the jury would give it that credit to which they should consider its entitled. They would of course bear in mind, that it was by an other jury the guilt or innocence of the persons accused was to be esuri tablished on the present occasion it was necessary that a reasonable and probable ground should be made out to warrant the grand jury inputting the parties accused upon their trial before that other jury, which, upon a full hearing of the case

and

and the evidence on both sides, might be able to pronounce a ver dict of condemnation or acquittal. If such testimony should be brought before them as he had described, it was their duty to submit it to the ulterior investigation of another jury; at present it was only neces sary to add, that to refuse its proper degree of credit to the sort of testimony he had alluded to, would be to render the crime the means of its own protection. The adoption of a principle of distrust to the evidence of accomplices, would be to violate common sense and the rules of justice. He should forbear detailing to the jury the particulars of the offences charged against the prisoners; by so doing, he should avoid exciting the slightest degree of prejudice against them; and the ends of justice would be attained with equal certainty. If the jury should consider that the present conspiracy was as hopeless and ill advised, and had as little chance of success as other abortive treasons, they would only on that account require stronger evidence in proof of an act of such extreme folly and wickedness; but if it should be made out to their satis faction, their doubt and diffidence would be succeeded by other senti ments-by sentiments of surprise and horror surprise at the boldness of such a scheme, and horror at the tremendous consequences which must have attended its suc cess. Considering, said his lordship, to whom he was addressing himself, he feared he had occupied too long a portion of their time. He had endeavoured to state as much of the nature of the indictment, the proof which would be brought forward in support of it, and the nature and quality of that proof, as would enable the jury to

estimate its value, and to draw such a conclusion as reason and justice required. They would now proceed, in discharge of their duty, to the investigation of a subject, which as deeply affected the interests of the country, as the lives and fame of the parties under accusation. He had no doubt but the result would be as satisfactory to the public, as it would be just towards those persons who were the objects of the duty they had to perform.

The lord chief justice having concluded his address, the grand jury immediately withdrew with the bills of indictment.

[ocr errors]

The names of those against whom true bills were found, were as follow: Edward Marcus Despard, Thomas Broughton, James Sedgwick Wratten, William Lander, Arthur Graham, Samuel Smith, John M'Namara, John Wood, John Francis, Thomas Brown, Daniel Tyndall, John Doyle, and Thomas Phillips alias Jackson.

22. The commissioners of naval inquiry have commenced their sittings in Great George-street, Westminster, at the house formerly occupied by the chancellor of the Irish exchequer.

The Moniteur of the 19th contains a decree of the consuls of the republic, for establishing a com missary general and council in the island of Elba, and the adjacent islands of Capraia, Pianosa, Palmaiola, and Monte Christo depending on it; and for regulating the administration of these islands.

[ocr errors]

126. On Saturday night last, a cool, deliberate, and horrid murder was perpetrated in Greenwich hospital, upon one of the pensioners by another; the circumstances of

(B4)

which

which as nearly as we could collect were as follow:-The perpetrator, who had been some years a pensioner, was of a disposition so violent and quarrelsome as to render himself very obnoxious to his associates, and became so extremely troublesome in this respect, at the public-houses in the town, to which he was in the habit of resorting, that for a considerable time past none of them would admit or entertain him. About a month since, he had been guilty of some gross breach of duty within the college, for which he was brought before the board of commissioners, upon the charge of a fellow pensioner, who acted in the capacity of boatswain; and the fact being substantiated, he was mulcted of two months pocket money, and severely reprimanded, but without any further disgrace.

This however was sufficient to exasperate him to vengeance against his accuser, and another, his birth-mate, who had corroborated his testimony, and on Saturday night he determined to carry his purpose into execution: he went in the dead hour of night into the cabin or apartment of the deceased, who was alone and wrapt in sleep, and with a large poker, at a single blow, literally beat out his brains, and killed him so instantaneously that he never uttered a single groan. Fortunately for his bed-fellow, to whom a similar fate was intended, he had obtained permission to sleep out of the hospital that night with his family.

The murderer then went into the next birth, where an aged pensioner was in bed, and minutely examined whether he was asleep, lest he might have heard any thing of what had just passed. The man, who heard the blow, and ex

pected every moment a similar fate, lay still as if fast asleep; but on the murderer having left him, and retired to his own cabin, the man immediately got up, and alarmed the guard, a party of whom directly came to the place and secured the murderer, after a desperate resistance.

Monday morning the coroner's jury returned their verdict of wilful murder on the body of the de ceased, and the perpetrator was, committed to Maidstone gaol; but so far was he from evincing any signs of remorse for the deed, that he only declared his regret at not having the opportunity of killing. the other man, who had so fortunately eluded his desperate purpose.

The accounts from St. Domingo by the Jamaica mail present the most afflicting picture of the miseries of that fine colony. It: is impossible for the French go.. vernment now to conceal the disas trous and almost desperate state of their cause. One of the most numerous and one of the best appointed armies that ever sailed from the ports of Europe, is now reduced to a few thousands, and the wretched remains of the French troops are daily falling a prey to the diseases of the climate.

On Sunday evening a boy was found concealed in the gallery of Trinity chapel, Conduit-street, where he had collected a consider able number of the prayer-books. belonging to the congregation, for the purpose of carrying them away. He accidentally let fall one of the books, the noise of which alarmed some persons in a room underneath, and led to his discovery; a turnscrew and other implements to facilitate his escape were found upon him. He was fully committed from the police-office, Marlborough

street,

1803.]

street, on Monday, to take his trial.

many

27. Glasgow college was at tacked on the night of the 24th inst. by a riotous mob, which demolished of the front windows. Gibraltar, Dec. 30.-I wrote you three days ago, informing you of the alarm we had here from the riotous conduct of two of our regiments. I ought to have informed you that about half of the second battalion of the royals, being composed of Irish and of drafts from other corps, which are, as all your military readers know, invariably the worst men, it did not excite much surprise that they had in dulged themselves to excess when they had got possession of money; but the wonder was how they had been able, after the regulations that had been judiciously adopted here, to get liquor in such quantity. This however has been ascertained on the trial of eight of the rioters of the 25th regiment, which closed yesterday.

From the evidence, it appeared clearly that the riot had not resulted from any premeditated plan, or a disaffection to any of their of ficers, but was merely the result of drunkenness. It came out however that some Dutchmen, of whom there are about seventy in the regiment, and who are discon tented at not having been discharged at the end of the war, were the chief instigators to the riot, and would have spurred on the other soldiers to some misBut chief, if they had been able. the most important fact brought Qut, was the way in which the men got so large a supply of liquor.

When his royal highness the duke of Kent arrived here as commander, he found that the soldiers could obtain liquor with so much facility,

that they were absolutely thereby
deprived of many of the real com-
forts, which otherwise would be
within their reach. This evil had
great
arisen to an alarming height, and
its source was traced to the
number, and the bad character of
many of the wine-houses. The most
worthless were therefore suppres➡
sed; and it was to be hoped, from
the regulations adopted, that the
evil would soon be cured;
indeed the good effects of this wise
measure were in a short time ma-
nifest in the conduct and discipline
of the garrison.

and

On the present trial, it came out that the wine-sellers, whose houses had been suppressed, had gratui tously supplied many of the men of the 25th regiment with buckets of wine in as great quantity as they could drink, to induce them to cry out for the wine-houses being open again, in the hope, probably, that could the men be by this means enfuriated, they might create such an alarm as might surprise the commander into a promise of this kind, as the means of restoring quiet.

In this their hopes have been frustrated, and some of them will have cause to repent of the experiment they have made. Three of them, to whom the charge has been brought home, are now in prison for the offence, and will be prosecuted with proper severity as soon as the trial of the soldiers is ended. The sentence of the eight soldiers who have been tried, will not be known till the trial of the other five, which is now going on, shall be over.

January 3. To-morrow three of the ringleaders belonging to the 25th regiment are to be shot on the grand parade, in presence of the whole garrison, at eight o'clock. Their names are Pastoret, Teigh

man,

man, and Reilly-the two former are Dutch, and the last an Irishman, It appears clearly that the whole of the late mischief and disturbances, both in the royals and 25th regiment, originated solely in the foreigners and drafts, none of the old soldiers having been at all accessary to the business.

FEBRUARY.

2. This night, a little before 12 o'clock, an alarming fire broke out at the printing-office of Mr. Samuel Hamilton, Falcon - court, Fleetstreet, which, in the short space of two hours, entirely consumed the whole of his valuable and extensive premises. A fire at a printingoffice is at all times interesting to literary men; and under the circumstances in which Mr. Hamilton was placed, as proprietor of an emis nent literary journal (the CRITICAL REVIEW) which, for the last half century, has been equally distinguished for its learning and impartiality, it becomes more particularly so to every scholar and friend of polite literature. The principal booksellers of London, together with several private gentlemen, are more or less sufferers by this dreadful conflagration. The loss being thus fortunately divided among a number little short of thirty, each is enabled to bear it without any other inconvenience than the interruption of business necessarily arising from so unforeseen an accident. The manuscripts of the most important works are saved; those of the CRITICAL REVIEW, and of the Lady's Magazine, were with the respective editors. As it was some time before water could be procured to play with effect on the flames, the greatest

alarm pervaded the neighbourhood, the inhabitants of which were too busily employed in preparing for the same dreadful scene, to afford any effectual assistance in removing Mr. Hamilton's property: the whole, therefore, that could be removed, was not deemed secure till it was on the other side of Fleetstreet. Dr. Rennell, the master of the Temple, in great alarm for his house, which was in imminent danger, the roof being at one time on fire, removed all his library, and lost many valuable books. Many of the neighbours' houses were also severally on fire; and but for the active exertions of the firemen, must have shared the same fate. The weight, however, that was in the upper part of Mr. Hamilton's premises, assisted con siderably to prevent this conflagration from spreading, as in a little more than an hour from the commencement of the fire, the top fell in with a dreadful crash, by which means the flames were in a great measure confined to the ruins. Happily no lives were lost. Mr. Hamilton's loss, from the nature of the property (printed books), is particularly severe; and we are sorry to add, he was not fully in sured. It is supposed to have arisen from the carelessness of a boy, who, in consequence, was taken before a magistrate, and underwent an examination; but nothing transpired so as to fix the negligence upon him: the cause is therefore still left in uncertainty.> One circumstance relative to this calamity deserves to be recorded. A part of the works of the latelearned and much respected rev. Gilbert Wakefield remained at Mr. Hamilton's warehouses, and had been insured at the Sun fire office, for one thousand pounds, but

« ПредишнаНапред »