Star. — London, England, 1816-08-19 00:00:00

Pr 77 -• • , s wim, trait, tbt intifi it, hiving isteived lege% Muir me on, the day he -enclosing two franke,: , iiihich litter, *canon as ihir report of my ab• sense nins'etinffr_ pied, Mr. Cochrane himself took and sheweinct the Marshal, hi order to evince that I had sot nuttle him acquainted with the transaction. But :the Matsifill immediately perceived that that letter l oigb, feasibly answer another purpose, namely, that. raising a belief that I was actually in the prison 'on the day it bore date, and therefore, in all probis • bpJ y, was'still concealed within the walls; for be hnutediately entiwated Mr. Cochrane to allow him tn. thew that *letter to the Chairman of the Cow:gust o f the House of Commons then sitting. And•having ;o done, he begged Mr. Cochrane.to communicate to ins, that if I would immediately return, I shield be deceived in the middle of the night by himself and tote confidential turnkey, and that no other person should be in attendance, or know any thing of the , inatti.r I so that I might be found in my room the nett morning, and it would appear that I had merely toncealed myself in the prison. Then, upon Mr. Coshrane's a ce that he would use.every exec.. lion to effect the proposed, and would, if pos. sib* accomplish it immediately, observing, tbat the Marshal would thereby save his 300 guineas, the reward he bad held out for my apprehension ; he seized Mr. Cochrane's hand, and thanked him for his kind considtration for his interest, and the trouble be took in the matter ; and on the next day he wrote to m r .c oo b ro os a letter, r ichwhch is as follows sts-as earaesetines el the vsation that penal be tweenosysitenhy snatched, i Was led to hope that I should have the *ware el owing yea in the course of the night, se. co rding to an arraogwanat that was, in a manner, wade hews= . but haying haw *appointed in that pleasure, and having aloady qtly harassed. I shook! not like to sit up the whole .of this night, as I did. the last, unneces.arily. I have, thesefort, sant the bearer with this, in a confidential way, to stqsat shat yen will let me know whether you have any avec- Wes et accoinplishiag se desirable an event fur all the parties as ire had caotanplated.-1 ant, Or, your very obedient bumble sawn, *Piped) " Wm. Jones, Marshal. Ktag's Bench, Tuesday evening, s4th Much, this. ti Basil Cochnae, &c. Hence it appears that the Marshal was most anzi. on: to compromise an act which he has since visited with the Severest punishment, and still represents as a great and ssiseend crime, and railing tor further castigation. Mr. Basil Cochrane took the earliest .opportunity of conveying.to me by letter the Mar. she: proposition, stating, that he would receive me privately at any hour of any night I would appoint, and that the Marshal was rejoiced at the idea of such an arrangement; upon which I immediately wrote ti Mr. Cochrane, informing him that I had quitted die custody of the Marshal for the purpose of endea vouring to bring the conduct of Lord Etlenborough before the House of Commons. and that i should act accordingly at an early day, probably the Tuesday fallowing, audit was precisely on the Tuesday follow- log that I did so act; and Mr. Cochrane had, in the EMI time, communitated my intention to the Mar 'dial, and had actuallf recommended him to have persons . in readiness to take me in charge on my re. .turn Irom the House ; and it was under the appre- bunion that such persons would be in attendance that I went st an early hour, in order that my en • Wince might not be obstructed ; not anticipating any 'WOW* within the walls, and being indifftrenrat to what Might occur at • my egress,' provided I could lineeeed rn tity purpose Of being heard in the lions& The Marshal, therefore, had an opportunity afforded Mc of effeeting the arrest by his own officers. and . of avoiding the advertised pay tient of 500.ksialm; 'and tbereinye sc if he has totally' sustained that, cos nay otber . zapsisherable expense (which is most impris. table), it hen faith. I also announced my in tantioa Hbuse, And for whit pur pose. byw to' the Right Hon. the Speakr an the very day my. absence from tbe prison was disco. *tied ; and 1 am assured that the Marshal himself, through the medium of that communication, had al- Most immediate intelligence of my intention ; so that in effect be had all along been apprised of the cause and object of my departure, and where I might ulti mately'be found ; end, through Mr. Cochrane he ' Was made acquainted with the precise day : that it is niosteiriaent that nothing could be farther from my intention than to elude the sentence of the Couri, however conscibus I was of the injustice of that sen tence. I avoided it for the moment, because I had no tither hope of ff.:ctttilly remonstrating against it ; but resnoestrance, and nut evasion. Was most deci dedly my object. The intention of thepertoncletrged 6 the gist of ev e ry criminal act; my departure from trison, therefore, was not an escape in any criminal sense, which, as before observed. is contemplated in law as an act done with intent wholly to abscond front and evade justice. It is rink an intention car. tied ant° effect which constitutes the offence with Maids I 'am charged; whereas it has been demon. Mated, that no such intention existed, and it is well flown that no such effect ensued. It is 'but too true that I have sutered the. full term of the imprison ment decreed, with the aggiivation 'of _much wan ton claming' and unnestetiary restraint. The dun pirs, 'for such it is, in ivilidh the Marshal thought pro 4 to incarcerate Me, after my reception; is twiallrealled the strong but it has also ann. tter name. 1.1 the orders for the better government 14 Om prison, made and signed by the udges inthe year 1729, is called the hole—the 6 h ole or room, com monly called the stroll It it nearly 100 3ears tiuce thejudges recognised itbithat name, and length of time hat net entitled it to a better. The recent Committee of Inquiry, treating Of this hole, and of my cootnentent therein, tepnrt as follows p —gs The places of cue finer Within the walls of thi prison art titled the strong rooms : there are two of theni, and Vta both of the same size, one floored With stone, the Othei with wood bur both without fire-places, and , riktinzt glass to the windows, which open in a small tows about 6 feet wide. In these miserable places e!sorrs hate beta shut up for months. Those who Lave beds are perMitted* in bring them, but to those . 'hh.i have. nona straw is furnished. It is as this . that Lord Cochrane bat been confined for above weeks; the windtki were. however, sashed Wiled on tjte third day after be crane into it, eaditte r "Ne clifiefed f yet the cold, and &die, and olfrbsive I "nelig'sOtlftt4sd his heislth, as to retail' . hie. rat.. l '°vaktieri:t i y." The Committee rOortithit per. oti I luitt • icenfined in the str‘ng room for !recta 1 init that one person wart so scut up not; 4 3 . 1411144,401 his offerings were Witt considerable. IlevlT*l l 4ll the Marshal had the colifidente to tell' avaiiaillige that be never kept peapk there above • a tidy or tio,iipan wie6 the aortinslitee . enough remark, le they tonna suppose he strilfdlly concealed from them the fact abovenneationed ; and they mast therefore consider this circumstance as fur nishingonother instance (if hit entire ignorince of 01 that is trattucted within the walls of the prison."— yhe Committee further declare their opinion (page 15) that the strong rooms are hot fit places of con finement. and strongly recommend the selection 01 tome other Apartment; and suggest, that wheneier the necessity of punishing any prisoner -occurs, the Marshal should immediately report the reasons thereof. to the visitors, and that the period Of confinement should not be extended beyond a week, without their special authOrity. Oa the subject of my contiaement in the strong room, which occurred in the inclement month of March, the Committee addressed some ques tions to Mr: BroOshoft, clerk to the Marshal, who stated that Lord Cochrane was confin e d in the swing rood; nearly a month, that it was two or three days before the windows were glated ; that during the first 'part of the time he was not permitted to walk out into the little yard, except for the occasions of nature ; .that owing to the darkness of the rum, he had ire .quently seen him with a cundle in the day time; that there was no m Ide of warming the strong room ; that Lord Cochrane made use of charcoal, till he (Brooshoft) begged he would do so ne leager ; that he complained of the cold and damp, and that offen sive smells arose, and that there was a cess-pool at the bottom, and a large butt underneath fur the re ception of the urine; meaning a considerable propor. don of the urine of the whole popplation of the prison, for the exterior of the wall, from its vicinity to the tap-room, and to the entrance of the prism, is rendered the place of most frequent resort for that purpose : and although Mr. B►ooshoft conceived that the place for making water was below the room, it is, in fact, immediately opposite. The Committee report that urine is suffered to accumulate for sale, in receptacles that are never washed, and the smell of it 1. gerierally.cornplained of. In the strong vim it may well be conceived to be intolerable, as well from the exhalation from the receptacles underneath, as from the soaking of :the water itself through the wall, to say nothing of the effluvia of the privies, which are situated close to the strong room, and of the adjoining piles of dirt which the Committee re port as offensive and unwholesoine. Such was the situation to which I WAS consigned by the Marshal for 26 days, and yet he calls for further inflictiuns. He wiU have it that his pestilent hole is not quite so bad as a ctll in the New Gaol in Horsemonger-lane, in which he asserts I should have been conatted, had he exercised his power of committing me to that prison on his own warrant for that escape, as he could have done, for the space of one:mouth : that there fore I have not had my Lull tv►easure of punishment, and the Marshal 'will make no abatement. He must have an equivalent for the difference between the hole and the cell, and for the two odd days. To the odd days in particular he is especially entitled, ar remitted them at the moment out of pure humanity : they could not thea have been added without endangering my life. He admits he was aware that my health would inevitably decline in th:t Situation : for he has made it his boast that he 46 requested two medical Gentlemen to attend, with *view to receive their super:sive reports as to the progressive state of my health ;" and that when they reported that it WAS *ei much impaired that a longer :continuance might be attended with " djahreraili c seq uen ceb." he deter miued to become my friend, and remove me to ann.' thee apartment i teat is to say, he ascertained, by surgical inspection, the extent to which he could tor cure me without absolute danger of death, and that, critically interposed jest in time to save my life, ark! preserve mc for further inflictions. The present pi o secution is the best comment on the 'iarsl►al's boasted humanity : but, in fact, it was not till alter the urgent certificate which I received from one of the Gentle. men sent by the Marshal, as well as that of my own physician, Dr. Buchan, pointing out the absolute necessity of an immediate change of abode, .had been transmitted to the linn. Mr. Bennet, Chairman of the Committee of Inquiry inw the state of Prisons, and by him laid before one iif the Secretaries of State; and until Messrs. Bennet and Lamborn (Members of that Committee) had renionstratea with the Marshal, that he reluctantly determined to liberate me troth the dungeon. These certificates were as follow -14 Thie is to certify, that I have this day %lilted Lord Cochrane, who is aff:cted with a severe pant in the brea.t ; his pulse is low, his hand. cold and he has many symptoms of a person about to have a typhus or putrid lever. 1 hest eyneptimis are, in my opi nion, produced by the stagnant air of the strongroom in which he is now confined, which has no ventilation, and is rendered es rctui.ly daub and unpleasant by the exudation of urine coming through the wail. " 18th April, IdIS. ALts. B. Bccuete." 44 1 hereby certify that I have visited Lord Cochrane, and am of opinion, from the state of his health it this time, that it is essentially necessary that. he should be removed from the room which be now inhabits to one which is better veodiated, and in which iltere is a li r e plat.. His Lordship complains of pain in, ' the chest, wi.h difficulty of respiration accompanied with great coldness of die hands and from the general state of his health, there is gr.at reason to fear that fever of a low typhus may come ou. " RICIIAILD liachusata." ' 6 Newington, Surrey, April 14, lei 6." [ln reading these certificates, his Lordship was so mush affected as to be almost incapable of proceeding. Mr. Justice Boaanyou begged his Lordship not to hurry himself, but to take his own time. Lord Cochrane apologized for the interruption, and said it was wholly t attributable to the painful recollections' 'which reading those certificates had produced. His Lordship thin proceeded.]. . By an order of the Court for the better government of the King's Beach Prison, .Isearing date the 19th day of Mays.l26o, and which in forcer and is inserted is the Appendix to the-recent Report of the COlUalitlBll of Inquiry (page 245), it appears, that in ease eery prisoner shalt either actually escape. or at. tempt ta swam t h e Marshal is empowered to remove him to t h e gaol for the county, of Surrey, for such, time es be shall adjudge- and think eliminate to the Whoa. netexceeding the space of one month. New, if the Marshal,- in the present instance, had exercised atligh authority by ',Moving. me to that , prisiin, he could have had Do misuse. &ad eon:eive ne power, of bringing the present prosecution, because the terms el fits authority are; be shall cneemit the offender fof such time, not exceediag one mentb, as be shall eigidge and think eeirlesfeln: the 4sare. - The static of each authority, thereloge, implies the ineloties et a -and sdefasia peobbreeotr and mint be -an bar to olarinr-proreettioltu-- loollealge I of his watery will adroit of nu Cher comuu ; Oa the Get 4 kilts* dear frost' the rola* of the • tbitig ;Rai though. lie- niay pottibly possess the option either to punish by virtue of his °ern Warrant, or to proceed by indictment, it can never be held that he is first to punish, and then to prosecute ; he is not to adjudge and intik'', an a adequate punishment," and then to apply to the Court .for additional penalties. If, therefore, the Marshal had thotight fit to rethoire -.ne to the county gaol for the greatest length of time in 114 power, instead ot incarceretinz me in his own dungeon for nearly the sortie period, he could not hare promoted the present indictment. Here then is a reasonable motive toe the boasted forbearance of the Marshal. The rigorous cell would have peeeluded him from the exercise of further barbaxtry ; but the mereifid hee still left him a pretence for continue' persecution.— .But when it is considered that the Marshal, on com mittal of a prisoner to the County Gaol. has no au thority to dictate to the keeper of that pristia upon the mode of confinement, but merely to require him to receive and safely keep him in custody. it may fairly be doubted, that if he had so acted by me, whether the keeper of that prison would hive attempted greater. rigour than the Marshal himself did actually exercise. He might not have deemed it necessary to have had recourse to a cell, but tameless obnoxious place of 'a cuity. Bat cell or not, it could not have been more gloomy. damp, filthy. or injurious to health than the Marshal's own dungeon. Again, the punishment In flicted• was not limited to close confinement for six and twenty days io the hole or strong room, but the apartment to which I was then removed, namely, the grated chamber over the lobby, was also a place. ot dare confinement; and the Marshal did there retain me closely confined from the day of my removal from the strung room, to the expiration of the twelve months for which I was sentenced by the Court, be mg a period of nearly ten weeks, not to mention the additional fortnight which I endured in resistance to the pecuiii try part of that unjust sentence—with which, if I had not found that my liberty was be come essential to my life. and felt the duty of op posing another flagrant attempt at plunder in another place, I never could have complied. The escape, therefore. Has already been visited by the privation (4 air and exercise for the space of more. than three ca lendar mouths, by an iitchvidual whose legal power of punishment is limited to one month (.I,ly, and repre sented to be adequate to the offence; and yet his malig nity (if he is.really the principatin this business) is still nosated. and he still calls for additional vengeance.— Will any man say that close confinement in a dun geon her one mend), and in a garret fir three, is no punishment Or is any MAO to be punished twice or thrice for one past uffence, because the firs of those punishments may have operated as a preventtive ? Is there any law which audio' izes punislinseut by antici uation ? or which enjoins execution on suspicion of a crime being in contemplation ? Is not death itself a punishment for the past, bedause it is also a preven tive for the future? Does reason, justice, or even law itself, know aa.y such distinction ? No, nut even the rule of court, the Marshal's own law, which ex Press!) , declares that his power of committal for one month is as well for the safe custody as the punish. tent of the offending party. It does not say that he is to coerce for precaution, and to prosecute for punish. meat t but he is emproetut &Au do that which is 'deemed 'to be . at once equal - to both purposes. His authority runs thus;—" That, as well for the safe custody of the prisoners within rie said prison, as for the Punishment ot such prigoners 'as shall be guilty of any misdemeanours within the said prison, it is here by ordered, that in case any -prisoner, or prisoners, in custody of the Marshal of the said prison. shall eszape, or attempt to escape, out of the said prison, .or shall be aiding, abetting, or assisting, any . prisoner to pri. sinters to bake their escape out of the said prison, (Scc. &c.) that then it shall and may be lawful for the Marshal of the said prison for the 'time being to remove all or any such prisoner or prisoners so of. fending to the gaol for the county of Surrey, in the Borough of Southwark, or to the prison of the Mar shalsett there, or to the Btidewell within the said Bos rough, at the discretion of the said Marshal, for such . time as the said Marshal shall adjudge and think ads.' (pate to the offence or offences tor whiei such priso ner or prisoners shall he so removed as aforesaid, not exceeding one calendar month for the first offence."- 7 It then. goes on to say, that 6... if any of the said prix ' sailers shall offend a second time, it shall and may be lawful fur the said Marshal to remove the offending party to any of the above-mentioned 'prisons for such time as he shall adjudge and think adequate for the offence, not exceeding the space of three-months." So that, notwithstanding the Court of King's Bench conceived that three months' close confinement was a punishment fully adequate even for a repetition of the. offence with which I am charged, and have in structed their Offizer so to consider it. he not only has had the audacity to exceed that indiction fur the first offence, but now implores that Court, whose servant he is. and whose authority he has thus ex ceeded, to impose additional penalties. Is it then to be endured, that the Marshal should extend such punishment to more than three times that period; and then proceed by indictment for an act which he .himself hats so unlawfully, inhumanly, and excessively overpuaished He has either the incredible effron tery to require the Court to encourage and imitase him is the vindictive violation of its own public ordi. nance, made for his governance, or he acts in obedi ence to secret instructions. Another proof of the motives of the Marshal was, be asserted, this second indictment, after the first had been set aside, upon the ground that he was not properly designated, in being deprived of his title of Knight. An objection ~of the same nature would apply to the present in dictment, in which he was described as a Knight simply—whereas, he apprehended, he had still a title to the distinctioh of Knight of the Bath.— He was not aware that he could be divested of that .honor, which he might perhaps be allowed to say he deserved quite as Well as many of those who still re.. tainted it, unless he had forfeited the. conditions or violated the rules of the institutions Now, the only crimes which could justify the degradation were, by thi statutes of the Order, heresy and cowardice • and.be.had not yet heard that these offences had bee n imputed to him. He wasted, therefore, that the Jury vreu*sot be disposed to become the instruments of the. protecuter's vengeoce._, If as offence bad been committed, it bad been /greedy ptinisbed s but be had-madeavosired, be hoped . sticemsfully, to prove that no offence bad been committed. It was an act ac- w • • • iiiltip'itAied with 110 co11118$104; 11641111 With El* breaking throbgh of walk nor thi bri bf indie; duals, proceeding frond no intendant of . ebetboilding front jtislice.. The Jury' itould ant; ihetifori; Ipro. flounce hint guilty of this Charge, if her silt, to retain the highest of all rewards, that *lnch had sip. ported him in his adversity—a tonsciutisness.of inno cence. Before he sac down, he lei - shed to refer to a few of the circumstances attending two forttier in which he 11.14 been a part, With I Vie* of ex: *:,y he had hot availed himself of any legal assistance on the prtsent octasion. In a late proieco. tion Which he hinitelt kid undertaken for the purpose of convicting an inJitidual of gross perjury on hit o.vn trill for an alleged fraud, when he had the he. nefit of Cotinsel, lie hall Ilviettheleis been Uniticcessful; On the tormei %motion, his instructions had been disobeyed—lrons what motive he was at a loss to discover, for it could lint fur a moment be supposed . that an additional fee of SO g nineal for doing .nothing could have produced any effect on the !ninth; ni Gen. tlemen at the bar. He hsd all to remark, that the Cnuneel who had appeared against him on that oc. cation, and whom he did not then see in Court (Mr: Mr. Gonxer rose and said, I am here. Lord COCHRANI4 iu centinuatioa, observed, that th it Gentleman had actually received retaining tees from him, had attended consultations on hit case, and yet, to hii astonishment, appeared in the lists against him. Mr. Justice Buitttovon.—Such imputations streets treniely improper. Mr. GUIINEY.—My Lord, they are nut titre t I never was retained by the Noble Lord in the case to which.he Alludes s I was, indeed, consulted on the part of the Noble Lard, tespecting a prosecution for a Ilbeleand I wrote my opinion on it. I was offered a retaining tee for his Lordship in the prosecution Against him, but 1 of course rehired it, ha4ing been already engaged against him three weeks betote, and it was not .tor six months afterwards cleat 1 heard a doubt suggested of the propriety of my' c , ,nduct. • Mr.. Justice Buititotion.—No one believes. Mt. Gurney s that yott could have lane any thing ince& sistent with your character •as a barrister and a ge.Aa Lord COMIRAWEi....I can only say such charges were made in my attorney's bill to me. Mr. MAIIIIYAT..-4 hope if e N ble Lord will call some evidence after the extraordinary speech he has thought proper to make. This, however, Lord Cochrane declined doing. Mr. Justice Mammals then proceeded to charge the Jury. lie said lie had been most anxious that the defendant should he fully heard, bee 'use, if he had met with inter' uption, it aright have been alleged, by evil designing men out of &ore, that justice had been denied to the Noble Lord. He had listened with the utmost attention to all that the Noble Lord had said in his defence ; but he must declare that he had heard nothing from him, either in point of haw or' f fact, that was in the least applicable to the purpose. We had heard, indeed, a long attack upon she Mars shal of the K.eg's bench Prison :, but this, besides being unsupported by facts, was most irtelevant and unfair towards that officer, who had no opportunity affoided hies of rebutting the chargf Weed ought never to have been made. 4.4 You, Gantlemen of the Joey," said his' Lordseip, must feet the justice of the attack ; and though an attempt had been made to inflict injury, it was to be hoped, that it would is no respect answer its object:: Let vs attend to the gist of the defendant's answer. He say* that he escaped from prison in order to do justice to himself in person, in time Elduse of Commons. Th odence hiders! had Leen admitted tbroughoht the whole of the speech which they had heard, but it was evident that no release from that imprisonment. to which he had been Senteneed by the justice of his country, could be justifiable, unless it was in due and legal form, and iu an orderly and legal course of proceeding. Our laws would be a there dead-letter if any individnal*coold persinitted; for 3ni intent; to get out of prison, horn any view Of expedienCy to him self. For an individual, of whatever rink, to escape from thattonfiaement to which he had been sentenced in due course of law, was an offence of the most serious nature, threatening the most injurious eonset t ".ences to every thing that was valuable to us in society.. end. of justice, however it might be set forwardi as a pretence, could never be promoted io this way. It was his duty to tell the Jury, that the defendant both by the evidence produced, and by his own ads mission, had been guilty of an offence, and thin of very considerable magnitude." Here Mr. Justice BLIRROi/Gll Shortly recapitulated• the evidence which had been produced. Lord Cochrane hal made hie escape from prison before the whole of the term to which he was adjudged had been completed. He was lunnd o ut, and the Marshal of the King's Bench pi ison, from whose custody he had fled, had a right to find and lay hold of him wherever he could perceive him, even in the House of Commons itself, though it did not appear that the House was actually sitting, or that the Speaker.was in the chair at the time when his Lordship was retaken: li4t, even from the Noble Lord's own statement, it appeared that the Marshal had acted • towards him with the utmost humanity. Even in the instance where the defendant had charged him with corrupt motives, and with compromising "his character, what was there in it, but that the Marshal merely wanted him to come back privately, without noise ?..-and yet, now, this act of kindness I proposed to the Noble Lord was most ungenerously I called an act of corruption. Generally, he Mast ob. serve, that the attacks on the character of the Marshal were most irrelevant to the point at issue, and most unfair, as that individual had. no opportunity of de. fending himself. He trusted, hoWever, they would make no impression on the minds of the Jury, nor on those of any who heard him. . All that the ' Jury had to consider, and all that they had before them, will the fact of the Noble Lard'sinsprisonment on a legal commitment, together wits the fact of his being found oat of prison, and retaken before the term of his imprisonment bad expired ir l it t it was for the Jury, on their oaths , to 64' r the defendant had not been guilty of thia offinsee.. They could not go into the merits of any** other topics which the defendant had brought (oevlsr4 80 he thou dt it was hardly possible foe Otte draw any ot:W eonclUsion,but that . d . vflel The Jiry *OW con sider. ie their verdict, after ai few minutes' eptisideyaion, Mr. W. H a y. don, dietitian:so f begged to ask, !linker the Jury IF , '_ c , r 1 1 ~_