The Sun. — London, England, 1840-06-22 00:00:00

MORNING EDITT ON. frightful a detail, 1 am persuaded would rause you to marvel that such things could be in a Christian land—cc old occur in the present age--could be done by men who move in society, who are tolerated in it, and bear the name and wear the garb of gentlemen ; by a peopls, iu sloot, processing the religion of Christ, mei daring to or, re tie sanctity of that name with rapine, molder, and the hiring ticeth of slavery i!self, which are carried en ever, in its name; forsooth, to make Christians of the African unbelievers. To understand thoroughly the subject of the laws in the Spanish colonies for the protection of slaves, it is necessary to refer to a work not easily to be met with, being only to be found in the hands of the Syndics, v. !deb is entitled, " Espocion sobre el origin, utili. dad prerogatives, de:echos y deberes de los sinclocos, procuradores generales de los pueblas, por 1). Jose Serapio Majorrretta eliogada de la real auclieneia." his bcok, it is to be noted, is printed at Puerto Principle, in Cuba, by Itoyal authority, by com mand and at the exper.se of the Real Audiencia, the highest law tribunal in the island, and it is the legal guide of the Syndics, or protectors of slaves, in the administration of justice between master and slave over the es hole island, and by which they are bout et to ac'. The work begins by stating that the Supreme Court, in the year 1766, created the office of Syndic; every town was placed .icdcr the legal protection of one of these officers ; its rights were to be defended by them ; and, in the words of the cedulas," When there was any grave or important matter, it should be treated by them, joining themselves with some of the neighbours (juetendose can los vi vino.) for the consideration of it. Now, here is a most important regulation fur the due administration of justice ; in fact, our giving to the accused the advantages to a certain extent of a jury. And now Jet us sic how the law au tkorities of Cub r, as represented in this work, interpret these words. The treatise in question says—" These words are not to be Understood in their literal sense; this method is contrary to the na ture of our Government, and for this reason, so responsible is the post of a syndic, that he is appointed not by an open rn• eting (C 3. bildo abiertol of the corporation aguntamento, but by the votes of the judicial body, or the Regidores. Their duties in the rural dis_ tricts are to watch over the order and maintenance of the public markets, the prevention of monopolies in corn, meat, &v., inspect- Inc the accounts of overseers, agents, &c., protecting the interests of proprietors of estates before the tribunals of the district, by all the legal privileges accorded them, even to the point of demanding the suspension of the royal laws or ordinances in which tiny may hurt or harm someprivate person (haste el panto dcpri,!er pedir la suspension, de las cedulas y reales rescriptos, en qui se elenan a algun particular). Behold the value of all the royal laws for the protection of slaves. The Syndic, their protector, is likewise the legal defender of his master; and the suspension of every law that is distasteful to the latter, it is in the power of this officer to de mand of the higher tribunals of the law. In fact, the whole secret of the conduct of the Cuban Government, with respect to the fulfil Merit of the treaties with England for the suppres•ion of the slave trade, and the laws which enforce them, is here let out, and the shameful duplicity of the Government cf Spain, with respect to these royal orders, is disclosed, for, at page 10 of tine Treatise in question, the opinion of the legal authorities of the island is Lid down as to the proper mode of interpretation of the royal ce 'Was, when these are opposed to Creole interests, or supposed to be so, in these words—" It has been laid down by Iris Majesty, thst his sove reign will is (with respect to these laws), that they be obeyed, and not fulfilled;" and reference is made to Lib. 16, Nov. Recap. (couro que se tienne manifestado que so soberano voluntad, cs que se obelezcany no se complan'. This seems to me to bet he very acme, indeed, of public immorality; and there is no rea 011 to doubt the duplicity of the conduct here ascribed to his Spanish Majesty, and s e the weakness of his sovereign will, and that he frames laws for the purposes of delusion, to throw dust in the eyes of foreign powers, or to deceive his own subjects at home, and which are to be obeyed • „. and nut executed. Now, with respect to the jurisdiction of the r : Syndics in the case of slaves, and the mode of interpreting the laws • Q . ! for their defence, this treatise lays down very minute rules, and • e,..„.„‘:poilits Cut a course of proceeding which is universally acted on in Cuba, for it is to be remembered this Treatise is published with the s s express sancticn and approbation of the Judges of the highe t tri .e„; bond of the land, of the Real Audiencia. "Itisto be observed," ' ss says the author, " either the rights which slaves complain of being infringed, arc violated by their masters or a third person. In the s last case, their complaint is to be preferred by their masters—by the general rules of right, which subjects them entirely to those who • exercise dominion over them ; but if the slaves attempt to complain • s (intentan press ntarse) against their masters, then comes the antler,- ' s city of the Syndics, because by no other mode can there be made a true decisi n, there being no legitimate litigation of parties, which consists in this, that the plaintiff and the criminal should be chile _ rent persons. But supposing this distinction to be made in such a case (as perhaps some one might say it ought to be), it eppears the s ees.: state ought to have the right of naming an attorney or agent (per _ee sonero), and the law, that so much protects the natural defence of the slave, should leave in his power the exercise of this precious . • right. But how many inconveniences would not this measure cause? In the first place, slaves have no proper person (dos ese Leos no tienen persona), they have no representation in Richey, they are consi dered as things subject to the dominion of man, and ill could such beings name agents or attorneys, who cannot appear in e s . their own character in our Courts. And yet if, abating the Vee s rigour of fixed principles, we chose to leave to slaves the • free election of which we treat--how many and how expensive 1, would be the causes which would inundate our tribunals—and what ase ee . would he the insubordination alone of this class of domestics, when unfortunately interested men are not wanted to derive the adven t_ tags et lucre from such miserable discord. The Syndics, however, a as chosen by the corporation, should be adorned with all the fine •-__ qualities we have already stated, and in the degree that they may s •. undertake to protect the rights of these unfortunates, they will take care to beware of encouraging unjust complaints, by maintain. log the aar es under due submi,sion and respect, Whidl SS stem is certainly the most happy that can I e adopted to concilia , e the • private interest of the slaves with those of the owners of them•" Now the next interpretation of the Royal law, or cedula of 1759, es e which at page 3 ordains the ri guLtion of the daily labour of slaves • e . , , "so that it should begin arid conclude from s • nrise till sunset," •a, and moreover should leave them two hours of the intermediate D,, - *trite for their own use and benefit, is given in these terms, terms, indeed, most worthy of your prolouird attention:—" But this Is 1 i - not observed,anct neither the magistrates regulate the time of !ahour, ea r; , nor do the sieves cease to serve their masters at air hours of the 'day ;" (Foto no se observe y ui las justitias, ni los esclavos Began ' . e„.. 'et serve a sus duenos en to das as horas del dia.) Well may the • expounder of the sentiments of the Royal Tribunal of the Auden_ >,- eia or Cuba say, the laws are riot observed, " the slate s cease not • at all hours of the day to work for their masters." But this second s Daniel, this Cuban commentator on Spanish law, rigidly, indeed, as • he sticks to the sense of the Colonial Judges, tell s but half the truth, when he says that " the slaves cease nut to work for their masters ▪ at all hours of the day ;" he should have said e n the sugar estates a chain the tone of the crop, for upwards of six months in the year, at all hours of the night, with the exception of four for sleep. It did not suit the purpose of the Royal Audencia to startle tine ears or astonish the weak minds of the people in the towns with the frightful announcement or the appalling statem nt that the wretched C. negroes, in spite of the express terms of the Royal law for the re gulation of slate labour, were worked to death on these estates for weety continuous hours, twelve in the field and eight in the boil - ingehouse or at the mill, and that even en the coffee estates, where the necessity for hard labour is so much less, that at cc itain times of the year, it is a common practice during the bright moonlight nights 10 work the slaves at field work for four or five hours by the •s.,' ." Clara de la tuna," as it is called. But what are the sentiments •of the Royal Audiencia on the subject of that great privilege on .paper conferred by the laws on the slave, in the power nominally eriven him of purchasing his freedom, or portions of it, by the pay. `Se went at once, or at differeat periods, of the price his master paid for him. It is to be observed that the payment of a part of this ▪ . sum to the master, gives the negro the legal right of having that sum deducted from his price whenever he happens to be sold, and entitles him, as it is most erroneously but generally believed, to 1 4 d 2 an immediate redo tion of labour in proportion to the sum paid. • In the year 1825 this error is fallen into in a verry able state. • bent addressed to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, by • one of the British Commissioners at the Havanna!) on the treat. •e t „ Inent of the Spanish slaves, and the mode of manumission in the te r e eto., Spanish . colonies. And no doubt the origin of this error was the same as of that into which you have failen , in common with all .4 4 who estimate the value of Spanish laws by the wording, and not the :execution of them. The paying a 611111 of money to a ar e Master on the part of a slave towards the purchase of his ae, liberty rerders the payer what is called " coartada," the mean. in: of which is, in part manumitted. The word is derived from toarter, to cut or separate, and not from quartear, to divide into four parts, as is commonly supposed. " Some Syndics," says the flaw treatise in question, " have attempted to alleviate slavery, so ais to pretend to concede a half of their time to slaves who are bound iia service to their masters " (when they have paid half cf their ... Valve to their owners) ; " but this opinion is not in conformity with the else, and the Syndics should respect the rights of the proprie : tary power le irhout allowing themselves to be led astray by a notion of equity badly understood. The coartacion (or part payment made to a master by a slave towards the attainment of freedom) was not established to reduce slavery into halves, but only to pre- , vent any alteration in the price to the slaves. A slave who, being avorth 500 dollars, gives to his master 400 by way of coartacion, remains as subject to sersitude us any slave who is so entirely. The Master cannot be deprived of the proper rights of his authority, and the slave is under the obligation of devoting all his cervice to him; for such reasons the Syndics ought to avoid the wish to establish such demands." Then conics the interpretation of the law in Cuba as laid down in this treatise on that most important privilege of all to the negroes in Spanish colonies, the power nominally given by the law to the slave who is ill-treated or discontented with good • causewith his master, to seek another owner on payment of the •,„ price at which lie might be rained by the judicial authorities. Now hear the mouthpiece of the Real Audiencia of Ceiba on this subject. " The question may also be asked if slaves (eoartados) have s s the right to go cut of the rower of their masters whenever they L er. ' -desire, and tine answer is not difficult, if we consider that the slaves '(enteros) entirely so are obliged to allege some great reason to emn ete. iPel their masters to sell them. And what difference can there be between one and the other, when we see that the yoke of sla very on ail is the same ? If the slaves (coartados) do not enjoy the 4 40:: Iftp rights of freemen, on what p rinci p le can they claim the right of changing nias'ers at their pleasure ? Is it for some light correc ejt,'‘ • Don ? This is not sufficient to enable them to use this privilege. ' And then, could the m asters exercise their authority with the due "rt.- sever ity which is necessary ? By no means, and hence we have seen teat the Real Audiencia has always repelled similar demands in all the suits that have been promoted on this point and brought -C , °"s-{or their superior decis ion. But some p ersons desire, notwith. e On an'standitig, founding their opinion on the Royal Cedula of the Bth April 1779,e that sla ves (coartados) should be left in possession of the privilege in question. In answer to this let us refer to the terra, 'of the cedula. We declare, it says, that the masters of slaves (not coartados) have the liberty' to sell them for whatsoever •s• :price they agree on with the buyers according to their actual worth, • - when, masters for just reasons are obliged by the judicial autho rity to sell their slaves (those so entirely) it shall be for the price at which they shall be valued by those authorities; "; but if the buyer wishes to take the slave without valuation, agreeing thereon with the master, they can arrange between them the price and the authorities, and have no power to prevent it, although the master is compelled to sell, except that in order to ststninish the amount of the alcabala duty (or tax on tine sale of property) some collusion between the parties be suspected ; f, trther, that slaves who arc 'coartada,' or have paid that portion remaining of it the same obligation being binding on the buyer ; that in all cases the seller shall pay the alcabala tax according to • the price paid ; further, that if the slave ' coartado' by bad conduct • gives a reasonable motive for selling him, however slight Ins crime, the addition to it be made of the Alcabala tax on his sale; and finally, that no slaves of any kind, entire or coartados, who redeeThem themselves by their law ful earrings, ought to pay this inasters shall be obliged, conformable to the custom, to give them their liberty the moment they bring the due price fsr it " Now to any ordinary capacity, the plain meaning of the terms of this bene. fir:lent law of 1775,is that slaves have the power of demanding to be sold to another master if another master can be procured to pay the price fixed on by the judges to the actual owner. In fact, the slave by this means puts himself in the position of a coartado, one • who has the right to dema nd his freedem whenever a price has .been agreed on, or fixed by judicial valuation ; and lia ti vi i n ,a g y r it o i ; 'cured person to advance the. money, he is content t 'liberty sold again in consideration of the change of masters. But tenark the chicanery by which every practical utility of this bene- volsnt law is fettered away by the interpret a tion of the judicialf ra - euthorities of Cuba. The slave wh w o ould change owners ta`led on to produce a reasonable cause for his applicat ion. rs He allele es severe punishment or harsh treatment, who is to dcetd . e whtth.'r the slave has been maltreate d or not. The Syndic. W the Syne l ic ? A planter himself, and who is the master? The n: . i i g . ) ,1 bour of the Synd ic . But what sa y s the Real Andiencia expietii Neerof the law far the:r e g ulation of the p ractice of these Syndics? v that the due severity of the disci p line of the proprietory pow towards the slaves is trot a sufficient cause for a slave's application to be sold, and that the only' sufficient causes arc hottlficient nou rishment, scarcity o f clothing, and dearth of instruction in the Christian religion. Now what does t he last obligation on the planters amount to in Cuba ?—to the christening of the slave, end to the burial of him with the ordinary rights of tine Church. %chi:, is the whole amount in Cuba of religious instruction, save and except the teaching the newly-imported p a g ans to re p eat, like p arrots on cer tain feasts, the Lord's Prayer, the confitoor, and tine decades of the rwary ; but as for having the slightest conception of the meaning 'of the words they repeat by rote it would be a folly to expect it, for -a . ' , dry: * In this cedula the precise duties of the Syndic are laid thsrn, they are never instructed in religion by priest or layman except on the state of (some rare phenomenon in Cuba) a pious planter, a scrupulous master, and a Christian man. As to the complaint of insufficiency of food, the Syndic of course acts on the general opinion that it is the interest of an owner to feed his slaves well, and to clothe them also for the sake of the preservation of their he elth and strength. This sounds well, and it passes for the truth with thousands of people not only in Cuba but in England. This is an argument stated and re-stated hundreds of times in answer to the ordinary charges of ill-treatment brought against slave owners, namely, that it is the interest of a man to give good treatment to the beast (and " pari passu," to the slave) he keeps for use, or sale. or hire. No doubt it is his duty, but is it his interest, according to his ideas, to do this ? Is it the supposed interest of the owners of our own miserable hacks to treat the animal thus which he lets on hire or rides on daily, or rather, can you persuade the great body of horse.dcalers it is their interest to do this ? Unquestionably you cannot. They act on the principle that a quick return of the money outlaid on horse-flesh, no matter how great the wear and tear of the property that is worked or hired, is better than mode rate work with small gain, and a longer use of the means from which that return is derived. Why, we might as well go to Con nemara or the shores of Imuca, and talk to Mr. Richard Martin's venerable ghost of the humanity of the treatment of the hackney coach horse-owners in Ei:gland on the ground of their interests. That honest ghost, if ghosts in Ireland do speak, as they are said to do, would tell you that these persons deny it is their interest to spare their horses, and admit It is their interest to get the greatest possible quantity of work in the shortest space of time from their hacks, and when they are worked off them legs to purchase new ones. In fact, it is on this very principle the fast mail coaches are horsed and run. But I have heard it said, however they may work them, it surely is their interest to fed them wed. To this I answer, the universal feeling of the tribe is this, their true interest is to keep them cheaply. True it is, if they gave them Ira ble the quantity of good hard pro. vender, they would at last perhaps double the length of time, and do half as much more work ; but you cannot persuade these men you understand their interests better than they do, you flay indee.; easily persuade the owner of a stud of race-horses of the soundness of your opinion, but the high-blood lacers that belong in England to gen. tleman on the turf, in proportion to the hacks and stage.horses, are about in the same ratio as the stares in Cuba .belonging to intelligent, consicterete, humane ptoprimors, are to the wretched negrocs in the rands of unthinkine, unprincipled, and grasping owners. But what says the creole expounder of the Spanish 'aw on this subject of the most important privilege conferred on the slaves. We believe he says that a slave not having undergone bad treatment on the part of his owner, and having administered to him food, clothing, and religious instt uction, he cannot compel his master to sell him to another. So much for the benefit of the parchment privileges of tie slaves of Cuba. And now for their moral condition and the administration of the laws affecting it on the high authority of the work published with the sanction and at the expense of the Real Audiencia of Cuba. "As amongst the Romans (says the 'author) there could be no marriage solemnized except amongst citizens, the union of the slaves was accomplished by concubinage, and the children followed the condition of the mother ; our district law has adopted the same system (nucstra ley de partida ha adoptado la misma disposicion!, and when recently coartation was established, the question was discussed if the infant of a slave coartada should enjoy the same privilege as the mother, but the doubt has ceased since the publication of the Royal Cedula of the 10th February, 1789, in which we find the point in question definitely settled." There can be no doubt of the express meaning of the Royal law on this subject being what it is described, and there is unfortunately no doubt that the slaves of Cuba have none of the rights of citizens, that they are not suffered to marry, and that a general system of concubinage is that which the Christian law of the Partida sanctions in Cuba, and to which it condemns nearly half a million of human beings. Here I take leave of the Cuban exposition of the Spanish laws for the amelioration of slavery. No one cats dispute the authority of the treatise I have referred to, for the express sanction of the Real Audiencia is prefixed to it. It was with no little difficulty I procured a copy of that work, for 1 have already stated it is not allowed to fall into the hands of strangers. I now proceed to show the extraordinary delusion which has been practised not only on foreigners who have visited the Spanish colonies, but even sought to be practised on our Government, and on the agents of it. It is no wonder, indeed, Sir, if the wotld have been imposed on by the specious benevolence of the Spanish laws that have never been carried into execution, or are capable of enforcement in any country where slavery exists, and where the interests arising from it are prosperous. And if the only result of the years of turmoil and painful inquiry I have passed through in the West Indies were productive of no other ad vantage than the experience which enables me to address these observations to you, 1 would fain hope that I have made the best use of my time, and the opportunities afforded me by my position, that it was possible for me to make in enabling me to disabuse the minds of men like you of an opinion so erroneously entertained that slavery in the Spanish colonies is mild in its character, and that the fact of its lenity is to be established by the laws and ordinances of the Sovereigns of Spain. But on this subject I trust briefly refer to another source of information. In the year 1824 Mr. Secretary Canning addressed a despatch to the Chief Commissioner at the Havana, desiring to be furnished with information on the subject of the manurnissian of slaves in the Spanish colonies, and enclosing a metr.orandum V hick had be: n presented to our Government at that period when the question of gradual emancipation in our colonies was forcing itself on the attention of Ministers. The document enclosed is in the fallowing terms :—" That slaves (namely, those in the Spanish colonies) are generally appraised at four hundred dollars ; that a save paying down the fourth part of his value, or one hundred dollars, immediately acquires a right to be coartado—that is, that he can work out, paying Its master three reals de vellon or lets a.day, until he can make a further deposit ; or, if the master re. quite his service, he can oblige the man to work for him, paying the slave one real ; thus a deposit of two hundred dollars gives the slave a right to two seals daily ; of three hundred, three rests, and thus till the completion of the payment of ti,e whole sum in which he had been appraised. A dollar is worth eight reels r r (Vide Slave-Trade Reports, 18.24.'25, Class A., page 63.) In the first pl .ee, the common error with respect to the meaning of the term of co.mtacion, which I have already referred to. is pointed out in the reference made t the question of paying down one-fourth past of the value of the slave. The next error .s in the statement that a dare coartado has the right to work out or to leave his master's service, paying him wages in a certain proportion to the sum still due fur his liberty, the law treatise 1 have so largely quitted explicitly denytitg that the slave has any such right against the consent of his master. The next error is, that there is any law which compels the master to pay wages in any proportion to what. ever sum the slave may have paid in part liquidation of the price of freedom. The Chief Commissioner replied to Mr. Canning's in.. gutsy, October 8, 1824, stating that he hail consulted the most able lawyers and Government authorities on the subject of manu mission, and encloses a memorandum—a most valuable caper— though by no means to be considered as practically applicable to the attainable privileges of prcdial slaves, and that distinction is not sufficiently drawn in the document, but oily slightly, and very slightly, alluded to at the end of the memorandum. Nevertheless, the extent and accuracy of information that it is so difficult to pro cure on this subject, is surprising to me ; and in referring to it I have only to entreat attention to this point, that the information has reference to what the laws decree, and not to the practical working of them; and when it refers to the latter, tile experience adduced is entirely if their execution in towns and cities, and espe cially at the seat of Government, the Havana. Mr. Kilbre, the Commissioner, informs Mr. Canning that •he has be.n wrongly in formed that slaves are valued at any fixed price for "come :clots ;" that he has known one sell for 1,000 dollars, but that the tribunals discountenance excessive valuation ; that the average valuation of full_grown negroes on estates is 500 dollars; that house-slaves are valued at six, and mechanics to still higher prices; that the state ment is incorrect in asserting "if the master require the service of his coartado slave, he can oblige the man to work, pay ing the slave a certain sum," the fact being, that in all cases the master is entitled to the service of his slave, whether coartado or not, without any remuneration whatever. That the wages of a common field labourer is about four seals a day, (there being :eight seals " depeata," and twenty reels " de vellon" to the dollar, the writer of the memorandum previously referred to having colifounded these) and, uoreover, that the negro is fed and clothed, and that as mechanics earn from a dollar and a quarter to three dollars a day, consequently, a coartado slaves, who works out is able to pay his master the daily quota proportion ed to his price, and to lay by something towards the further attainment of his liberty. That the regulations fbr ameliorating the condition of slaves are founded principally on custom which has acquired the force of law, many of which are confirmed by Royal Decrees. That when a slave applies to purchase his liberty, the master is not allowed to fix an atbitrary price, but if tie and the slave cannot agree 111)D11 it, two appraisers are named one by the master and another by the Syndic on the part of the slave, and if they differ the judge names an umpire, and in these cases the lave is exempt from the payment of the Alcahala duty, which is six per cent. on the sale of slaves sold in %mute real or by public auction. That a master will be compelled to sell a slave if a purchaser is found to engage to emancipate the slave at the end of any reasonable time. That ill usage justifies an application for change of masters. That a slave once emancipa'ed cannot again be reduced to slavery. That the master having once given an" escritura de coartacion," binds himself never to demand more than a stipulated sum, though less than the actual value, has no relation to the actual price originally paid for him. That the coartado slave, when his master allows him to work out on hire is only bound to pay his master one real a day for every hundred dot, lays in which he is coartado (thus if his appraised price was fou hundred dollars, and he had paid one hundred towards his libertyr he would only have to pay three reels a day to his master), That a pregnant uegress may emancipate her child even when in the. womb at the tixeu price of twenty _five dollars, and from the time of its birth, till it be baptised for fifty dollars. That the system respecting the Manumission of slaves, although in the country parts where there are Jew magistrates, there may be, and undoubtedly there are, many abuses, yet in time Havanah, and other large towns, and in other populous die acts, it is efficiently observed. And lastly, on the authority of this able statement of Mr. Kibbe°, the slave population of the island of Cuba in the year 1824, was 25,000 the free people of colour 115,000, and the whites :290,000. I have attempted to show you that the system of tnanunaission, and the regulations in force for ameliorating the condition of the slave in the Spanish colonies, honourable as the e are to the apparent in tentiors of the Spanish government, are of little real benefit to the prestal slaves, that is, to the gnat body of the slave population in these colonies. There are exceptions, there are instances it ere slavery has not rend red masters heedless of all laws human and Divine, even where their pecuniary interests are concerned But these are few on the estates. There are instances where the owners are persons of high rank and wealth and standing in society —noblemen like the Count Fernandina, and a few others of his order, where the rights and privileges of the slaves are in some degree respected. These, men, however, live not on till it property, and it is only to their occasional visits the slaves on their properties have to look for justice. It is, as I have said before, in the large towns alone, and for the new ;medial slaves, that the privileges in question can be said to be available, and where manumission can be hoped for, the means acquired of obtaining it, and the opportunity given of applying for it, and for the redress of any wrong suffered by a slave. The murder of a slave by a white man, in no case whatever, is punished with death. During my residence in Cuba, some of the most atrocious mur ders that I ever heard of came to my own immediate knowledge, the murders of slaves by their masters or mayorals, and cot in any one instance was the murderer punished, except by imprison ment or the payment of costs of suit. During General Facon's administration of the government in the latter part of the year 1837, in the village of Guanabacoa,a league from the Havana, where I was then residing, the murder of a slave was perpetrated by his master, a well known lawyer of the Havana, whoser a no I consider it my duty to make known, and as faras lies in enss power, to expose it to the infasny of a notoriet y which it i s no t in the power of the shackled Press of Cuba to give but which 1 have reason to believe the Press of Spain will give to tiles. d s closures, so t hat thereprobation of his countrymen will reach this g n. tlemen, whom the laws he outraged were unable to reach or punish. The name of time murderet is Manchado, and he moves without reproach in the goodly circles of genteel society at Havana, in that society where the capitalist who has acquired his riches in the abominable slave trade, by the especial favour of his sovereign bears the title of " Excellentissimo," where the prosperous dealer its human flesh new retired from the trade is a noble of the land, where the foreign merchant who still pursues the profitable traffic on the coast is the boon companion of the commercial magistrates of the place, and where the :gents of foreign governments them selves are hailed as the private protectors and avowed well wishers of the interests of the trade. The muscle red slave of the lawyer Manchado was suspected of stealing some I lasted ornaments belong_ ing to the harness of his master ; the - man denied the charge ; the customary prccess in such matters to extort a confession frem a suspected slave was had recourse to. He was put down and flogged in the presence of his master. The flog_ ging it appeared by the sworn testimony of the with esses Who were present given before the Commandant of Guanabacoa, a colonel in the army, a gentleman of the highest character, commenced at three o'clock, it ceased at six, the man having literally died under the lash ; a little time before the man h a d strengths enough left to cry out lie would conlest eiexspliireey'd'vitlld dog no more. The master immediately sent for the receive Comm i ssa ry of Police t o his confession ; this officer came, and st °ore lig don'ts to speak to t i h i e le n b m a r n u , ta h l e m f a o s u te n r d k i h c ia d n t t i o l t e io i n i f l e e i s e s ; he said the man had fainted. ritE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY, JUNE 22, 1840. body, saying, " the dog was in no faint, he was shamming." The s Commissary stooped down again, examined the body, and replied " the man is dead." The master hereupon called in two physicians of Guauabacoa, and rightly counting on the sympathies of his pro fessional attendants, he obtained a medical certificate, solemnly de claring shat the negro had laboured under hernia, and had died of that disease. lit the meantime the atrocity had reached the ears of the Captain-General Falcon, the Alcaldes of Guanabacoa were or dered to inquire into the matter; they did so, and the result of the enquiry was, of course, the exculpation of the murderer. Ge. neral Facon, dissatisfied with the decision, immediately ordered the military officer commanding at Guanabacoa to proceed to a se lemn investigation, de novo, without reference to the decision of the civil authorities, and this gentleman, with whom I was well acquainted, proceeded with all the energy and integrity belonging to him, to the inquiry. The result of this inquiry was an able report, wherein the Commandant declared that the testimony ad. duced plainly proved that the negro had died under the lash in pre. settee of Isis master, in consequence of the severity of the punish ment he received during three hours. 1 have entered at large into this case, because I speak from actual knowledge of the ju dicial proceedings, and by the authority of the Judge in the cause. Now what was the result in this case, why, in due time, Use Captain-General communicates to the Commandant the law opinion of the assessor or legal adviser °ibis administration to the effect that the report was evidently erroneous, inasmuch as the Commandant had examined negro witnesses on tliC investigation when their masters were not present, which was illegal, and con. sequently all the proceedings were vitiated. In plain English, the murderer was acquitted, and the upright officer who declared him guilty ss as rebuked, nay, more, he was ultimately removed from his post at Guanabacoa The folly of talking about illegality in tee proceedi sgs is evident whets it is considered that the setting aside the civil autaorities, and putting the cause in the hands of the military tribunal, was a course obviously illegal, but rendered necessary in the mind of the Governor by the base corruption of the civil tribunal, and the iniquity of its decision. On inquiry into the amount of money pa.d by Manehado in the way of bribes to obtain the decision in his fa vour, and the costs of suit, I found that the expenses amounted to* 4,000 dollars. The next case I have to direct your attention to, has been given to the world in the recent admirable work of Mr. Turn bull on Cuba, a work which it requires! more honesty, closer ob servation, and a higher spin it of humanity to produce, than any work on the West Indis s that has been given to the public. 1 hap, ened to be with Mr. Turnbull, on the journey of which he speaks in reference to this case, when a person who accompa nied us on our return from a sugar estate in the vicinity of Gullies, informed us that the estate in question was the terror of all the negroes in the vicinity. Of this fact, what we had ourselves witnessed of the management of the property, and what we had heard from the mayoral himself, left but little cause to doubt, but it was not without surprise we learnt that this very overseer, who was still left in charge of the estate, had recently been brought before the authorities of Guines on the charge of flogging one of the slaves of the estate to death, and that the result of this investigation was similar to that of the case a: Guanabacoa ; the body of the murdered slave was examined by me dical men, and the usual certificate was givers in all due form, satis factorily accounting for the death of the negro, and in the eye of the law of Cuba, the slave that was murdered by a white man and ex pired under the lash of legitimate authority, died a natural death. The wretch who committed this act left the Court, of course, without a blemish on his character, and the employer of this man, who had taken him back into his service, to the terror of every negro on his estate, this respectable planter was living at ease fifty miles distant from the scene where the b!ooci of his murdered negro was shed with impunity, enjoying the plea. sures of the Havana, and, perhaps, by the urbanity of his man_ ners, and the hospitality of his house, and the indulgent treat meat of his domestic slaves, convincing the passing tourist, who was fortunate to be his guest, of " the peculiar mildness of slavery of the Spanish colonies." The next case—l know these horrors are painful to be listened to. It is a sickly sensibility which refuses to hear details, however shocking to humanity, that must be told by those who have the misfortune to be acquainted with them, or the wrongs they treat of cannot be redressed. The next case of negro murder, committed by a mayoral, of which I have to speak, came to my knowledge in the autumn of 1839. I was travelling in the viciniiy of Matanzas, accompanied by a gentleman who resided in that district. I was informed by my cornpa. ilium that he had just received very unpleasant intelligence of an acquaintance of his, a mayoral of an estate on the Pau of Ma. tanzas, who had unfortunately flogged a worthless negro, and the worthless negro had unfortunately died, and the soldiers had just been sent down to arrest the mayoral, and they did not find him. The misfortune of the mayoral touched me indeed less than the murder of the slave ; but if my sympathies had been ever so strongly directed to the inconvenience the mayoral had been put to by his flight, I might have been comforted by the assurance that he had only to keep out of the way for some time, and the thing would pass over ; or, if he were taken, at the worst he had only to suffer in purse, and perhaps in person by imprisonment for some time, if he was a poor and friendless mayoral. This was only another vacancy in the negro gang to be filled up by the purchase of a new bozel—another life taken away under the lash to be added to the list of Cuban crieacs—atestSer item in the long account that slavery has to settle with a just God. — (Hear, hear.) I know it is painful to dwell on these topics but the renort I have alluded to has proved how necessary it is to enter on them most fully, and to show how greatly the people of France,—and, I fear, I may add, of England,—have been deceived with respect to the su ject of slavery in Spanish colonies. The last case of murder perpetrated on a slave by a white person, to which I will refer, took place at the Havaria in the last year. This crime was committed by an American woman on a poor negro girl, unds r such horrible circumstances of cold-blooded cruelty, that I doubt it there is tiny parallel to be found to it in the records of crime in Cuba. The girl that was murdered belonged to a Spaniard of the Havana, who was the paramour of the American. This woman was possessed of property to a considerable amount. She had been lung resident in Havana, and was somewhat remarkable for her personal attractions. Her friend, flue Spaniard, had sent to her house one of his slaves to assist her, and this girl became the victim of her jealousy, it is supposed—for no other adequate reason has been assigned for the cruelties practised on her. The cries of the unfortunate girl had been heard in the adjoining houses : at length the usual screams were heard no longer, but night after night the sounds of continued moaning were noticed by the neigh bours, and at length they gave information of the matter to tile police. The commissary of police proceeded to the house of the American lady. On searching the outhouses in the yard, in one of these offices, converted into a dungeon, they found a dying negro girl, chained by the middle to the wall, in a state that shocked the senses of all who were present, so loathsome and withal so pitiful an object the persons who discovered this unfortunate girl never beheld. On releasing her from thin dreadful dungeon, where she had been else could not tell how long, it was found that the chain round her body had eaten into the flesh, and the ulcers in it were in a state of gars retie. She was taken to the hospital, and she died there in two or three days' time. If I have added one iota to the truth, or exaggerated a single point in the statement I have given, I ant content that every fact I have stated should be disbelieved ; but in truth the horrors of the place, and the wretch edness of the condition in which she was found, are understated. In fact, they could not be described. The monster who committed this murder, when I left the Ilavana, in October last, was alive and well; in prison, indeed, but in one of the halls of distinc tion, (salas de disinction,) where the prisoner who has money, no matter what his crime, may always obtain superior accommodation. She was visited frequently by persons of my acquantance. She did riot admit that she had committed any crime, and she had no fear for the result of the process that was going on, except on the score of its expense. She looked on her imprisonment as a conspiracy only of the Spanish lawyers to get money from her, because they knew she was rich; and in this she probably was not much ruts. taken. The leinente Gebernardor, one of the principal officers of state, was in the habit of visiting her in prison, and encouraging her with the assurance that her suit would speedily be terminated, and that she had nothing worse than banishment to fear. A lawyer of the name of Garcia had defended her some short time before her committal on the present charge, in another case of cruelty practised by her on a slave, and he publicly boasted that if she had come forward in the present case with a sufficient sum, he would have brought her through her present difficulty without any more inconvenience than in the former instance. Such is the administration of justice its the island of Cuba, and the execution of those laws which are thought so mild in their character, and benevolent in their principles, that the slave who lives under them is protected from injustice, and in consequence of their excellence the slaves in Spanish colonies are comparatively happy. It was said by the late Mr. Canning, that all laws for the partial arnelio. rations of the condition of slaves were necessarily defective, because such laws had no executive principle, inasmuch as the persons who were expected to carry them into operation were interested in defeating them. My experience entirely bears out the assertion of Mr Canning; and both, I am sorry to say, are at variance with that part of the report to which I have referred, and with the common opinion of the Spanish entertained even by well-in formed persons in this country. NEWSPAPER PRESS BENEVO- LENT ASSOCIATION. The third anniversary festival of this excellent institution took place yesterday evening at the London Tavern, Bishops gate-street, when the friends and members of the associstion assembled to the number of upwards of 200. The tables were graced] by the presence of ladies ; and the whole entertainment was conducted with great spirit and judgment. The musical department, under the direction of Mr. T. Cooke, fot med one of the principal attractions. The vocal corps included Signora Tusi, Madame Dorus Gras, Mrs. Fiddes, Misses Hawes, Ilain forth, anti Williams; Signori Coletti, Robini, and F. Lab 'ache; Messrs. Atkins, Bennett, Chapman, Collyer, Harrison, Hawes, Hawkins, and Morgan. Amongst the company at the cross table, we noticed the Marquis of Norrnanby, (Chairman), Lord Nugent, h. L. Shiel, Esq., M. P., the Hon. Thomas Denman, Sir Milley Doyle, Thomas M. Gibson, Esq., Percival W. Banks, Esq., M. D. Hill, Esq., Charles Ilindley, Esq., M. P., &c. We Lught nt,t to omit to state that Mr. Kiallmark, at a very short notice, attended, and rendered most efficient assistance to Mr. Cooke, in presiding at the piano forte. After the usual loyal toasts had been p:oposed, and receivcd with the utmost enthusiasm, The NOBLE. CHaramAx gave, in an eloquent speech, in which he enforced on the attention of the company the com manding claims of the Institution, " Prosperity to the News paper Press Benevolent Association. Mr. THORNTON (the Chairman of the Directors) returned thanks; and, in the course of an able speech, said that the Directors had thought it better to relieve the company front the task of listening to a Report, and had left it to him to state the result, which he could do in a single sentence. The Institu tion was prospering as much as could reasonably be expected ; for the permanent fund, after providing for all encumbrances, amounted at the end of this year to more than 1,090/. The healths of the chairman of the by, the vice-presidents and donsrs, and the ladies, were drunk with great applause, arid the hilt:l-Ay of the meeting was up kept till a late hour. The Noble Chairman resigned the chair at twelve o'clock to Mr. Shiel. In the course of the evening the Treasurer read the list of subscriptions since the last meeting. Amongst the names were—the Marquis of Normanby, 101. ; the Earl of Lonsdale, 101.: a friend and editor, 201. ; W. Ellis, Esq., Si. ; Henry T. Hope, Esq., 10/. ; Mr. Justice Erskine, 101. ; W. Att wold, Esq., M.P.; 51. (2,1 donation) ; the Attorney -General (2d donation), 10 guineas; Viscount Strangford (3d donation), 5 guineas; John Murray, Esq , 10 guineas ; B. B. Cabb,ll, Esq. (2d donaticn), 10 guineas ; It. L. Shiel,lE. q m . 51. ; C. HiniVey, 201. ASitt f u ro t in da l v i m rm o in r g n i i , t ,:rng at s x,on A a N d . — tra in L us t , o .place, a gentleman of the name of Cotwell, of th e fla n at of Cut . ell and Co., American merchants, of Liverpool, arrived N HONEST t h arrival A the ß M m by the train. On alighting fron c i it his luggage was placed iu a cab, and driven with himsel. to Guilford-street, square. After returning to the stand, the driver on opening the door discovered a pocket-book tied up, and on opening it curitry and Bank of England notes, amounting to upward s of 2,7001., were found in i t. The driver i nstantly drove off , a . n d restored the book to th e owner, who at the time was uneon si ions oF his loss. The honesty of the cabman was most libe rally rewarded by the gentleman. ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.—Oit Tues day last, at E cuing, near Newmarket, as a horse bel ong i ng to Mr. W.n. F;son, was rubbing himself against the frame work tf a field well, the wooden cur) that encircled the brink ' \V y, and in he went, and slipped backwards to the bottoM a de t icii of 15 feet, the water standing 4 fee :eel,. The circuin.. f. rer,ee of the well being much greater at the bottom than at h top, the horse, tiainju-el by the descent, was able to turn himself and get on his legs, and before the day was ov. , r, was deg on cf his perilous situation, perfectly safe and sou n d. —lpswich Express. HUNGERFORD•—A remarkably fine trout w as taught the other day, weighing nearly 61b. Many very fine trout have been caught in the Hungerford fishery this season. CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT. OLD COURT. (Before Lora Chief Justice TIDAL and Mr. Baron PARIS.) TRIAL OF COURVOISIER FOR THE MURDER OF LORD WILLIAM RUSSELL. Log before the openin g o f th e C our t on Saturday, the Bench an et cry pant' the Court w as crow d e d b y well-dr , ,tsed persons.. Never has there been known s uc h an assem bl age o f ladies on any preceding oc,asion in a criminal Court. Every chair in front of the Bench had its lade occupalt, and during the whole of the three days the ladies have been indefatigable in their attendance —many of them not quitting the Court even during the time of the adjournmen t Ili Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex was not present. Shortly after ten o'clock the Judges took their seats upon the B:neA, and immediately a f terwar d s F ra ncois Benjamin Courmi. zz 'r was placed at the bar. lie appeared pale and downcast, and an'ious; but his krumess did not desert him. Lord Chief Justice TINDAL suggested the propriety of examin ing the person who had made the model. Charles Augustus Rivers was cross-examined by Mr. BODKIN — I ant a sculptor. I made the model produced. It accurately re pre eats the premises. The height of the back wall is 16 feet 3. It continues along the whole row of houses. The height of the wall on the right side is 8 feet 7, and of the building on the other side, 10 feet 4. The height of the weather boarding ti feet 10. Imme diately behind it on the other side is a bottle rack. It was in a very rotten state. 1 cannot form a judgment if it would have borne the weight of a man. The height of the wall from Sir Howard El phinstone's garden next door is 14 feet. Sarah Mansell recalled. v The prisoner remained in the house in N ,rfolk street from the time of the discovery of the murder until he was taken into custody. Inspector Tedman recalled. I examined the bottle rack, but not perfectly. Beresford examined it. lie is sent for. Mr. C. PHILLIPS then rose to address the Jury for the defence,and said that after thirty years' considerable experience in his arduous profession, he had seldom had to addre-s a Jury under more painful or anxious circumstances. There were circumstances produced before the Magistrates calculated to cause consider able anxiety, and he left them to judge how much snore that anxiety must have increased by the production of evidence yester_ day, without notice, calc u l a t e d t o in cr ease the danger of the unfor tunate man who now sto o d a t the bar. Ile said danger, because he should show presently that that evidence was by no means con clusive against him, and he had the sympathies of the Jury in his levour, as they were embarked in the same cause, and if they came to an unjust decision so surely would they have to answer for it to their God. He wes filled with dread when he considered the po pular prejudices which had been raised agai .st the prisoner before my investigation had taken place. When he considered that this ease had not been left to be dealt wills by the ordinary in struments of justice, but that the investigations had been stimulated by a large Government reward, as if the grave knew of any pristocracy, and when he saw this crowded Court, and almost heard the throb of indignation which beat in every bosom on considering the crime with which Ilse prisoner was charged ; and when he saw that unfortunate man at the bar, stand. ing there alone, friendless, far from his friends, his country, and all those vs ho in his misfortunes could have afforded him comfort and assistance—the object of all this prejudice and this indigna tion, be owned he should have felt dread, did he not fix the anchor of his hope in the justice and good sense of the Jury ; and lie was sure that when the prisoner, two days ago, re fused a foreign Juicy, he was perfectly right in trustieg himself to an English Jury. The case was most mysterious. Ile had to complain of Mr. Adolphus in his opening. That gentleman had attempted to excite a prejudice against the prisoner because he was a foreigner. Foreigners rob, and murder when they rob. It was a libel on the human race. His (Mr. Phillips's) countenance fell when he heard Mr. Adolphus say this— he dared not look up, lest be should see some of the representatives slay crowded this Court. () 1 Mr. t h'ose Adolphus i-orei was an ti ogn'p a st could h everye point out an instance of a murder in Switzerland ? Was not that countr y celebrated for its historian, who oria n had humanity, its kindness, and its virtue, and that was the country of Courvoisier. What would be their feelings if in a Court of Jus. Lice its Vsenna or Madrid they were to see a fellow countryman on his trial f o r efe—svhat would be their feelings, if they were to hear a Counsel say, This men comes from the country of Patch, Greenacre, a';d Thurtell, and Englishmen always murder. What must have been the feelings of Courvoisier's countrymen in listening to Mr. Aciolishus's speech? Mr. Adolphus had attempted to induce them to believe that crimes might be committed without a motive. Ile could attribute no motive to Courvoisier, and therefore he hail recourse to this absurdity. His allusion to the case of Oxford was !nest unfortunate. lie firmly believed that he was a maniac. It actuated by morbid motives of notoriety he had dared to direct his murderous aim at her, the beloved, the beautiful, the virtuous, who was enthroned its her people's hearts, be must have been, if nut mad, at least on the very verge of inaeness. What motive coul,l Courvoisier bare for committing this crime—revenge?— there was no quarrel between him and his mas ter. Jealousy ? Ile was a favoured and a trusted Plunder ?-lie bad every opportunity of plundering wholesale, almost to any extent, without suspicion, or if suspicious were excited, shared among him and others. lie could imagine a midnight plunderer entering the house, and, to prevent discovery, committing the horrible crime with which the prisoner :tool charged. But eyes , s upposing the prisoner to have committed the crime, must he not have been mad—mead to have cenunitted it without motive—mad to have remained after the commission of the crime in a place where he could scarcely avoid being detected. Let the ingenuity of the bar discover a motive, if they could. They bed endeavoured to do so ; they had failed. They then taid a crime could be committed without a motive—a contradiction to experience--a contradiction to common sense. Thi s was a case entirely of circumstantial evidence, and therefore every minute circumstance was entitled to their consideration. The pro secutors were bound to prove, not by inference, not by argument, not by subtle ingenuity, but downright paipaule demonstration, that the prisoner bad been guilty of this crime. It was not for I him to say who did it. if they asked him who did it, he would say, ask the onsniscient God—he knew not—he was not called upon to rend asunder the mantle of darkness, and throw a brilliant light upon this most mysterious crime. He imputed it to no one. Ile sought not, as had been insinuated, to cast any imputation on the female servants. The first fact relied on by Mr. Adolphus was the prisoner's agitation Now here he was called up by the housemaid, and she said to Itim, Let us go and see where soy Lord is. He owned that expression struck him as very remarkable. If she haul said, let us tell my Lord that the house has been tabbed, it would have been natural ; but why should she suspect that my Lord was not safe ? Courvoisier did as he was bid—went first into the room, opened the shutters, the housemaid saw a spot of blood upon the pillow, screamed, and ran out. Now he had referred to the Coroner's depositions, and Me. Adolphus had very generously said that he might put in these depositions, and the prosecution would waive the right of reply. The Judge had very property interposed, but the Coro net's depositions were before the Bench, and the Bench could see what she had said before the Coroner. lie should not put ii) the depositions, because he could not expose the prisoner to another exercise of Mr. Adolphus's ingenuity. The shutters were opened, the prisoner saw Ills master murdered —aged, respected, verses, ble, beloved—there he lay, weltering in his blood ; and it was ex pected that the prisoner should show no agitation. had he shown no agitation, would it not have been said that a cool, deliberate, eold.blooded wretch, who could look upon such a scene without agitation, would have been the matt, of all others, capable of com mitting the crime. Why, his own witnesses exhibited the same agitation. I say the agitation is a proof of their innocence. Ile says it is a proof of that man's guilt. Ile wished Mr. Adolphus had been in Hyde Park with him the other day to have witnessed the agitation of the bye standers when the attempt was made upon the life of the Queen. If agitation was a proof of guilt, there was not a person there but was guilty of the attempt upon the life of the Queen. But he rendered no assistance. He •;id as soon as he recovered. He went to write to Mr. W. Russell. He (Mr. P.) knew that gentle man, and deeply did he sympathise with the grief of that last scion of that illustrious stock. While writing he was interrupted by the housemaid, with that feminine exclamation, " What the devil are you doing here." Ile is told Mr. Russell must be sent for, he goes to the door, and calls the first man he sees, to send him— but is again interrupted by the servant. There were horses .. in the stable, he•had an opportunity of taking one of them, and es caping—lse had some hours to have done so—but he remained answering every question put to him, and answering those clues_ lions truly. Ile is left closely watched by the police—tortured wills questions which he answers truly—and every question he answers truly increases the suspicions against him. The occasion of taking him into custody vas the finding the locket upon him. " Dare you look me in the fa: e?" said flue police man. " Yes," said Courvoisier. "It is the murdered man's," said the policeman. "It is mine," said Courvoisier, and he is taken into custody. The locket is shown to Ellis. he says "It is very much like my Lord's." "It is mine" said Courvoisier. His Lordship's locket is found concealed in the pantry, and Courvoisies turns out to be right. If it had not been found this locket would have been rodsuced. Ellis, like an honest man would have said it was like it, and it would have been insinuated that the locket found in the prisoner's pocket was the murdered Lord's. Again, theimpression oft's. seal was found in the possession of the prisoner. He said this was given to him by Mr. W. Russell, but this, although said at Bow-street Court, did not suit the gentlemen conducting the pro secution to admit, but he must do justice to one of the gentlemen attending for the prosecution, the worthy representative of the Bedford family, Mr. Wing. That gentleman had heard what was said at Bow-street; he had gone to Mr. W. Russell, and that gentleman, its a =lnner which did honour to his justice and his humanity, at once admitted that such was the case. Mr. Wing with the greatest kindness and humanity informed the prisoner's Counsel of it, and thus they were saved from perilling the safety of the prisoner by being driven to put Mr. Russell into the box, and perilling the prisoner's safety by subjecting him to Mr. Adolphus'; ingenuity in reply- Every answer of the prisoner had turned out to be true. In the opening it was said that the candle was so placed that his Lordship could not read in bee. Now it appeared in evidence that it was not so placed. Again, Isis trunk was searched ; and, said Mr. Adolphus, do you think lie would have Ind the evidence of his guilt into Isis own trunk. Indeed he must have been a fool or a madman if he had done so. 'reamers, to whom he would do the justice to #ay that he had givers his evidence most fairly, searched hit trunk en the (As, and found nothing in it. Now what would an apprentice policeman oft be old school have done? Vs'hy,for the interests ofjustice it was his bounden duty tolsave corded and sealed that trunk, and put it in some place of -safety, where no miscreant, tempted by a reward of 4001., should have an opportu. nity of introducing proofs of guilt, but it was left open to all the gang of police in the house and to the maid.seryants. They ex anined it Why ? And Tedman, an honest mars, extanines again on the it again again on the 13th —why Ile gives an hon es t reason. Th e uncle of flue prisoner came and requested a change of linen for the prisoner. prisone r sends his uncle to the h ouse t o t h e po li ce ' 11se to g et a shirt ou t of Isis trunk, which had been searched on the 6th.goes and takes out a sh irt and shakes a pair of bloody Tes! rn an wee put the gloves there whilst the man was its gaol ? Or gloves f rO M it. vou ld he, knowing they were there, have sent the is:slice to e xar n ' n e it ? Tolman does not have recou r se t o th e scoundrel'; excuse, that he did not search minutely. Was there not practice in this? Thus bad begins, but worse remains behind." Collier, who, for reasons best known to himself, would not go to the truss e n k without a witness after Ilse search by Tedman on the an d on the 13th, gos to the trunk on the ISth, and finds, in h 6 tl t te ery top of the trunk, two bloody handkerchiefs, marked with ttie prisoner's initials. The trunk had been examined after Cour voisier was in prison ; so that he totuld not have had the oppor tunity o f putting evidences of his guilt into Isis trunk. Why did the policemen go one after another to this same trunk, which had been proved to be free :from suspicion on the oth ? Suppose the shirts might not have been secreted, how did they account for the handkerchiefs and the shirt fr ont ? fedman saw nothing of Omens on the dth ; they were not seen on the Sth ; who put them into the „ w e, ? Not Courvoisier ;he was ill his dungeon, Wh a t villainy had been at work. Why was the injustice done of not cording and sealing up his trunk, so that it saiglit have been produced as it was found on the morning of the murder 9 lied net some one been at work to make the prisoner the victim of his machinations ? He supposed he was not goi ng t oo tar in saving t h ere wer e strong s us p icions that the trunk had been practised on ; those who had d one that might do other things. Mr . Inspector Pearce,who would not intimidate a wretch to endeavour to hang him, pantry, 1 finds the thing s in the prisoner's and takes them up and shows them to him These wa s no need to use words to intimi date the prisons ; u nder these circumstances if he had been guilty ; lie shows hint those things, and says, Leok here, Sir, d are you look me in the face? Was anything so likely to strike a person dumb these things, and that in • • as the production of , inquisitor inflicting worse than physical torture ? Courvoisier did look him in the face, and said he knew nothing about them--he was innocent. Contrast the conduct of these two men, and see on whose brow guilt is most d e eply branded. Did you not use them to intimidate the man P said my friend. I did not, said Pearce. Now, could ,he believe him ? Mr. Maine was in the house at that that. s Mr. Hobler w as in the house at the time. Why did they let that fellow go up to the prisoner and exhibit those articles be. fore him, and try to intimieate him into a confession ? It was their duty to Wive gone up themselves to him, and said, These articles were found in your pants 1--can you account for them? but instead of that they send this fellow to torture him. Why, the Inquisition, except that it added bodily torture to :mental, never exceeded this. Was this fair play p was this conduct that ought to have been practised by any men? But it was done, and this same fellow tells you en his oath that he expects to share the plunder, 450/. reward to be divided among them on the coffin of Courvoisier. lie thought the days of blood.money were over. Never, since the innocent men were led out years ago to execution, in consequence of the perjury of police officers, had any reward been offered. He was aware there was the humbug ofa reward in the case of Mr. Templeman,but he knew that he had lain five weeks in his grave without such a reward being offered. But the reward was offered on conviction, not for the discovery of facts ; the receipt was to be written in the blood of the prisoner. The Govern ment might have been actuated by the purest motives in offering it, although it is curious that no reward was ever offbre.l until one of their own body was touched ; but the effect of it was to induce the forgery of evidence. Let them take that miscreant Baldwin as an example, who first swore lie had never heard of any reward, and then admitted that it had beets read out in his presence. He told the Government with the freedom of a man who had nothing to hops or to fear from them, that any Government which, in a case like this, offered a reward, was accessory to the murder of a prisoner. What had been the consequence of offering a reward in Temple can's case ? Why, two innocent persons, a man and his wife, might have been trepanned its consequence. In construing the expressicns of Courvoisier, it should be recollected that be was a foreigner. " If these things had not beets found in ray pantry it would not be so hard against me ;" a most natural expression. But who hid them there. It was the last place in the world where he could have hid them, if he wanted to escape the detection. Who hid the handkerchiefs ? Who hid the gloves Y The same persons might have hid these things in the pantry in order to throw suspicion upon Cuurvoisier. He k%ew the Jury would give all these things full consideration beesre they doomed Courvoisier to death. It has been represented that be said, if he had as much money as his !nester he would not re. main long in this country, and from this expression made use of in the presence of the servants of his master, it was sought to be insinuated that he contemplated murder and robbery. He must have been mad, had he contemplated crime, to have made use of such an expression. If they were poor and in a foreign country, what would be more natural than for them to give utterance to such an expression on seeing some rich man. Let them recollect the country to:which Courvoisier belonged. To a Swiss the bubbles of ambition, the realities of wealth—all was as nothing eomparrd with the native land he loved. No expres sions could be more natural. Then a great deal was said about his money—nothing could exceed the nonsense that had been uttered on this subject. They found its his pocket a 51. note, which un. questionably had been Lord W. Russell's, and yet he hides a 101. note, and rings, and all sorts of other articles. He admits the 5/. note bad been Lord W. Russell's, and that he changed it. lie is asked if Lord W. Russell had more money. lie says at once ho housemaid) was. getting p, and the cook said she was awake. fie did not think this was an important discrepancy as , if the cook did nat speak, it might have been natural to suppose she was asleep. With regard to the warming-pan having been left on the stairs, he did not think that a circumstance of any im portance one way or the other. With regard to the observa tions which had been made upon the expressions used by the housemaid, " Let us go and see where his Lordship is," he thought it was merely a natural expression of anxiety for his Lordship's safety under the circumstances. With regard to her preventing the prisoner sending to Mr. Russell by a labouring man passing by, her idea might have been that a man of that description, sent to such a di stance as Belgrave-square , might have loitered by the way, or perhaps not have gone at all ; however, they had heard the observations of the Counsel upon it, and it was a question entirely for them to determine. With regard to the expression used by the prisoner, " Old Billy was a rum old chap, and bad money," he thought the jury must not lay too much stress upon expressions used by persons in the prisoner's class of life when discoursing with their fellow. servasts ; all the inference that could be drawn from the expression was that the prisoner thought Lord William Russell was a rich man. With regard to what had been said by the Counsel about the seeming contradiction in the evidence given by the housemaid in the Court and before the Coroner, she ought to have had the evidence given before the Coro ner read, and to have given her an opportunity of explaining it ; as it was, her evidence was uncontradicted ; and even admitting all that the Learned Counsel had said, he really did not think it was a discrepancy of any importance whatever. With regard to the break. ing into the house, the Jury, before they came to any decision as to the prisoner's guilt or innocence must make up their minds as to whether it was a real breaking in for the purpose of robbing the house, or merely a simulated breaking in for the purpose of directing suspicion and inquiry away from the real perpetrator of the crime. With regard to the evi dence of Baldwin, it did not appear to him (the Judge) that he gave his evidence in such a way as entitled him to full credit. Yet the prevarication of which he had been undoubtedly guilty could not alter facts, and as all the material facts to which Baldwin deposed were also deposed to by Rose, on whose character no such imputation rested, he should read Rose's evidence to the Jury, omitting altogether that of Baldwin. With respect to the glass door being undisturbed, it was very remarkable that any housebreaker should have neglected the comparatively easy method of getting into the house by removing a pane of f glass front this window, and have gone down a story lower, for the purpose of get. time into the house by the back area door. Some strong observa tions had been made upon the fact of the gloves having been found in the prisoner's trunk upon the second examination, and not upon the first, and it had been insinuated that they had been placed there by some one for the purpose of getting up a care against the prisoner. Now it was for the Jury to determine whether it was not possible for the gloves to have escaped observation on the first examination when the shirts were merely unfolded, and yet to have fallen out of one of them on the second examination,. w hen the shirts were shaken. They had 'seen the police who had been examined before theft), and it was for them to determine whe ther they thought those persons would have been wicked enough to have got up evidence against the prisoner in that manner, and if they had been so wicked as to make evidence against the prisoner in the manner charged, would they not have invented some circumstance of infinitely more importance than the finding of a pair of white gloves, so slightly stained with blood as to render it almost impossible they could have been worn by a person sslien engaged in such a horrible transaction as this murder? Very strong ob servations had been made on the conduct of Pearce ; now, nothing could be more proper than to show any things which might be Grand to a prisoner, and to ask him any proper questions; at the same time it was exceedingly improper in a minister of justice to attempt to entrap a person into a confession of guilt, and it was for the Jury to determine what was to be the effect likely to be produced by the conduct of Pearce in the present instance. No blame, he thought, could be attached to Mr. Maine, notwith. standing the observation of the Learned Counsel on his conduct. With regard to the reward, crime would very often go undetected, persons perhaps would not use their utmost diligence unless they were stimulated by the hopes of a reward, and the remarks of the Learned Counsel would apply equally to every case in which a re ward was offered. If a witness were influenced by the hope of re ward it would certainly go to diminish the credit due to his tes timony, but that was a question entirely for the consideration of the Jury. With regard to the discovery of the handkerchiefs aad the shirt front, the same observations would apply to them as to the gloves, except that Shaw said he had seen the front on searching the box un the former occasion, although he did not recollect that he had then seen the handkerchiefs. They now came to the evidence as to the missing property—evidence which had Men discovered since the prosecution had commenced. Had the case remained without this evidence, there might have been strong obser. vations made upon the circumstance of the property being missing, and of the probability of a person having entered the house by t he back, and left it by the front, taking with him the property that was missing, although be might have left a quantity behind hint ; but if it were proved that that property had been removed by the prisoner himself before the murder took place, their he would be deprived of the advantage of that conjecture ; and he supposed it was with that view that the evidence had been adduced, because they were not there to try the prisoner for robbing his master, but for the murder. The Learned. Judge then read the evidence of Mrs. Piolaine, and said that observations had been made upon the improbability of her having seen an account in the French paper calculated to excite her suspicions. Now in justice to the prosecutors it must be said, that they could not make this paper evidence, but that the Counsel for the prisoner might have cross-examined her on the subject if he had thought fit, and have put in the paper to contradict her. It was certain something must have happened to direct her attention to the parcel which had been left with her. With regard to the conduct of Mr. Comp) he thought it was exceedingly proper, as it was the duty of every good stillest to assist in the administration of justice, and to bring forward every fact which may come to his knowledge, whether it be for a prisoner or against him. There was considerable difficulty in corning to the conclusion which the Counsel fur the prisoner wished them to come to—that the various articles were concealed in the pantry by the police, for the purpose of convicting the prisoner. These articles were missing on the morning of the discovery of tit? murder, and had been in their places the night before. Where coted the police have found them, or could they Lave had any opportunity of placing them there ? They would have to consider all these things, before they could conic to the conclusion to which the Learned Counsel would lead them. With respect to the evidence as to character, it was to be observed that all cases were to be tried by the direct evidence ad duced. Evidence as to character was merely of a secondary nature, and to be weighed against the direct testimony in the case, and if the circumstances of the case were so strong, although he did. not say it was so in this case, that being for the Jury to determine, as to leave no doubt on the subject, then the evidence as to character would be of no avail; but where the scales of Justice were evenly balanced, there character would be of avail in determining as to the probability of the innocence or guilt of the party. In this case it was their duty to weigh well and con sider every circumstance of the case, and to draw their in. ferences. They were to give the case their best cOnsidera. thin, and to say whether the prisoner was innocent or guilty. If they thought that there could be any doubt, taking all the circumstances into their consideration, that the prisoner was guilty, then they were to give him the benefit of that doubt ; but if they felt that, taking - all the circumstances into their consi. deration, there could be no doubt as to his guilt, then, how. ever painful it might be to them, it was their bounden duty to pronounce him guilty. It Was for them, how. ever, to exercise their deliberate judgment upon the case, to weigh well every circumstance, and to pronounce their ver. dict accordingly. his Lordship finished his summing up at five o'clock, and The Jury then retired to deliberate on their verdict, and after at) absence of an hour and twenty.five minutes, returned, and de. livered a verdict of—GUILTY. POLICE INTELLIGENCE. BOW-STREET. THE ECCENTRIC SOCIETY On Saturday, Mt!. Honey, landlady of the Sutherland Arras Hotel and Tavern, Great May's Buildings, St. Martin's•lane, appeared before Mr. Jardine, to answer a complaint preferred against her by the Inspectors of the F division of police, for having, on the 14th inst., being Sunday, unlavt fully kept open, her house for the sale of beer, wine,. and other fermented liquors, the ,arne not being for the entertainment of travellers, to which she pleaded not guilty. Mr. Moore, the barrister, appeared for the defendant. Inspector George Musgrove stated, that at one o'clock in the morning of the day in question, he v.ent to the defendant's house, which is situated in the parish of .St. Mat tin's-in-the Fields, and w ithin the Metropolitan Police District, where he knocked, and being admitted, he found, in a room up stairs, from fifteen to twenty persons, some of whom were smoking, and others drinking. Mr. JARDINL asked if he could say what the company were drinking ? Witness considered from the appearance, that it was spirits and water, but just before two o'clock, a constable saw a number of persons leave the house. Cross-examined—When he got to the door it was shut, and he told the person inside the door that he was a police officer, and he might have said that he should be admitted. There were two police sergeants with him at the time, but he did not receive any orders concerning the house in particular, and at the hour in question everything was perfectly quiet. Sergeant Weston corroborated the evident•e of the last wit- Cross-examined—Heald a loud talking up stairs, but not such as would authorise a policeman to enter the premises. There was no noise or rioting; and after entering the room with the Inspector, and seeing what was going forward, they went away very quietly. He saw no person enter the house, and he had occasion to caution the landlady respecting the same circumstances on a former occasion. The Learned Counsel then said, I, on the part of the society to which I have the honour to belong, am induced, after such evidence as has been given, to ask if I still live in the same England where I used to lire some years ago? I had always thought, that before a police officer took the liberty to enter the premises of any housekeeper, he should be armed with a war rant, and until the Magistrate dispenses the law on that point, I shall entertain the same opinion. Tho Metropolitan Police Act, be it remembered, is a penal Act, and the clause under which the summons has been granted admits of different con e although it should be clearly and lit era ll y under stood. A well known society, called the Eccentric Society, has held its meetings at the house of the defendant for the last forty years, and it can show on its books the names of p eers , barristers, doctors, artists, statesmen, together with gentlemen connected with the press. The meetings are not of apolitical but a social chsracter, and if the Court come to the same deci sion as on a former occasion, it will be the means of dissolving the society entirely, as the memberscouid not disperse exactly at twelve o'clock. I cannot for a moment suppose that the Legis lature was will ing to interfere with such a society, and I considered it a fitting time to cone forward, hearing that the landlady had been summoned, to try the question. When the Metropolitan Police Act was first passed, I did not hesitate to express my opinion upon it, and I had the concurrence of eminent persons at the bir as to the operation of it. The clause, it was well known, ought to be construed literally, and it appeared to me to have been introduced to cure the lower classes of the people of squandering their hard earnings in gin -shops ; but if it was intended to interfere with innocent amusements in a public -house, it seemed rather strange . that the Legislature had omitted to include theatres and lobster shops, provided they sold no spirituous liquors. The words were, that no licensed victualler do open his house, that is take down his shutters and open his shop in the regular way, for the sale of his goods. The days on which he was forbidden to open until a certain hour were Good Friday, Christmas-day, and Sun days; but there was not not one word in the Act to show that the company was to be turned out. The defendant was in the habit of closing her house at the hour required by law, and, up to the present time, the members of the society were allowed to hold their sittings up stairs. The clause, in my opinion, should have mentioned that a licensed victualler should have ordered all company out of the house, and it should be entirely cleared, to authorise the police to take such steps. I am anxious that the question should_ he decided up on prin ciple, as the Act says nothing about Saturday night, and it could not come into operation until the company broke up, when it was broad daylight. Ido not know how a Magistrate can inflict a tine in such a case, when it can be seen, by the 3Sth clause, that the hoer of eleven o'clock was specified for all business to cease in fairs, and such other places of public re sort. In another Act, where mention was made concerning sheep and other cattle, it was found necessary to have a law passed for the purpose of introducing cows and horses, so re quisite was it to have a penal Act literally understood. John son says that night was the time from darkness till li g ht ; an d Dyke defines it to be only the time between sun-setting and sun-rising, neither of which could Mean twelve o'clock in the previous night, and consequently it could not be made afpli cable in a penal Act, which was evidently passed to prevent i persons lying about the streets n a state of drunkenness, who might be encouraged to it through the cupidity of li cence,' victuallers. The only thing proved was, that persons were found sitting with something like spirits and water be fore them, and as it was not shown that any liquors were sold after twelve o'clock, I truss that the lays will not be strained so far as to order the defendant to be convicted. Mr. J.\ aDI E said he would be glad to consider the clams? referred to, in order to enable the proper authorities to know in what manner they should act on a future occasion. Mr. Mu ire said it was of great importance to the public as person,: were liable to be tjected from a house the moment they were enjoying their refreshments, and the society of their friends. had a 5/. note and a 10/. note. This turned out to be true. The 101. note is afterwards found in the pantry. Did this look like guilt? Would ha have admitted that the 5/. note had been his master's if he had been guilty. Valuable property is left behind, and yet the cook's thimble is taken and left ostentatiously in the passage. Who nut it there—the same person that hid the things in the passage ? The case was full of doubt and mystery, and if the Jury convicted him, it would be at the peril of their souls, for he should show them, that if they be lieved the prisoner guilty cf an.ything, he might be subjected to the highest punishment the law could inflict short of death. Why should the housemaid introduce the circumstance of her having felt drowsy after taking the ale, before the Magistrates, a!:d why was It abandoned now ? He thought he could point his finger at the man who had said, If you rely upon thar, the Jury will laugh at you, because he drank of the ale himself. Ingenuity induced the suppression of that which eagerness for conviction had produced. Was it likely that Courvoisier would have de. stroyed a shirt and economized a front—and oh the stupidity of these policemen, the front, of all other parts of the shirt the most likely to be spotted with blood in such a case. Not an article marked with blood was found in his possession —not a mark of blood upon his person —not a mask of blood under his nails, where it was notorious it would remain in spite of all wash ing, like the blood-spot on the hand of Lady Macbeth. Why was it that, after going to all the expense of the model, the rooms in which Courvoisier and the servant slept should not have been on the model. Courvoisier's room was next to that in which the servants slept. Courvoi. sier's bed was against the partition on one side, and Courvoisier's was against it on the other. Courvoisier was found in his room in the morning; the cook was awake when the housemaid got up; and yet, during the livelong night, no noise whatever was heard in Courvoisier's room. lie now came to a portion of the case of which he had loudly to complain. up to the evening of Thursday not one cord was said about the missing plate. Nothing could be moreshameful than the way in which that man was treated, in the not having, within an hour of Mr. Comyn's arrival, notice of the new evidence to be produced. They ought at least to have had the night to have investigated the character of the witnesses to be brought against Wu'. He knew not who Mrs. Piolaine was, and if she did not tell the truth, those who came to corroborate her proved nothing. Ile hoped they knew Leicester-place. Here was a billiard.table at the Hotel de Dieppe, where any person might go in and play. Here was this woman living with her husband, who most conveniently goes to France, and she swears that she never opened her lips to her husband on -the subject of the murder, because she was too busy. Had they ever heard anything so absurd? Was it n ot odd that such a discoveryshould have been made in the middle of the trial, a reward of AL having been offered Previously for the discovery of the minutest portion of this plate; A French newspaper is read to this lady that puts her in mind of the parcel. Now he begged their at tention to this. Courvoisier was never known in that house by the name of Courvoisier. He was known only by the name of John. How could the French paper direct her attention to this ? Mr. Baron PARKE—You have no right to raise a doubt upon the paragraph in the French - paper, unless it is put in evidence. Mr. C PHILLIPS—Did not subject his client to any fresh mine that might be sprung, without notice, upon him by calling upon them to put in fresh evidence. Thewhele depended upon the evidence of this :woman. She knew so little of Courvoisier that when he first called, she did not know him, and that when she opened the parcel she sends for half•a•dozen people, who all sign a sort of round-robin as to the articles found in the parcel. All that was consistent with the woman not having received the parcel from Courvoisier. They attempted to identify the clothes, but they utterly failed-, and that woman proved, if she proied anything, that the sock was not Courvoisier's. He was sure if the Jury could find i their way out of the case consistently with justice, without shedding that man's blood, they would do so. Now, supposing they ad. 'flitted everything connected with the property, that it was left there by Courvoisier, was that conclusive of the murder? He --thought net i but'it -woo conclusivssof robbery, for which he might be convicted, and sentenced to be transported to suffer a lingering death upon INTorfolk Island. Here was a golden bridge for them to pass.. over... . If they . entertained a suspicion, arid yet felt ' thernseiies , bound to acquit him, still he might be punished' for it ; and he would say, if he should have'been guilty of the murder, -which he hoped to find he was not, better, far better, would it be that he eh Inld repent, in the bitter. 111 r. JAl:nisi thought that the Learned Counsel might have lost sight of the 4th and sth of William I V., called the Amended Beer Act, by the siith Section and 7th Clause of which the police were authorised to enter any house in which beer or itirituous liquors were sold ; but if he was disposes! to decide tyon a minute point, that it was not the defendant who had opened the house, but the police, he might appear to have shrunk from his duty, and under such a circumstance it might be proper to call evii!ence, to show that a certain society was in the habit ot l uldinn meetings at the house. Major Revel proved that he had known, and was member of, the Eccentric Society, us hich held its meetings at the Suther landfor t h e l ast 39 year s . H e t h oug h t i t h ad been ' establish fur forty years; and the objects of it were conversa tional and ititellecinal recreations. Every member must be proposed, anti b e ing seconded, he is elec!ed by ballot. Three balls exclude. The ir veting s have been held every night at nine o'clock, with very few exceptions. Saturday nights were attended more fully than others, being leisure time for pro fessional men, and persons connected with the public press. The hour of seraration vat ied, and on a full night it might be later than usual. The society. was composed o f mem b ers of both Houses of Parliament, medical men, together with person/ eminent in the fine arts, and some of the most eloquent men that England could boast of have been attaches! to it. Mr. J I:DINE-1$ there any exclusion ? Witness—There is no rule, but the candidate must he 21 years of age, proposed and seconded in the usual way. No stranger could be ad mitted, and subjects on religion and politics were excluded from the discussions. It a member introduce a stranger he was lia ble to expulsion. nese of such an exile, than be sent, in the dawning of his life, to 'an ignominious death.- This did not come so in aid of the former proof as to . compel them to convict him. " Now," said the Learned Advocate, "my anxious task is ended, and yours it , about to begin. One of the attributes of the Almighty Cod is now committed to you— the issues of life and death are its your hands. You are to restore that man once more to the enjoyment of existence and freedom, or to send hint to an ignominiotis death, and brand upon his grave a murder'er's epitaph. - Awful is the consideration—still more awful the responsibility. Violate not lightly that temple which the Lord hath made. Recollect, the word once gone forth from you, it is irrevocable. Speak it not lightly. Speak it not ripen suspicion, however strong —upon moral conviction, however cogent—not upon argument, not upon proba bility—but upon broad, clear, irresistible noon-day conviction. 1 speak this in no hostile spirit, but with a CI ristian feeling. If you do this deed, do it not lightly, or its consequences will follow you like a shadow—it will accompany you in your crowded walks— be with yell in your homes, and his accusing spirit will hover over yourdeath beds, and confront and condemn you at the Judgment seat of your God. Beware what you do. The address of the Learned Counsel was listened to with breath. less interest by the most crowded Court we ever witnessed, and at the conclusion of it many ofthem present were affected es en to tears. The following witnesses were then called to character and exa mined by Mr. CIARICSON. Mr. Jennings—l am the proprietor of the British Hotel, Jermyn. street. The prisoner has lived in my service, and both myself and my wife remarked the probity, modesty, diffidence, and even simplicity of his character. James Neble-1 am waiter in the service of the last witness. I knew the prisoner while in the service of Mr. Fector, who is now going abroad, and always considered him a quiet, humane, and inoffensive man. Jean Pcton—l am in the service of Lady Julia Lockwood. I knew the prisoner while he was in her Ladyship's service. I have known him four years, and consider him a well.conducted, good tempered, quiet man. Jeanne Susanne Peten-1 am the wife of the last witness, and am in the service of Lady Julia Lockwood. 1 have lived with her Ladyship fifteen }ears. I have known the prisoner ever since his arrival in England, and have always considered him a kind, good hearted man. CONFESSION OF THE MURDERER. Lady Julia Lockwood—The prisoner lived in my service for After the,verdict had been returned, it was very generally reported nine months as under servant. I have had opportunities of observe that the prisoner had made a full confession of his guilt. We, in ing him, and think him to be deserting of the character of a kind. consequence, made every possible inquiry into the truth of this heat ted inoffensive young man. rumour, and found that it was strictly correct. The following is All the witnesses to character having been examined, the Court the information which we received upon the subject :—During adjourned for refreshment previous to the summing up. the examination that took place of the house of Lord William The Court re-assembled at Half-past One o'Clock, and the Jury Russell, and the plate and other articles, the attention of Mr. having answered to their names, Hobler, the solicitor to the prosecution, was called to the table Lord Chief Justice TINDAL commenced the summing up. lie knives belonging to his Lordship. Among them were four large desired the Jury to discharge from their minds all they might have carving knives, with Damascus blades end balance ivory handles; heard previous to being sworn, and calmly to consider the evidence they were all fresh cleaned when Mr. Hobler saw them, but on a they had heard, and consider whether it was sufficient to hring very minute inspection of one of tl em, he found on the blade near the home to their minds that the prisoner was guilty. If they enter. handle a very small rusty spot, and that this knife, though recently tamed any doubt on the subject, they were bound to give the psis cleaned, was much duller in appearance than any of the others. soner the benefit of it, but if they came to the conclusion that lie examined the blade most minutely, but could not find it was by the prisoner's hand that Lord William Russel died, then, that it was notched in any part of it; but, from its general appear. however painted it might be, tl were bound to convict him. rune, he was satisfied that that was the very instrument by which The case was one of circurnstagtial evidence, and if citcum. the deceased nobleman had been deprived of his life. He conse. stant:al evidence were to be always rejected, crime would always quently separated it from the rest, and placed it in the hands of the almost go unpunished, because it was very seldom that persons bankers of the deceased nobleman, in whose custody it has ever since committed atrocious crimes in the presence of witnesses. But remained. On Thursday last, when the uexpected discovery had it would not be enough for them to be satisfied that such and been made as to where the missing plate had been deposited, it such circumstances were consistent with the guilt of the prisoner, was carefully examined by the deceased nobleman's domestics, Sarah but that trey were utterly inconsistent with any other suppo. Mancell and Ellis, who at once identified it as the property of their salon than that the prisoner was the person who committed late master ; but the fact of the finding of the proper. y was not made the crime. lie would first offer . some gener a l o b serva tions known to the prisoner until the following (Friday) morning, when on the case and then read the evidence. It was beyond a doubt Madame Piolaine came to Newgate, and the prisoner and some other that Lord W. Russell was murdered in the night between Tues. men being marshalled before her in the Press-yard, she at once iden. day, the sth, and Wednesday, the 6th of May. Th, re was no pos- tilled hint as the man by whom the parcel containing the plate sibility of saying that he had committed suicide. It was also per. had been left at her house. The fact of the plate having been fectly clear that in the course of that night a robbery was crim. discovered, and his identification as the party leaving mitted. Various valuables were taken away, all of which were it, was communicated to the prisener, and on hearing afterwards found concealed in some other part of the house. I t this unexpected intelligence he turned very pale, and was ex was for them to determine whether it was within the reach of ceedingly agitated, and before the time whets he was tc be again human possibility that that robb er y was unconnected with the Placed at the bar of the Central Criminal Court, he sent for Mr. C. Phillips, his counsel, and at once made the following confession murder. Whether there could ha ve been a robbery by one set of people, and a murder by anothe r , i n the same house on the same of his guilt. He stated teat on the night of the fetal transaction he was in the lower part of his Lordship's house in the act of se night, was a most important poi n t for them to consider — whether that was a robbery committed by persons breaking into the house, creting the different articles of plate, &c., the property of his or by the Inmates residing in it. At seven o'clock in the morning Lordship, in the several places where they were afterwards found it was found that the front area door was fastened , the f ront door secreted by the police, as stated by them on the trial, when hi s would di:. Lordship, who was suddenly taken unwell, unexpectedly came oppti, the back door fastened, the back area door open, and a cloak hii.11:1,11 The and dece: e s c e i d ar n ed obl i c h m at an ii e i mmed iately down stairs and caught him Ist the act of concealing his property was found folded up, with a napkin lying upon it in the hall, near the therefore, the natural itsfe.ma nner i m w i above th stated . robbing front door. Upon the first impress rence would be that some persons had entered by the back area d oor , l't charged the ll harge him from his service on the follow ing which bore marks of violence, had robbed the house, murdered Lord morning. ' That char himself thus suddenly W. Russell, and afterwards made his escape by the front door, d . g . . and unexpectedly detected in plun ering his master, and receiving notice that he would on the the following day be dismissed from leading us to suppose that this was merely a contrivance, forhis service, he was avoiding detection by the real p er p etrator? Now, it roused . to a stat e . of phrenzy, and that he waited until his propose of Lordship had retired to rest, appeared that no articles were really taken away, and that many are into tides easily portable were le ft behind,and theywere to consider whether his be droom, and finding that his Lot ds • - hip d wa s soun d a h e cut his throat with 1 thief would have left such articles behind him, some con. Is tile v ery carving knife which Mr. a rea l nobler so justly suspectedthat crated with great care, and others left close to the door, when the s ... - might have taken then. away with him on his person without )rated . vs e presume that this communication on the part of tire thief would prisoner entirely exciting suspicion. Then, with regard to the door, they changed the line of defence which his counsel in have to say whether they were marks produced by a person break- tended to have adopted for him, for it was ger.erally rumoured that • to the house, or made by a person after the door had been a severe attack would be made by him on the prisoner's fellow ing in servants,. ope ned. He should wish them not to place any great reliance onand particularly on the police who were engaged in the expressions made use of by the prisoner, or on investigation. We must, however, do the Learned Counsel the the his a gitation, as the conduct of a person under such circumstances justice to state that , w i t h, t h at honoura ble feeling which has always depended so much upon his temperament and education, that it , characterized his at the rofessiona I career, he slid the best be could for client, wo uld be harsh to draw any inference from them. Neither should his unfortunatesa me time abstaining from indulging they suffer some of the observations of the Learned Counsel for in insinuations respecting the prisoner's fellow-servants, or the defence to produce toe great an effect upon them. They the police, which he knew at the time he was addressing the Jury on. It must be a source of great An I • i • were placed to administer not mercy, but justice, and U. were altogethet without foundati on. Istor cal Novel, of a sing,ularly interesting give their verdict accordingly. The). were bound to Put satisfaction to the Jury, who tried this most important, and, up to I character, is about to appear, from tire pen 'of the Hon. the most favourable construction they could on the circu mstances, ! almost the last moment, doubtful ease, to kno w that the conclusion ' Grantley Berkeley , entitled, " Sandron Hall ; or, the Days of and having come to a conclusion, they were to recollect that they ' I to which they ultimately came was a just one, aed that by return- Queen A111.e." It is said to describe the adventures of a young were under the obligation of an oath to administer justice, and log a verdict of Guilty, they were only, as it were , confirming b y , cava li er of g ood family in the stirring days of Marlborough's they must find their verdict accordingly, regardless of the cause- that verdict a confession which had previously bsen. -made by victoeies, and the rogueries of t ea 'Wild, with all the quences. The I.earned Judge then proceeded to read the evi. 1 the prisoner. pictuteotie additions which we have joyed in our acquaint desire, assisted by Mr. Baron PARKE. On reading the evidence i l'he prisoner paid great attention to the proceedings, and tbs. once with . -;ir Roger de Coverley and his associates. of the cook, his Lordship said that it had been commented an Played none of that levity which was noticed on Thursday. The , The Rev. Dr. Charming, of Boston, has res that the housemaid said the cook was; asleep, while she(the c o urt was crowded in every part du ri n g th e whole of the day. signed his pulpit. —New York Paper. 4 i Mr. JA itniN —ls any arrangement "made with the person who keeps the house as to rent ? Witness—None, except what she may receive for the articles consumed. The room it lighted with candles at the expense of the Society, and in con sequence of the decisions at this Court, of late, very particular directions have been given to the landlady not to allow any per son after 1•? o'clock. Members of Parliament, as well as mem bers of the bar, have been excluded after that hour on Satur day nights, since the passing of the Metropolitan Police Bill, but not before. _ _ The prisoner seemed to be unmoved by the dlivery of the verdict. Lord Chief Justice TINDAL, in passing sentence of death upon the prisoner, said, Francois Benjamin • Courvoisier, you have been convicted, by the verdict of an intelligent and impartial Jury, of the crime of Wilful Murder. That crime has been proved, not by the testimony of eyewitnesses, but by circumstances which have' proved it. It has been demonstrated in this instance by the Providence of God In no or diteary manner, that the crime committed in the darkness should be brought to light. :The crime of murder is, without exce- lion, the deepest that can be committed, coming before us in this instance under circumstances of peculiar aggravation. The age of your victim, his situation of master to you, all had no ettbct upon you. To atone to society, which has received a shock by your crime, and to prevent the recurrence of it, you must suffer a speedy and an ignominious death. What may have been your precise motive it is impossible to tell. I fear it has been the lust of filthy lucre, and I beseech you to make use of the short time which remains to you, in endea vouring to make your peace with your Creator. The Learned Judge then passed sentence in the usual manner. He was dreadfully affected, so that at times his utterance was choked. The prisoner was pale but quite unmoved. Mr. JA KOINE, having consulted with Mr. Bingham, said_ that the case was distinct from that of another public-house, and as he could not decide that it was an opening of the house for the sale of fermented liquors, seeing from the e v id ence that the regulations of the society had ben strictly observed by the members for such a number of years, the summons should be dismissed on that ground and on that ground alone, Mr. James Her Bey, proprietor of the George and Dragon, in Long-acre, was also summoned for a similar offence, alleged to have been committed on the same day. Inspector Musgrove proved that at twenty-five minutes past twelve o'clock lie went to the defendant's house, which was closed, and being admitted he found four men in the tap, one of whom was smoking, and another with a glass of malt liquor before him. The defendant hiring satisfied the lia,vistrate that 'some of them were lodgers, and another a traveller the case . was dis missed. Mr. Jaines Cox, of the Cross Keys, Belton-street, Long acre, who has been a licensed victualler for thirty-three years, without once having a complaintpreferred against him, was also summoned to answer a similar charge, but the police failing to prove their car e it was dismissed. NAVAL INTELLIGENCF. ( From the Hampshire Telegraph.) _ - PORTSMOUTH, JUNE 20.—The Apollo, troopship, Mr. Karley, Commander, arrived at Plymouth on Alonday, from ()lichee, with the 11th . _ The Crane packet, Lieut. Hill, arrived at Falmouth on Mon day, from the West Indies—on freight 4,300 dollars. She brought home the Bishop of Jamaica and family. The Linnet packet arrived at Falmouth on the llth inst., and the Opossum on the 12th from Mexico; the former with 380,000 dollars, and the latter with 540,000 dollars, making 1,220,000 in toto, including the Linnet's freight, in two days' arrivals. This amount is chiefly on account of the Real del Monte Mining Company. The Psrsian, 16, Commander 11. Quin, arrived at Madeira from Plymouth, May 12, and having watered, left 15th for Cape Coast, to send home the Wolverine, 18, to be paid off. The Thunderer, 84, Hon. Capt. M . F . F. I3erkelev, has ar rived in the Tagus, and, before her i - roceeding to the Mediter ranean, was to have a trial cruize with the Revenge, 76. The Charybdis brig, Lieut. Tinting, arrived at Jamaica, from Santa Martha, on the 28th April. The Snake sloop-of-war, Commander Hay, arrived at Port Royal, on the 14th May. The Racehorse, 18. returned Font Bermuda to Barbadoes, on the 20th April. The Victor, 16, Commander Dawson, sailed on Sunday, for Jamaica, with despatches for Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas Harvey, and lint into Plymouth on Tuesday. The Magicienne, 28, Captain Michell, sailed on Monday for the Mediterranean, tmiching at Li bon. She was at Torbay on Thu sday. The Jupiter, troop-ship, Mr. Fulton, Commander, sailed on the same day to Madeira, the Cape, Ceylon, and Singapore, taking despatches for hear-Admiral Elliot; also supernumerary Marines and Boys, for the Squadron, and a vast quantity of Naval and Ordnance stores. The Pantaloon, 10, Lieut. Tryon, returned to her cruising to-day sailed on Tuesday for the River ; and around tl I d I ynedoch transport followed to-day. -le ' or C t 'it Willis. has this season left London Tl , e ship ere, •ap which discharged at Quebec, and has returned The w ith a cargo, i l o i ff or il at r i i et l i t- a s i n is ' po to Portsmouth, with a re-cargo of timber, in the short space of eleven weeks. The ship Midas, Kerr, is at Spithead, bound to Bombay, waiting a uind. The ship Serixgapatam, Captain Hopkins, arrived last night, bound to Madras, to take in her despatches, stock, and passengers. The New York packet-ship Gladiator, Britton, arrived on Wednesday from New York, with passengers ; she left on the 22d ult. The St. James, Sebor, is hourly expected front London for New York. In Hartriur—Britannia, Victory, Excellent, Royal George, Vanguard, Raven cutter, Echo. At Spithead—Seringapatarn (East Indiaman). Assistant-Surgeon W. H. Brent has been appointed (acting) to the Donegal. MORNING EDITION. ness.