The Press.
London, England, 1854-11-18 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

°our try to fail altogether in arresting the at-
tention. Premising that the work fails in its
descriptive portions, we will select some of the
incidents of the commission. We commence
with an account of a trial " very racy of the
soil," allowing the author to preface it :
When the Boundary Commission landed on the shores
of Texas in August, 1850, it was necessary to employ about
fifty teamsters, and many labourers, cooks, ect.; and the
quartermaster, whose duty it was to engage the former,
was obliged to take such as offered themselves, giving the
preference, of course, to such as could produce testimo-
nials of good character. He found many who had been in
the Government employ, who had good testimonials ; but
there were others who possessed no such credentials.
Hence several men wha afterwards turned out to worth-
less characters obtained menial places in the commission.
On the arrival of the several parties at El Paso ani San
Eleazario, it was necessary to discharge a large Lumber,
chiefly of the teamsters ; and such as were found to be of
bad habits or vicious disposition were paid off and dis-
charged. There were also many very good men, who,
having families at San Antonio, engaged only for the trip, and
who, on being paid off, returned immediately to that place.
After describing the bad characters alluded
to in this passage, Mr. Bartlett proceeds to
record what took place at El Paso, and re-
counts how Mr. Edward Clarke, the assistant
quartermaster of the commission, was foully
murdered. The officers then resolved to have
the criminals brought to trial, and after great
exertions they succeeded in discovering them.
Now for the trial, which is the best passage in
the two volumes :
In selecting the jury, six were taken from the Mexican
citizens of Socorro, and six from the Boundary Commission,
as there were no other Americans in the place. The pre-
siding magistrate, Justice Berthold, was a highly respect-
able citizen, long resdent there, of French origin.
It is doubtful whether in the whole history of trial by
jury a more remarkable scene than the one here presented
was ever exhibited. The trial took place in one of the
adobe or mud-built houses peculiar to the country, which
was dimly lighted from a single small window. Scarcely
an individual was present who had not the appearance and
garb of men who spend their lives on the frontier, far from
civilisation and its softening influences. Surrounded as
we had been, and now were, by hostile Indians, and con-
stantly mingling with half-civilised and renegade men, it was
necessary to go constantly armed. No one ventured half a
mile from home without first patting on his pistols ; and
many carried them constantly about them, even when
within their own domiciles. But, on the present occasion,
circumstances rendered it necessary for safety, as well as
for the purpose of warning the desperate gang who were
now about to have their deserts, that all should be doubly
armed. In the court-room, therefore, where one of the
most solemn scenes of human experience was enacting, all
were armed save the prisoners. There sat the judge, with
a pistol lying on the table before him ; the clerks and
attorneys wore revolvers at their sides; and the jurors were
either armed with similar weapons, or carried with them
the unerring rifle. The members of the commission and
citizens, who were either guarding the prisoners or pro-
tecting the court, carried by their sides a revolver, a rifle, or
a fowling-piece, thus presenting a scene more characteristic
of feudal times than of the nineteenth century. The fair
but sunburnt complexion of the American portion of the
jury, with their weapons resting against their shoulders
and pipes in their mouths, presented a striking contrast to
the swarthy features of the Mexicans, muffled in checkered
serapes, holding their broad-brimmed glazed hats in their
hands, and delicate cigarritos in their lips. The reckless,
unconcerned appearance of the prisoners, whose unshaven
faces and dishevelled hair gave them the appearance of
Italian bandits rather than of Americans or Englishmen;
the grave and determined bearing of the bench ; the varied
costume and expression of the spectators and members
of the commission, clad in serapes, blankets, or overcoats,
with their different weapons, and generally with long beards,
made altogether one of the most remarkable groups which
ever graced a court-room.
Two days were occupied in the examination and trial ;
for one immediately followed the other. In the mean-
time, a military guard of ten men had been promptly sent
to our aid by Major Van Horne, the commanding officer at
EPPaso, on my requisition : so that the open threats which
had been made by the friends of the prisoners during the
first day of the trial were no longer heard ; for they now
saw that the strong arm of the law would triumph.
The second day, a member of the commission who
manifested a deep interest in the prisoners was requested
by one of them to act as his counsel ; but his efforts to
prove au alibi, to impeach the testimony of some of the
witnesses, and to establish the previous good character of
the defendant, proved utterly futile. The prisoners were
then heard in their own defence ; but they could advance
nothing beyond the mere assertion of their innocence. At
the close of the testimony an attempt was made by one of
the friends of the prisoners to postpone the trial, for the
purpose, as he stated, of obtaining counsel and evidence
from El Paso. But the court had been apprised of the
existence of a plot for attempting a rescue that night, and
accordingly the request was refused.
The evidence being closed, a few remarks were now made
by the prosecuting attorney, followed by the charge of the
judge, when the case was given to the jury. In a short
time they returned into court with a verdict of guilty against
William Craig, Marcus Butler, and John Wade ; upon
whom the judge then pronounced sentence of death.
The prisoners were now escorted to the little plaza or
open square in front of the village church, where the priest