The National Register.
London, England, 1811-09-15 00:00:00

FCISTER.

UND UL
A curirus and 'a very important fact occurred at. Cardiff, upon
the Circait there, last week. A Gentleman of opulence, a
Magistrate, and of no questioned repute, addressed a letter to one
of the Judges, in which his object was, not only to accuse.Z
culprit (committed for manslaughter upon a Coroner's Inqueet),
of a deliberate and savage :mailer, hut also upon the evidence
of assertion alone, to inflame the judical mind of his corresponf.
dent against that prisoner, by persuading the Judge before-band
that unless the accused should be cut oil by the law, not a life
near him, or within his reach; could be safe. He represented
this man as a conspirator in a desperate clan of miscreants, who
were men of sanguinary habits and plosions.
He told the Judge, that all the witnesses who were to be
heard, were all partial to the accused, and would suppress the
facts they knew, unless his Lordship would make them speak
out ; and he desired him to keep the secret of these hints, for
which he gave this reason, " that every thing valuable to hies
44 was at stake in withholding from this clan a knowledge of the
" part he took against them."
When die Judge had read this letter, which he received Pit
Court, the Bar, and Grand Jery attending, he told them
letter had been just put into his hand, and he named the writ*
of it • he added, that circumstances of peculiar delicacy res; eats
ing the subject of that letter imposed upon his feelings, thse
painful necessity of deferring to publish the contents till dre
jail had been delivered, but that he should then direct his prin.
cipal Officer to read it aloud, and should pass a marked- acid
public censure upon it, after delivering which, he should come
mand the deposit of the letter upon the files of the Court, for
safe custody, accompanied by a note of its diktat, that if the
writer chose to appear he would be in time, and would be heard.
When the man accused of the manslaughter had been triolt„
and had received the sentence of imprisonment for three monthi,
he was remanded. The writer of the letter did not appear,
and the Judge delivered himself as follows, to a numerous aloe
dience. We give the substance without professing to give Ilse
words:—
" You have heard this letter; and your looks were eloquent.
They reprobated this tampering and cruel artifice.
" A. Magistrate of the County, at whose mercy in some de-
gree are the lives and liberties of men, writes to me for the
ainglo purpose of insinuating and whispering away a man's hfro
by undue influence upon the judgment or the feelings of his
correspondent.
" Hisobject is, to invert the habit and principle of ajudicial
trust, which is that of being Counsel for prisoners, into the
new and sanguinary department of a suborned advocate against
them. His letter pronrts me to goad the witnesses into Woe
deuce more hostile to the culprit, than it was their intestinally
give—advice to me, insinuated behind the back of the unused,
ard just before his trial, upon evidence of assertion alone, ua-
duly and surreptitiously communicat.'d
" But what heightens the depravity of this insult upon the •
Court, and this cruelty of it, as it has taken aim at the parties
who arc implicated, is the ran dunce proyosed and claimed. •
" My God!"• said the Judge, "is k in 1811, that any Man
breathing, a subject of this realm, could think a Judge -base
enough, to be an accomplice in this fraud upon the sacred ho-
nour of his covenant upon eiith ;---of-his dignified indifference
to parties ;—arid, above all, of his presumptioni, which are. •
those of the law, that up to the moment of conviction, by au-•
thentic and sworn proof, the accused are innocent?
44 What can be said.for the writer I
" Ev•ti to hint 1 would be merciful. Is it an error of judg-
ment ? Is it ignorance ? But can we forget, that be is a Ma.gts-
trate, and that he is a mans Shall a Magistrate be indemnified,
or dismissed with a gentle rebuke, who is ignorant of the judi-
cial honour imposed upon him by his peculiar office ? is he $
man, so unenlightened, as to be unapprged of those feelings,
Which tell every honourable mind, that no man is to be con-.
demned unheard, and whispered out of the world, by a merely
between his accuser and his. Judge ?
" As a memorial, to after ages, of the disgrace inseparable
from attempts like these, I direct the Officer to file this letter
upon the Records of the Court, accompanied by a note of the
fact, that it was read aloud in open Court, and severely cells
sured by the Judge to whom it was addressed."
The other Judge assenting, it was made a Rule of Court.

• ATTE,

3T'

Monday morning, abort five o'clock, as some l:4smrers were
going to work in a brick-field near the Tianlpsteai-road, their
attention was attracted bythe faint cites of an infant, a female
apparent' r ibotit three months old. A genteel dtessed woman
was seen leaving the field about a quarter of an hour before the
chili, was diScovered, and is supposed to be the peraon who 'left
itt that. The child was taken to St. Pancras workhouse.
•

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