The National Register.
London, England, 1812-02-16 00:00:00

TIM NATIONAL REGIS;TR.

FEB. ie.-

! theprOperty of the prosecutor, with ,intent to defraud. Upon the who!e
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possession of the check ; that the property in the Bank-notes (the taking
of which was the offence charged in this indirtnient) never had been in
the prosecutor ; and lastly, if it ever had, he had parted with all control
over such property, on a particular trust, the breach of which coma.
tut ed the offence, it any, and amounted to a misdemeanour; hut tpon no
construction whatever of the Statute upon which this indictment was
brought, could constitutv. a felonious taking of the property of the pro-
secutor, with intent to teal. He submitted, that it such construction
of the Statute was to be made by their Lordships, it would lead to the
I:.most. incalculable mischiefs; and it constructive felony was to be ad-
Imitted in this way, every breach of contract would he liable to such.
construction. If such was the construction to be put upon the Statute,
every man who made a contract, no matter under what circumstances •
' he broke it, would be equally liable to the charge of f. lony, which,
he humbly submitted, would be a complete subversion of the mean-
ing of the .Statute; and, upon all these grounds, he confidently hoped. '
for the judgment of their Lordships in favour of the prisoner.
The Court was then cleared, and their Lordships continued to deli-
berate for a short time.
We understand, the usual. course in these cases is, to pronounce
'udgmeut, when tke .prisoner is brought up to receive sentence at the
_..
\ ext ensuing Sessions.

TRIALS FOR HIGH TREASON,
AT THE SESSIONS DOUSE, lIORSEMONGER-LANE.
—....... •
Monday morning the Court met for the trial of the twelve men taken
in the service of France, at the Isle of France. At ten o'clock Lord
Chief Baron IVl'Donahl eine' Sir S. Le Blanc arrived, when Win. Cun.
dell, alias Connell, one of the prisoners, was put te the bar. After the
Jury were sworn,
'I he .Ae eUR N EY-.G ENER A L proceeded to address them. He oh.
served, that the prisoner stood charged with high treason, in having
adhered to the King's enemies. The statute by which this was treason,
was on the 25th of Edward III.; hut by that Act, no person committing
an act of treason out of the realm could be tried hert ; but by the statute
of Henry VIII. it was provided, that prisoners in the situation of the
1 prisoner at the bar, might be tried by suck a Commission as the pre-
sent; that Act.also required, that the treason should be proved, by an
overt act ; that was done in the present case ; the . facts he should have
to lay before the Jury were plain and simple ; he wou id prove them, and
:there could be no doubt of the result. The prisoner was horn neat
Dublin, a subject of the King, and was admitted into the King's service
as a seaman on board the Laura, one of his: Mej, sty.'eesekips.
J. Worth stated, that` he was a ship-mate with the prisoner when
taken by the French, and--carried to the Isle of Bourban. The prisoner
' had informed him, that he was born at the Sheds of Cloetarf, near
Dublin. He, with himself, 'and the rest of the crew, were put in con-
tinement at I'crt Louis, and in about three months afterwerds, though
be did not see the prisoner liberated, he saw him at liberty, dressed in
i a French eoldier's uniform, namely, white turned up with blue. The
prisoner emit inued at large in this manner, doing duty as a le t tech set.
titer, until the 'eland surrendered to the fhitish forces. Witnees hinnelf
entered the French service as a soldier, and wore the uniform. On his
cross-examination, he admitted that he was liberated at the wine, time
with the prisoner.. The prison in which the crew had been confined
was on the ground floor, and the crews of two ships were confines' in
one room. 'they were very much annoyed with vermin. When he
• deserted to the French service, he was in a state of intoxication.
T. Mitchell, Captain Woulcombe, Commander of the Laurel, and
Lieut. R. P. Brereton, of the Scaflower, also deposed to their seeing the
prisoner many times at the Isle of France, clothed in the French tad-
form, in company with the rest of the French soldiers. 'the latter
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his gestures, endeavoured to makelim and the other British Officers as
1 contemptible. as passible in the eyes of -.he French Officers and soldiers.
He had seen the prisoner salute the French Officers as they passed, a
Ilmark of respect with which he never saw him treat tins Briti&h Officers
when they also passed him.
The case being closed on the part of the Crown, Mr. Brougham ad-
dressed the Jury in a very able speech, for the defendant.—After cepa..
dating on the many barriers which the law of treason had passed round
the life and liberty of the subject, lie commented' on the evidence of
Lieut. Brereton, and inferred, that as he had deposed that the prisoner
was dressed in a red uniform turned up with green, while all the other
witnesses described his uniform to be white faced with blue,
.Lieutenant
B. must he mistaken in the person] of the prisoner. This, he bald, did
away the most serious part of the case. He drew a glowing picture of
the miseries to which the unhappy prisoner :me his eompanlims had
been exposed, confined in a dungeon sWarming. with vermin, and kept
upon an allowance of provisions scarcely sufficient to sustain existence,
together with a variety of other hardships too numerops fur detail.'
From such wretchedness as this, it was not surprising that meta,
not possessed of the most refined' feelings, should -attempt to escape ;
and, as Ui titst step towards an end so desireable, to get without the

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