The Sun.
London, England, 1806-02-25 00:00:00

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there. , flenevee heard there WIC any instrument of.a bad been employed by Col:vuliattim. here toucan- Y
torture. It was first introduced after the conquest, slate depcysitions, swore he did not know it to be I,he .
by General Pit tons order ; it was first used at the jew to be found itt any roks of the best authority,
picket guard, andafterwardS introduced into the gaol: that the torture wes applicable even to Old Spain, by
Mr. DALLAS . addressed. the Jury with his usual any authority of a later date than that of 1260, which
elegance in support of the Case of General Pidott. was in a state of disauetude ; and others, speaking
He - entreated. the Jury todismiss from their as to thee pratlice .for 30 years, in which no such
minds all species of • prejUdice, which was tal apt thing as torture bad. been known.
-to lay hold of men of the best understandings Upon this Lord ELL2NBOIWOGH observed,
that a'
upon such an occasion as the present. .He observed Special Verdial• could be found only where the evia.
that a great deal of art had been employed •to bring deuce was all on. one way ;- be could.not present to'
odium on the character of General Ph ton on this the Court a Verdi& to be argued, when the fies.
occasion, 'for a considerable time : he alluded to the 'wereecontradiaory.; ,if -.he did so, the Court would
disputes which had taken place between that Officer order a venire de novo ; it must therefore be left to
and Colonel Fullarton on this subjet% and proceeded -the Jury to find, as a. faa, whether torture had been
to .dilate on the various circumstances of this case, -used at all by the laws of Trinidad; if not, there
from .the'time of -the Island surrendering to the was an end of the case. . if they found that it bad
• brave General Abercrombie, whose Aid-de-Camp .been used under the laws of Trinidad, then a Special
General Kam was,. and for whom Gen.Abercrombie Verdia.might be taken. .. .
had the highest estdem ; and, as a proof of it, left It then was proved that Sir R. Abercrombie con-
Trinidad under his Government, and left it to him to _tinned the old Spanish law after the conquest ; and
observe all the old laws of the Spanish - Colonies, ,His Majesty expressed his Royal pleasure afterwards
part of which, he was sorry to say, was the pra&ice .to the same effea. .
of torture—not that horrid torture by which human After which Mr. DALLAS' contended there was
beings lost their limbs, and sometimes their lives, abundant evidence from the books to shew that tot-
but a much milder species of punishment, as had .ture had been used by the law of Trinidad. .
been evinced by the appearance of this young girl, • Mr. Gatutow.• entered on a general reply, . and
.who had received no permanent injury.. Here -he .contended that now, he was entitled to a general
entered on the history of tortures, shewing how they verdi& of Guilty, which he did with great force and .
-had- been used •on various occasions ; and observ- - animation... .
ing, that the way to judge of such a case as this, • Lord ELLENEOROUGH, in an admirable charge 'to
was . not, for the Jury to. carry about . them .the Jury, left -the question to the Jury to find
English ideas, but •to consider that this was a • whether, on the whole of the evidence, they were
Spanish Colony, where Spanish laws and Spanish of opinion that torture had been used by-the autho-'
habits continued ; part of that law wes to apply this ,city of law, in, the Island of Trinidad.?—That the law
milder species of torture to those Who were suspected books out of which • extracts had been read, spoke:
of knowledge of crimes, to make them confess what i of torture being-agreeable to the law of Old Spain,'
they knew—not that he was defending the praaiee, was clear ; but on what. terms Old Spain originally;
but.he was only stating it. A Court of competent ..took possession of Trinidad coo years ago,, did not.'
.jurisdiction had taken this young woman up, had. appeere it might have, laws for the Colonies die-
examined her by the rules of their law, had deter- rent -from those of, the Mother. Country, as we had
, mined on applying this torture to her, but could not .for ours; but on that subjealahere was a total 'eh-.
do so without the authority of the Governor; applied settee of proofe The question was- this—What was
to himfor that authority; he being no la wyer,thought the Law. of the Island of Trinidad when Gen.'Piaon
he was bound to comply with the request, and issued , took the Government of it; or ratter, at the time of
it; in .which he acted tnerely ministerially. lle rentiada . the capture of it ?a---Whather -torture was part of that
-ed the Jury, that if the. crime of which this youne. • 'Law ?
woman was accused had been committed in England, , The Jury found—There was no such Law ekista
it would have amOunted to:burglary, and had she been ing in the Island of Trinidad, as that of torture, at
convicted; she .aeould have suffered, because she had the time of the surrender of that Island to the British.
assisted • her gallant to rob her master, , Thet al-
.. ..LordELLENBOROUPII.—".Then, Gentlemen, Ge-
.though this torture was an improper mode of pu-
_nerd ,Piaton cannot, derive ' any proteCtion from at
nishment, yet it was not so cruel -as Many.ofealte supposed Law, safter you have found than no such
laws of the English Colonies against Negro4s, who Law obtained in that Island at-,the. surrender elf it,
are, aebje6t to have their noses slit, their right hand
.atict.i.vhen he became its Governor a and, therefore
cut off, or even- to suffer death 'for obstruEting- a yeur,yerdia should be,- that heiseguilty."-e--Guilty.
white. person in the execution of the sentence of the , jail-. Daeeaa said lie should 'rove for a new trial,
law, &c. He contended that the ' Defendant
,in son the ground of,the propositions. he had-stated,
this. case, General Pion, was entitled to his ac- .
quhtal, on • several grounds :—First, That by the
law of S-paiu,. which the General. was boiled to ad-
minister,
torture was applicable •in a particular- in-
stance : if he could shew that, there would be art
end •of this indiament, because every count. in. it
.charged that this was unlawfully done. The .(,)4 i I
ground was (for God forbid that: Gen. Piadn's de- 1
fence should rest alone'upon'the first), that the indiCt-
ment in this case charges the application of torture
in a particular instance, without
.any. inference of
its being done miliciously, or without probable
cause. . . - •
Lord ELLENBOROUGH observed, 'that this was an
untenable proposition ; for that if a thing 4 dune in
the way of a crime, and that thing he ustialigut, it is
in Law supposed to be maliciously done—no specific
-proof of malice was necessary in the arse of a crime;
the malice was an 'inference, of law arising out-of :the
a& ; this had been held in the case of the Ic.ing and
the Justices of Cumberland, who had ae-ted, bonafule, .
and under the advice of -a very eminent Gentleman ,
at the bar ; yet as that happened to be an erroneous :
opinion, their coati& was held illegal, and there-
-fore, by inference of law, malicious, although it re-
duced the punishment to nothing. . .
Mr. DALLAS' continued—The third ground of
obje&ion was, That supposing the Jury to be, of .
opinion, that by the Laws of Spain torture ought
not to be infliaed, still that General Pieton was nits-
led by the advice of others, - and by books treating;
of the Law of Spain, into a misconception of the '.
law, and therefore his was a case .in which an- in-.
diament will not lye''; for that an erroneous opinion
..
formed under judicial authority, is a complete answer,
to any indidment against a person a&ing in e Judi,:
cial charaaer. , Under all these different heads, he
argued' that Gen. Piston was entitled to his acquittal::
Lord ELLENBOROUGH.—" There may be
,slips in
the condu& of the Governor of a great Settlement:
which should not be taken advantage of, when he acts`
.
bona fide : but the cause will be tried fairly ; if he
has inffiaed torture without the authority of the :
law, he ought to be punished for it ; if it isaorture.
infliaed by the authority of the law, he ought to go
free, however our feelings may revolt at the fact."
A Vast number of written documents were then
read, and depositions of witnesses from the Island.
of Trinidad, and many witnesses examined-upon the
pradice of the law in Trinidad ; but none of theM- -
knew of any instance of torture having been pradtised.
there, nor of any such thing as the instrument of .
torture being seen, until the Defendant became its
Governor ; and the first instance was in the picket-
ing of some soldiers, and, the instance in queatiOn
was the second. ' ,
Mre ARCHIBALD GLOSTER, who had been Attor- .
ney-General of the Island, gave an account of cer-
tain books, called by several titles—the Curia, Phi-
lipica, Ellizondo, Robadilia, Patricia, and its Grego-
than Glossary, Colone, &c. from. all which extraas,
were read, and in which it appeared that torture
~
may be used by the laws of Spain; but none of
them gave an account of thcalaws of the Colonies of
Spain, which were alledged to, be different, in many
respects,' end totally so with -regard to torture, from
that of the Mother Country. . •
It- was then proposed by. Ny Lord 1,1-E NBO-
ROUGH,. :that this case be turned
.into a Special
Verdia, and acquiesced in by all parties ; but agreed
that they should proceed to ascertain, and get 1,11)Q11'
bis.. Lordship's notes as many of the fay s as possible
as to the law of Trinidad ; to the course of which '
there was a great difference- of evidence as to the
fads ; several witnesses swearing that none of the
old laws of the mother country was applicableth
the Colonies : and one Gentleman, who was a Spa-
nish Advocate, who had come from Trinidad, and'

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- It .is said to be in contemplation to establiii; a
Police7-oiliN at Woolwich, ilk soiksegnence of.-.the
,klcreased population, and the vast- numbefof chili-
pry in the neighbourhood. ,
.r:. The folio-wing ruelanch:)ly accident happened on
Wednesday-eveninglast,,MNonhfleetcree4s.. What ",
is; termed a short Yerry-boat_plyed a Gravesend.
Pas-
sage-boat (the Putwell Packet), that was.becalmed,
to take
.its.lpasseragers ashore, when a quan.qty
chests and'other stores were put
.ipto hpr buttorn,
and tWenty..:three passengers, mostly seamen, and
one woman, eagerly leaped:into. the boat, to the
exclution of many others, who were .eager likewise '
to leave the Packet ; they dire&ed the waterman to
row them to the Neptune East Indiaman lying near -
half .a mile lower down. They bad got but a small
distance 74.vben a leak was discovered ; springing
from their seats suddenly, the boat swamped, and
all was upset. The • cries of- the, distressed reached
the India Arms, at Northfleet, but the night being,
unusually dark, no 'assistance could be given from
thence ; but eleven were picked up by row-boats
who were near them, and two by expert swimming
and wading through the mud saved themselves, so
that elevenmen and one woman perished from the
\vatennan's imprudence in taking in too many pas-

sengers.
A most unfortunate accident happened on Satur-
day morning to a child of Mr. Somerville, Clerk at
the Minerva Office, sleeping with his father • a pan
was incautiously placed close to the side of die bed,'
into which the infant, only; ten months old, crawled,
and notwitbStanding oflly a pint of water was on
the bottom,
,it precipitated itself into it, and Was .
stand), sutfecated, though medical ;lid was procured
in less than ten minutes. •
On Wednesday afteriaoon, Charkes Ferraby, of
Hull, mariner, about 22 years of age, hanged him-
self upon the iron work of the slough at the out-fall
upon the Humber-bank, near the Lime-kilns ; and,
notwithstanding' the public situation which he had
chosen to effed his melancholy purpose, he was
quite dead • before he was discovered; although his.
body was, still warm. A Coroner's inquest was held
on Thursday, when it appearing•io the satisfadion
of the ,T.ury. that the deceased had for some time ma-
nifested signs. of insanity, a verdict was given of
A cask of More-than moderate dimensions which
had been but recently ereaed in Mr..Cliapman's
Brewery at Brighton, for the first time, to, season
it, was filled with water, on Saturday last. Soon
after this business had been accomplished, arid for
which the pumps had been at Work for some hourS,
the cask being too weakly construaed to-bear the
immense weight of the liquid
,it contained, the
bottom sprang, and the torrent Which gushed from
,•it instantly. inundated , all. adjoining parts, and
overflowed the vaults- The brewers, thus taken
by surprtze, were in an awkward predicament, some
of them being literally compelled to swim for their
lives.

•, /J4llll
On Sunday, in Saaville-street, the Lady of Hubert Ten
ner, Esq. LL.D. ofa Son.

/WARR MD.
On Tuesday the 4th Inst. Robert Porperwell Steer, Esq.
to Miss Dennys, daughter of the Rev. Maynard Dennys, o,t
Tralee, in the County ot Kerry, Ireland.

DIED.•
On Friday, Tohn Blake, Esq. Lieutenant-Governor of
Landguard Fort, and formerly Licutenant-Colonel of the
24th Regiment of Foot.
On Sunday last, suddenly, at Mr. Dagville's, in Charles-
street, St James's, Mrs. Berry, mother of Mrs. I.)corille.
Yesterday, in tlowland street, Fitzroy-square, Mrs. Mary
Daniell, sister of Thomas Daniell, Esq. R. A. in the 58th
year of het age.