The Sun.
London, England, 1824-06-12 00:00:00

Painful question had never before been agitated within the walls .
of Parliament.—(Hear, hear!)—For himself he could with
truth 'say, that there was no part of it to which he could look
with any degree of satisfaction. With respect, however, to
what had fallen from his Hon. Friend who spoke last, he could
by no means agree with him that the House was reduced to the
dileroma of either, on the one hand, approving of the whole
conduct of the court martial who tried Mr. Smith, or, on the i
other hand, according the honours of martyrdom to that unfor-
tunate. gentleman.—(Hear, hear!)--The tribunal by which
Mr. Smith had been tried was objected to upon three grounds;
first, for its not being the proper one to which he ought to
have been subjected • secondly for the informality of its pro-
ceediage ; and, thirdly, for the violence of its conduct: ail
which objections were qualified by an assumption of his inno-
cence. It was said that nobody could refuse his acquiescence
in.the motion of his Honourable and Learned Friend (Mr.
Brougham) who was not convinced of Mr. Smith's guilt. For
his (Mr. C.'s) part he had no hesitation in stating it to be his
',nu conviction, that of that crime (by whatever name it might
be called) which consisted in the concealment of a guilty in-
tuition, Mr. Smith could not be acquitted. He was aware of
that, which if he knew its character he ought net to have con-
eeelai, and the character of which the commonest share of pru-
dence would have enabled him to know.—(Hear, hear!)--Un-
der these circumstances lie could not consent to pass a sweeping
vats of condemnation against the Court Martial who tried him,
Particularly when their sentence had been accompanied by a
recommendation to mercy, to which the Executive Government
at home had attended without a dissentient voice. The Court
Martial bad been arraigned for the severity of that sentence, and
it had been asked, why they had not passed a milder one, but it
was the mildest they could pronounce, when recommended to
Mercy, which, under all the circumstances, must, they knew, be
Aided to. Had he been condemned to an inferior punish-
'Mein such as transportation, it must of necessity have been put
into immediate execution, and no appeal to the Government at
haute allowed. His Majesty's Government had in fact inter-
fered in the case of Mr. Smith before his trial took place ; for at
the first breaking out of the insurrection, when it was contem-
plated to bring him to trial in Demerara an application was made
by his friends here to bring him to England, which application
was complied with, and an order issued by his Noble Friend (the
Secretary for the Colonial Department) to send him home. His
trill had, however, taken place before the order arrived. In the
state of exasperation which the civil inhabitants of the Colony
felt towards Mr. Smith, he could not see how the Governor
could have given him a better chance of a fair trial than by sub-
jecting him to be tried by a Court Martial. There was no malice
aytetori imputed to that Court, and he thought it unfair, under
eil the circumstances, to pass so severe a censure upon them
as that conveyed by his lion. and Learned Friend's motion.
If he thought, however, as his Hon. Friend (Mr. Wilber-
force) seemed to think, diet by abstaining from pronouncing
that sentence be should lead the Colony of Demerara, or any
other of the West India Colonies, to believe that his Majesty a
Government was indifferent to the religious instruction of the
Slaves, or that they subscribed to those—he did not know how
to term them—monstrous doctrines which were propagated by
home of the inhabitants of these Colonies, with a view of putting
out the light of natural and revealed religion ; if he, thought
seta would be the construction put upon the forbearance of that
House, he would purchase exemption from such a miseon-
exption by subscribing to the Resolutions of his Honourable
and Learned Friend, however unjust he might deem them.
—But the Colony of Demerara could labour under no such
misconception; the opinions of Parliament, and of his Majes-
ty's Government Would be put on record by the publication
of that Debate, and the notice which this case had attracted,
a notice for which it was indebted 'to the able manner in which
it had been brought forward by his Learned Friend, who de.
steered the thanks of the country for his exertions—(Hear!)
--would convince the Authorities of Demerara, that, although
they might have been lucky in the selection of their first victim
—(Hear !)—any attempt in future to discourage religion or
Molest its teachers would not fail to draw down the merited re-
probation of the Government of this country.—( Hear, hear 1)-
1 shall propose to the House, said the Right Hon. Gentleman
that the motion of the Hon. and -Learned Member be met by
the previous question, by this means we shall avoid condemning
Men who have done their duty, I believe conscientiously ; a
duty which is said to have condemned an innocent max on one
aide of the House, and guilty (I must say in my conscience) on
the other. He had knowledge of some intentions on the part
'of the slaves to rise on the 17th August ; this is obtained from
his own confession on the previous day. I feel as strongly as
any man, I may say, the disgusting details of his journal. But
the question I have to bring forward for my own conviction is,
whether there was any knowledge on his part that a something
Was meditated to effect a change in the Colony ? Indeed it is
quite clear that he did apprehend some convulsion taking place
there ; not perhaps as to the mode nor the time, but I am well
Persuaded that lie was convinced there were the elements of a
convulsion existent. By his own confession it is quite clear that
his mind was in a doubtful state, expecting something, he did not
exactly know what. I say that when I find his mind previously
Prepared with a general expectation of some undefined danger,
when in this state there comes to him a communication to that
effect which makes no particular impression upon him, what can
I think of such a man ? He himself admits that the next day
after the intimation he received a letter, and what did lie do with
it? Tore it in pieces, and communicated nothing of its con-
tents to the Authorities of the Colonies.—(Hear, hear ! )---Was
this the conduct of a man who was innocent? I say it would
have been much better had he been tried by the strict rule of
evidence ; but that is not the question before us. lam per-
suaded that the corpus delicti was there, and I cannot condemn
the Court in a moral point of view. I take no farther advantage
of the journal, but I will take it as an evidence of a state of
mind in which light circumstances must have weighed much
With him.. I recollect a passage from Mirabeau relating to the
disturbances of St. Domingo, in which he said that the par-
ties who were victims to time convulsions slept upon the verge of
a volcano, and that the first sparks gave them no apprehension.
(Cheers.)—lsay that Mr. Smith was sleeping upon the verge of
a volcano, and that its first sparks gave him no apprehension of
any danger.—(Hear !)—But do I impute to him any view of
aggrandising his own fortune? But I do impute to him an
unwillingness to betray those with whom lie was in communica-
tion. As- to the moral feelings, it is impossible that a Court
Martial, or any Court of Justice, ever can take cognizance of
them. It was well to indulge those fine feelings of not disclos-
ing secrets; it constituted in many instances strong marks of
heroism. Who is there who has witnessed that fine Tragedy of
Otway's Venice Preserved, and has not felt when Jailer and
Pierre come from the Council, in which it was agreed to deluge
the city with blood, when the former to preserve the lives of the
citizens goes and informs the Senate of the guilty plot framed to
destroy the Government? Who is there'' I say, who does not
feel a contempt—a natural contempt, forJnaafier, -and a feeling
of honour for Pierre, although the State is saved by Jaffier's
interference. But this is the language of poetry, and cannot be
the practice of law and of States.—( Loud cheers.)—We can-
not call misprision of treason delicacy of feeling—nor preserv-
ing secrets honourable confidence.—( H ear' hear, hear !)—We
must put out of the question all those fine feelings when we are
conversing in law and justice. It was very natural that Mr.
Smith should not wish to betray those who had eaten his bread
and trod on his threshold. Perhaps there was a little vanity too
in not wishing to have any whom he had taught religion, to be
brought and accused of crimes. But whilst I admit this, I can-
not forget that Mr. Smith was the subject of a State to which
be owed allegiance, and it was his duty to give that informa-
tion by which the Colony might be saved from convulsions, let
whatever might be the consequence to himself. But in giving
that information, was it necessary to bring down condemnation
on any ? Might he not have stated to the Magistrates what he
knew, and what his Journal contained. Might he not have told
the authorities to be on their guard, or if he had given up indi-
duals might not a reservation of their lives have been stipulated
for ? But did it never occur to him that there was another
way in which he could have served the Colony ? If he had
gained over his congregation that influence which he is repre-
sented to have gained, might be not have' buckled on the ar-
mour of religion, and instead-of deadly weapons being brought
into the field, . might he not have repressed the disturbance
with exhibiting his own brighter arms of religion ? I will an-
swer that the slaves would have returned to their duty had this
been resorted to. If Mr. Smith had been the man that be was
represented to be, such are the uses he might have practised with
his religion. On the Monday he passed by the door of the Go-
vernor, and he repassed the door the same day. Was it not
worth a moment's pause to .o into the Governor's house and
disclose all he knew of the meditated proceedings ? Twice
did he pass the door that day, and yet be gave no information.
I enter not, Sir, into the question of his motives ; deeply do I
deplore his fate; but I will confess that I do not either see that
complete exculpation which is so strongly insisted upon on the
other aide of the House, seeing there was that mains animus
in his conduct ; neither, on the other hand, do I think the Court
deserving unqualified approbation. I feel convinced that our
motives cannot be mistaken; and I am persuaded that we cannot
be justly accused of lukewarmness by declining to enter into the
question ; nor can be justly blamed of being indifferent to the
welfare of the Negro population ; nor that we do not believe
religious instruction to be the only means by which this was to
be affected. The Right Hon. Gentleman then moved the
previous question, and sat down cheered from all parts of the
House.
Mr: DENAIAN, after lamenting the feeling which he had
to encounter in the House, said it seemed an extraordinary
thing, that of this sentence, now condemned on every hand—
which all the distinguished Members of the Legal Profession
had uniformly and successfully surrendered to reprobation,
-and which had receivaLits climax from the statement on the
part of the Minister of the Crown, that by the Crown the sentence
had been annulled, the House of Commons alone withheld their
condemnation. If the sentence had been really and substantially