The Sun.
London, England, 1841-10-20 00:00:00

subsequent to the Navy Island affair, enlisted in the
United ita,ter :second
_ _ _

Mr. Wells informs us that he purchased the steam-
boat Caroline a few weeks before she was destroyed.
Though possessed of considerable property, he had
never owned a steam-boat before, and was very pet td
the Caroline.
The Navy Island expedition had proved a failure ;
there were not more than 800 men on the island ; pro-
visions had stopped coming in ; they were in a state of
starvation and anxious to get off from the island. For
that purpose they made ovc,rtures to charter the Caro-
line. These Mr. Wells wholly refused. He got out the
boat upon the sole condition that he should run her upon
his own hook, charging what he pleased for ferryage,
and going when and where he pleased. For this purpose
he took out regular papers from the United States col-
lector at Buffalo. Subsequently he submitted the
whole case to Mr. Garrow, United States Marshal, who
decided that he had violated no law in the whole transaeti.m.
fir. Wells was in the Caroline when she was boarded.
The only weapon on board was a pocket pistol, in the
pocket of Captain Haggerty, commander of the brig on
Lake Erie, which he did not probably know he had,
which was not loaded, and which there was not powder
enough on board to load.
Mr. Wells stood under the deck when the party from
Canada boarded her. At first he supposed that the pur-
pose
of the party was simply to take possession of the
boat. He had no idea of any other violence than being
turned ashore, until he heard a cry of "No quarter I"
and the commencement of the work of death.

He saw Durfee taken from the fire- room, and supposed
when the man approached for that purpose that he was
coming for himself. The darkness concealed him, and
Durfee was taken instead. There was a scuffle of a few
moments, and he saw Durfee no more until he was lying
dead upon the deck. It is the belief of Mr. Wells that
this was the man that killed Durfee, and that it was done
with a pistol.
On the part of the prosecution, the fact of the Caro-
line being unarmed and unchartered will be fully proved.
No man will swear that he saw M‘Leod shoot Durfee.
The one who offered such evidence proved to be a miser-
able wretch, who could not tell in what year the Caro-
line was destroyed, and he was advised by the States'
Attorney to take the first boat west.

The evidence of those upon the boat in relation to the
identity of IlPLeod is much less conclusive than that of
those who swear they saw him go and return with the
expedition from the Canada shore.

We judge, that though a strong case will be made
out against INI.Leod, the Jury will not agree upon a
verdict. However this may be, the trial is of the
highest importance in a national point of view, for, it
will be shown beyond all further question, that the de-
struction of the Caroline and the murder of her crew
were an outrage not warranted by the character of the
boat and the business in which she was engaged, and
wholly indefensible—one for which England should make
the most ample reparation. No less clearly will it be shown,
that this act was regretted by the officers of the provin-
cial Government at that time, and the responsibility
taken by the Government subsequently only for the pur-
pose of retaining the loyal services of those who would
otherwise be given up to the authorities of this State to
be punished by our laws.

THE APLEOI) CASE.
UTICA, WEDNESDAY, DEPT. 29.—Late last night, and
during the w hole of this mornings witnesses arrived here
in great numbers, both for the prosecution and the pri-
soner. The survivors of the Patriot army which was in
possession of Navy Island when the Caroline was de-
stroyed have come, with all the officers of that short-lived
provisional Government of which Mackenzie was Presi-
dent pro. tem. From Buffalo, Canada, and for a great
extent along VA frontier, the cry is " Still they come."
Mr. Bra,:eey. and Mr. Gardner, Mr. Spencer's asso-
ciate c€Yansel for the prisoner, have arrived from Canada
with voluminous testimony, taken under commission, and
freany witnesses to sustain his defence, and all parties
are now ready to go to trial.
It is now, however, well understood that the trial will
not commence until Monday next, and in the meantime
Judge Gridley will clear the calendars, both civil and
criminal. It is not at all improbable that the case will
occupy twelve or fourteen days.
The prosecuting counsel will merely open and en-
deavour to sustain an ordinary case of murder, but the
defence will be broad, and lead to many collateral
issues. An alibi, by oral testimony, will be one branch
of the defence ; the next will be the examinations
recently taken in Canada to negative the positive evi-
dence that APLeod took part in the affair of the Caro-
line. This consists of the examinations of those who
admit their own participancy in the transaction, and a
question will arise as to the admissibility of such evi-
dence. It was originally arranged that these examina-
tions should be taken at specified places on fixed days,
by interrogatories Is hick the counsel for the people and
fur the prisoner have determined upon, and a legal gen-
tleman was commissioned to be present to act on the part
of the State authorities. For some days examinations
were thus taken, but the Commissioners then resolved to
separate themselves, and hold courts at different points
at the same time, doubtless with a desire to facilitate the
accomplishment of their mission ; but the legal gentle-
man for the State, unlike the Irishman's bird (according
to a celebrated ornithologist), had not the power of übi-
quity, and, therefore, could not be in two places at once;
consequently some of the examinations will be considered
ex parte only, and their reception will be objected
to. Another branch of the defence will be the
general character of the transaction, the circumstances
of those times—in short, impunity will be claimed on the
ground that the Caroline was engaged in an open war
oa the British province, and that she was cut off by the
orders of the proper authorities. This part of the de-
fence will open the case broadly, if the Judge deems it
legitimate, and the termination of the trial may nut be
looked for until a distant day. Both parties are prepared
with hosts of witnesses in anticipation that this part of
the subject may he gone into.
Judge Gridley takes his seat daily before eight o'clock,
and with a recess for dinner and another for tea, of thirty
minutes each, sits until near midnight ; but in the
MeLeod case he will not press the trial on for more than
nine hours each day, that the counsel may have some
time fur preparation and consultation each night ; it
must, nevertheless, necessarily consume many days, un-
less the Judge confines the parties in their defence, and
prohibits the re-opening of the case on which Judge
Cowan's decision was made some time ago.
Great preparations are made to give the trial to the
public through the press, and the best reporters in the
country are here. A very liberal proposition has just
been made by the Directors of the Utica and Schenectady
Railroad to run a special express gratuitously for the use
of the Press of New York, to start at noon each day.
This, however, cannot be accomplished, unless one news-
paper proprietor will relinquish an exclusive contract
which he has already made.
(From the Courier and Inquirer.)
CIRCUIT COURT AND COURT OF OYER AND