The Sun.
London, England, 1841-10-25 00:00:00

Volner Elliott, of Kirkland, was sworn.
The jury being now complete,
Judge Gridley directed the Sheriff to provide lodgings,
and places for them to take their meals, for the Jury, as
it would be necessary to keep them together during the
whole of the trial, and to provide them with accommoda-

lions as near the Court as possible.
The Sheriff promised that it should be done.
The following is a list of the Jurors, with their ret,i-

dences and occupations :

JURY.

Charles O'Curtis, farmer, Paris
Edmund-Allen, physician, Augusta,
John Mott, merchant, Sangerfield.
Elijah Brush, merchant, Rome.
Ira Byington, farmer, Camden.
Wm. Carpenter, farmer, Kirkland.
Isaiah Thurber, merchant, Utica.
Peter Sleight, farmer, Westmoreland.
Asher Allen, farmer, Augusta.
Seymour Carrier, farmer, Steuben.
Eseek Allen, farmer, Floyd.
Velney Elliott, farmer, Kirkland.
The Attorney-General then proceeded to state the
case to the Jury, and he spoke as follows :
Gentlemen of the Jury—l stand before you in obe-
dience to the law, and in the name of the people of the
State of New York, to make out before you the charge
of murder against Alexander M'Leod, the prisoner at
the bar. The grand inquest, upon the solemnity of their
oaths, have denounced against-the prisoner at the bar
the blackest in the catalogue of Crimes, and it now de
volves upon me to place before you the evidence of his
guilt. Gentlemen, it cannot be disguised that this trial
has produced an extraordinary excitement in the public
mind. We have witnessed it in the crowding masses of
anxious citizens who have collected here to witness the
transaction of this day. We have witnessed it in these
paroxysms of public agitation ; and it is for
that reason that I feel called upon to put you on
your guard—to warn you of your danger—for these
are stumbling- blocks in the way of your oaths, upon
which hundreds have fallen. Whatever may have been
the extraneous cause which has produced this exhibition
of unusual popular excitement, it is one with, which
neither you nor I have properly anything to do, unless
to shut our -eyes and our ears, to close up every avenue
to our minds against them. If possible, we should for-
get that we are not here alone with the prisoner and his
witnesses. We should forget that there is any ear to
hear, or eye to see, save that alone of the all-seeing God
of Justice. My duty, Gentlemen of the Jury, like yours,
11 is as plain and as easy to be discerned as it is difficult to
be performed. To array and present to yon, to examine
and enforce and urge upon you, the testimony which bears
as-a against the life of a human being, is always a painful duty.
But, gentlemen, it is a duty as peremptory andparamount
as it is painful. Thank God, it is no part of my duty
to attempt to blind, deceive, or mislead you. I
ani not required to insist upon any principle which I do
not believe to be true. The task to which my oath binds
me, is nothing more nor less than with one unshrinking
mind to illicit the truth and place it clearly before you—
a task, in this case, embarrassed with all that we see
around us, with prejudices in many quarters, with many
unfounded and false rumours, with interests and passions
of men, which it has excited—a task which overwhelms
me with the sense of the greatness of my responsibility,
and drives me with unfeigned humility to throw myself
upon your indulgence, and pray you not to let the cause
of justice suffer on account of any deficiency on the part
of tier humble advocate. If you shall see that through
any bias, fear, or innate weakness, I do not press it as
may be necessary for the development of truth, I pray
you to redouble your own vigilance, that the truth may
not escape you, and that you may not be overwhelmed
with error. It; on the other hand, you shall perceive
an effort to sustain my cause against proof, or in conse-
quence of the array of eloquence and talent enlisted for
the prisoner, I should seem to be captious or over zea-
lous, place it against me. But let it not turn your hearts
against the truth of the case which I present to you.
Gentlemen of the Jury, the indictment foundby the
Grand Jury, and which is now presented for your con-
sideration and investigation, charges the prisoner at the
bar, Alexander M'Leod, with having murdered, on the
29th day of December, 1837, Amos Durfee. This charge
is presented in various forms or counts—they are seven-
teen in number. They are presented in these various
forms, in order to meet the testimony as it shall be pre-
sented. The Learned Gentleman here read the first
count of the indictment, and the several counts he com-
mented upon, so far as they presented any thing dif-
fering from each other, and as they were given in the
Herald of Saturday. The substance of the indictment
is, that Durfee was killed and murdered by the hand of
the prisoner at the bar, or by some other person with
whom the prisoner was connected—aiding or assisting.
To sustain this indictment, it will be proved before you,
that upon or about the 28th day of December, 1837, a
steamboat called the Caroline, a boat of some 30 or 40
tons burden, left the harbour of Buffalo for Schlosser,
about 18 miles below Buffalo and two miles above Niagara
Falls. This boat was manned by citizens enrolled at the
Custom-house in Buffalo, according to the laws of the
United States. She had a. license from the Collector of
the port of Buffalo,, to ply between Buffalo and Schlosser.
At that time, Gentlemen of the Jury, a band of some two
or three hundred Canadian insurgents had taken pos-
session of Navy Island. They possessed it and claimed
to hold it, under the name of the provisional govern-
ment of Upper Canada. There had been in Canada great
excitement, and this excitement extended all along our
borders. Efforts were made by the Canadian insurgents
to enlist our citizens in their cause. The fugitive from the
terrible massacres of St. Charles and St. Eustache, whose
houses were burned and property destroyed—and whose
wives and children had been forced into the driving- snows
of a Canadian winter, found no difficulty in telling- fhe tale
of their dreadful sitfferitrgs—in eliciting the sympathies of
our fellow-citizens. And it was but an easy and natural
step, from sympathising with the sufferings of the refu-
gees, to sympathise also in their cause. And thus sti-,
mulateil and excited, some of the more reckless young
men joined the insurgents upon Navy Island. For this
act Great Britain has bitterly complained, and in our
own country many of our most judicious citizens hive
looked upon it as a grievous fault. Gentlemen, it is no
part of my case, nor is it my design, to vindicate the
i!".nduet of the patriots or insurgents ; but it is not irre-
teeas2t to my case to state thus far, that those of our fel-
/o„„chkena who, without forming any military enter-
prise, or t:l'ganiaillg any body upon our own soil, single-
handed and a;.l.one, left our territory and united them-
selves with a foieign Power, have violated no law of our
State, no law of the United States, no law of nations.
They have done no wore than has been done again and
again by the people Of every nation. Your own re-
collections of history will furnish your minds with
hundreds of examples. • The Swiss nation have, for
hundreds of years, - fed all the armies of Europe ; and
who ever thought of holding them responsible for it.
They did no more than Admiral Cochrane did in taking
part with South America. They did no more than Lord
Byron did who gave his life to aid the Greeks in break-
ing the chains of Turkish bondage. They did no more
than La Fayette—the good, the glorious La Fayette—
who in his lore for human liberty crossed the Atlantic,
and gave his life and princely fortune in the struggle of
the patriots in our own revolution. Gentlemen, lam not
deviating from the case further than is necessary to re-
move the odium under which the case labours, by having
heaped upon it that which has heen unjustly thrown
upon those who joined the insurgents. I wish to set be-
fore you distinctly that in this case it will appear in proof
that the Caroline was not connected with the insurgents

ott Navy Island, that she was not in their. employment or
in lily way connected with their operations. It will ap-
pear ,roni the testimony that the objects of the owners of
the Ca,-cline was of a totally different character. This
collection upon Navy Island had excited great curiosity
throughout the country. At this period of the year the
lakes and canals were closed with ice. Those whose
usual occupaticit was to navigate thdse waters were re-
lieved from their I.tbour, and this was a season of lei-
sure. Wittier had set in—the farmer and his sons and
labourers were relieved from the cultivation of the soil,
and had leisure to enjoy the fruits of their labour. It
was about the time of the Christmas holidays. Large
numbers of people were assembling at Schlosser, the
nearest landing-place and port to Navy Island. Is it
remarkable, that one of our countrymen, especially
one of our eastern brethren, should see an opportunity
of , gain under these circumstances ? This was the
fact, and Mr. Wells saw in the circumstance of the ex-
citement and curiosity which were drawing thousands
to Schlosser, of whom not one in a thousand went
to the island—he saw an opportunity of making
gains by his little boat, which was hardly Larger
than a ferry boat, and which was lying idle at Buffalo.
With this, and no other motive than that of profit, he
started from Buffalo on the 28th December, 1837, to
tl19" er . .
fie stopped at all the intermediate points, or
, landingler places where boats had heretofore stopped.
in the COUrSP
At ter reaching Schlosser about two o'clock in the day,
he. went from there to Navy Island ; he made two trips
these articles
1 such articles of the 'afternoon, carry in; passengers and
stress has been Laid
1 such as. were brought to him to be conveyed, and
as were
itconveyed‘. by other ferry boats. Among
appear there was a cannon. Much
1 upon this circumstance; and I, there-
fore, pause one mom
that you mayltpewraeseiveentwthoatefoonirtmeeannt
a-tell:cool.
tiht,issokifnadr
nations are at war,
should have. one of those articles which, when
pain
of,netlp.als are prohibited to con-
, vey, under
undertake to carry a forfeiture it' taken. If a neutral
so acnodnve
forfeiture.t he .i. essel
Butat i
fa articles ticles
vessel : conveyed
itairoens
liaobflewarto,
des-
tined point and land them, she
tiecrnot afterwards be held
longer liable to be ..seized or molested. tarede Mantled she is no
upon the high seas, the common highwayThi-3 law applies
In this portion of the territory itol( of all nations.
cases of seizure within the waters of Greatu apply oaly
in
.Britain, and it
would not extend to them the right of co within our
i oTen•waters. It will be observed that atittilh6er a
that this vessel was passing between Navy Islandsni andetime
American shore, a ferry-boat was passing from Blackthe
}lock to Waterloo on the Canadian shore daily and hourly,
carrying to Canada arms and munitions of war, and the
Canadian army was fed at the same time from the Amp
rican shore. And Igo further and say—but Ido not in
this case say it with pride—it will be found that Ameri-
can citizens were .in the ranks of the army embodied
upon ' the Canadian side. But when it is brought up
against these people as a charge that e
s theireems intoterf heerenun-
ce
-Was unjust and iniquitous, e charg
founded in fact. It seems as a course consistent when
citizens of a neutral power enlisted in the ranks of their
enemies, our citizens should be equally ready to enlist in
your ranks. Our relations are such, that we can inter-
fere neither on one side nor the other. After having per-
formed these trips, this steam-boat was moored at Fort
Schlosser.• Be not deceived. There is no fort there.
The old fort is covered with luxuriant corn-fields. There
is also no building, except a warehouse at the wharf, and-
a tavern about fifty rods from it, and scarcely a house,
except at the Falls, for a distance of two miles.. At this
tavern
the hundreds who were flocking there and were
crowding and thronging t
this place in the owning, could