The Sun.
London, England, 1848-09-28 00:00:00

TRIAL OF THE CHARTIST
CONSPIRATORS.

CRIMINAL COURT.--(THIS DAY.)

OLD COURI',

CONTINUATION—Oi' TilE TRIAL OF CUFFEY,
LACY, AND FAY.
Mr. Baron Platt and Mr. Justice, Willistn.s took their
seats on the bench at ton o'clock. _

Mr. BALLANTINE proceeded to eldress the fiery on
bebalf of Cuffey and Lacy. After some prefatory re-
marks, he contended that the: Attorney- General was
wholly unjustified in saying that the prisoners were con-
nected with any plan of organization with a sine to a
general and simultaneous rising of the people throughout
the country. No evidence had been adduced to show
that they had any connexion with any such organize-
tiOne The Attorney-General had said that no gceat
public good was ever obtained by violent measures.
Why, it was notorious, that the great measures on which
their liberties rested were obtained at the point
of the bayonet ; but, under the sway of
the reigning Monarchy, who desired by every
means to promoteithe welfare of her subjects, force was
unnecessary to obtain that which was obN:ously good.
He was perfectly ready to admit that the prisoners had
been guilty of great impropriety, but he denied that they
had any intention of levying war against the Queen. It
was said that the Acts under which the pr:soners had
been indicted was most merciful, since it reduced the
Crime of treason, of which in effect the prisoners were
charged, to an ordinary felony, and hence abolished the
punishment of death, and the disembowelling of the yet
warm body of the malefactor. He admitted fuether that
the Government of the present day was merciful, but do
mot let the jury forget that the time might come when a
Government might be disposed to tyrannise, and when
they might have unconstitutional judges and unconsti-
tutional attorney-generels—let them also bear in
mind that a cons:etion under this Act placed the
parties affected in the position of serfs of the
Government for life; since, in the discretion of the Court,
a man so convicted was no longer a free man. Notwith-
standing the mercy of the Act and the leniency of the
Government, the making of the offence a felony perpe-
trated a monstrous injustice, as it took away the privi-
leges which prisoners indicted for the high offence of
treason enjoyed; as a copy of the indictment, end a list
of the witnesses to be called against, and the jury who
were to try, them, were not furnished to them. The pri-
vilege was takenaway altogether. Doubtless the meetings
were unlawful, end deserved to be punished by the law—
doubtless a deal of foolish talk was uttered, and there
Was a vest deal said about hand- grenades, in a wild
tend untutored belief that they would thereby obtain
he People's Charter ; but it was absurd to say
that the object of this conspiracy was to levy war against
the Queen. The idea was absurd. Don't let them be
told that a meeting at a pot-house, and the nonsense
talked by Cuffey, and the finding of pike-head in a
garret, was levying such a war. Let them, therefore,
not be carried away by the special pleading of the At-
torney-General, but find them guilty of a misdemeanour.
Was it not very likely that the spies of the Government
tutored these foolish, excited, weak people, into acts of vi-
olence, who reality had no wicked design ; that they had
fomented the whole matter, and planted about the
persons of these persons, and about their houses, eri-
deuces of guilt which they intended to use for their
own purposes hereafter, and which they had themselves
concocted He trusted the jury would not forget that
many of the greatest men of England had died upon
the scaffold in defence of the very liberties they now
enjoyed, and that they should not consent to take
away the liberties of their fellow subjects without the most
mature consideration, and without a due sense of the
precedent they thereby created. He then proceeded to
deal with the ss:tnesses and the evidence adduced by
their. He did not anticipate that in a grave charge of
:this kind they would believe a person whom they would
-not trust in their shops by a drawer containing money
which they had not counted, or in fact lend him half-a•
erown. They must apply the same rule to matters of
this kind es they would to the ordinary pursuits of life.
The prisoners had a perfect I:ght to combine as others
had done to obtain by constitutional means the Charter.
It was as open to a fair discussion as the expediency of
adopting the Reform Bill, or the repeal of the corn-laws,
'which, though as much opposed one time as the Charter,
had become law. When persons had combined for a
certain purpose—the Charter, for instance—was it not
easy for wicked persons, for gain, to join them in the
guise of friendship, and to tan the already excited
'elements of the confederation into a flame. Other bodies
in good repute—the Freemasons, for instance—had
warders and other officers, and used secret symbols.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL said the Freemasons had
an Act of Parliament legalising their proceedings.
Mr. BALLANTINE said the Odd Fellows were not
legalised by Act of Parliament. He accused Powell of
having created violence where there was a disposition
for peace, and with being a person utterly unworthy of
belief. They had heard from his own lips that he had
disseminated his poison among his workmen—originated
and fomented the crime now laid to the charge of the
-prisoners. Was it not obvious that he had made the
first pike head, and exhibited it to those with whom he
joined, in order to induce them to make others, and
when the proper time arrived thereby to strengthen the
•case against them? What evidence had they to show
that Davis had not used many of the violent expressions
deposed to by Powell? How many:spies were there?
Was it not possible that there were many more, and that, in
truth, they formed this formidable conspiracy, and drew
the piisoners and others into the gulf? The Attorney-
General had stated in his opening that there were
thousands upon thousands in London who knew not
where to get a morsel of bread or a bed to lie
upon, at ',right. It was a lamentable and an appalling
fact; e.nd was it not likely that these houselvss and
famiehing wanderers were easily made the tool of a de-
aigering scoundrel like Powell, who had not even the
merit of being an accomplice—the man who had as-
saulted his own father, deserted his wife, played the des-
picable part of a decoy at a gambling table, and run
races to bring custom to beer-shops. He asked them,
with a strong sense of justice, not to believe this man—
to put no faith in him. In war, a spy, when detected,
was hung up like a dog to the nearest tree; but perhaps
a spy in civil matters, and more especially one against
the Chartists, was a more respectable person, and less
deserving such a fate. He (Mr. Ballantine) did not think
ao, and he believed the jury would agree with him; but
they would of course form their own judgments. Then
again, was it not remarkable that Davis stated his atten-
tion had been drawn to the evidence of Powell by read-
ing it in a newspaper. He admitted he had read it.
'Was it not likely he had !earned his lesson from that
pe-. son's testimony?
(The trial was proceeding when our report left.)

THE " COMDMARYIN SILVER MINES."—The silver
lead mines in the village of Combmartin, Devon (pro- i
bably the oldest mines in England), which have been I
worked at intervals from the time of Edward 1., and of
which mention is made by Camden, who says that the f
expenses of the war in France, in the reign of Edward
111., were partly defrayed by the silver extracted there-
from,
have been abandoned within this month, with the
exception of th• ssppor levels, where three or four men
are still employed. Why this abandonment has been re-
solved upon we do not know, the yield being from 60 to
!250 ounces of silver to the ton of lead ore, which is con-
sidered a profitable return for the working, &c. There
ere, beidder, the facts mentioned in Camden, some curious
historical circumstances connected with these mines. A
cup, weighing 137 ounces, made of the silver smelted
from the ore found in them, was presented by Queen
'Elizabeth to Sir R. Martyn, Lord Mayor of London.
This cup was, in 1830, melted down and made into three
tankards, which form part of the civic corporation of
the metropolis. The ancient cup bore a quaint and ap-
propriate inscription, thus .
" In Martyn's Coombe I long lay hid,
Obscure, deprest, with grosser soyl,
Debased, much mixed, bad,
Till Balmer came, whose skill and toyl
Reformed me so pure and clean
As richer nowhere else is seen."
A letter ;:om Charles 11. to Lewis Incledon, of Buck-
lande, county Devon, dated October 26, 1648, is still
extant, from which it appears these mines were held in
high estimation, and considered of importance in those
days. Her present Majesty Queen Victoria has various
articles rnanufr -tured by Messrs. Ellie, silversmiths, of
Exeter, in her possession, and in the cabinet of Prince
Albert there are some fine specimens of the ore of these
mines. Messrs. Ellis have purchased the remainder of
the silver smelted previously to the late suspension of
the works, which it is to be hoped will shortly again be
in eperatior
MILK FOR THE PEOPLE.—There erist on Long
Island, Derr Brooklyn, several manufe.otories of milk—
the process of which should bo known. One of these
dairies covers a SOr:e of 600 feet front by 003 eet deep,
carefully fenced so as to be as privet as pos-
sible—the buiness of the people being to drink
the milk, not to know how it is made—in
which enclosrre 400 cows are kept the whole year
round, These cows are fed on the refuse slop of whisky
distiller,es, end it is en to them warm. Each barrel
costs six cents., but being adultorat-d with water and
cheap feed b:ngs the price still less. Such is the fond-
ness of the cows for this v;le compound, that after
having fed upon it for a vvek or more, their appetie
become so depraved that they wilt.take no other food.
The result is, their milk-producing organs are stimulated
to a wonderfel degree; they ) field enormously, but soon
become disee-ed; their gums rtcerate, their teeth drop
out, end 'heir breath becomes retie). Though thus
diseased, they do not fall away flesh, but, on the
contrary, puff up end bloat to an apperrnce of great
fatness; the;- joints become stiff, so that they cannot
lie down, end rarely or never come out e'ive.
Bad as this is, the Wilk is afterwr-ds mixed with
molasses, water, rnd whiting, and then sold to the people
of New York for pore milk ! Any one may observe the
thirty-six vans that carry it round every snot Aug. It is
of course very injullovs to children, who use it in much
greater quantities than adults. Some idea may be formed
of the profit male by computing one barrel of slop to a
eow, costing sixpence, and the milli. produced being 80
cents.—New York paper.
FATAL ACCIDENT.--TWO young men of Torpoint,
Devonport, went out in a skiff on Tuesday morning,
for the purpose of shooting on St. John's Lake. By
some accident the boat was upset, and both were
drowned. The body of one, named Grylls, whose
father keeps a public-house in Torpoint, was picked up
about an hour after the accident, but the other has
mot yet been found.
THE TRAGEDY IN TOXTETII-PARK:The inquest
upon RoUrt Howarth and his wife, who were found
dead in the house of the husbend, in Toxteth-park,
Liverpool, was commenced on Monday and adjoutited to
the following day for further evidence. On Tuesday,
Mr. Haverty, the surgeon, who had made a post mortal
examination of the bodies, deposed that he had found a
large quantity of poison in the stomachs of both, but