The Sun.
London, England, 1841-03-06 00:00:00

THE ASE OF MR. M'LEOD.

The following is the statement of the Counsel, extractedfrom
the New York Commereial Advertiser :

" TO THE PUBLIC.
" Lockport, Feb. 1,1841,
" The undersigned, the Counsel of Alexander M'Leod, now
a prisoner in this County, on a charge of murder—in view of
the very exaggerated and erroneous statements concerning the
objects of the attempt to procure his discharge upon bail—and
actuated by a belief that the. e statements tend, though they
may not be designed, to prejudice the cause of our client before
the people, from whom a jury, in case he is indicted, must be
obtained, feel called upon to submit to the public an unvar-
mished history of the transaction.
" Mr. M'Leod was committed to the gaol of this county
about the 18th of November last. But the mittimus being
void on its face, we procured the allowance of a habeas cor-
pus, with a view to his discharge. At the hearing before
Judge Bowen, the district attorney conceded the nullity of the
process, but suggested, nevertheless, that the Judge had juris-
diction to hear proofs anew, and to recommit, if probable cause
should be shown. To this Mr. M'Leod did not object, but
desired such an examination as would satisfy all of his inno-
cence, and save him from a harrassing repetition of arrests, he
having several weeks before been arrested for the same charge,
committed to gaol, and finally discharged on habeas corpus.
In accordance with this desire it was suggested that he give
bail to appear at the next Court competent to try him, and, if
indicted, to have the matter passed upon by a jury of the coun-
try. To this Mr. M'Leod readily assented, and the Judge, of.
his own motion, fixed the bail at 5,000 dollars—an amount
which the undersigned then believed, and now believe, amply
sufficient to ensure his appearance at trial.
" The prisoner then returned into custody, there to remain
until his friends in Canada should give an indemnification to
some persons residing here, to become his bail. Not being
able to effect this, however, as soon as he expected, he deter-
mined to be again brought before the Judge, and there under-
went another examination. That officer, for reasons doubtless
satisfactory to himself, saw fit to remand him, unless he gave
the bail before required.
"He was accordingly remanded. Being closely imprisoned,
he did not succeed in providing indemnification for bail until
the 27th ult., when two gentlemen, residing in or near Chip-
pewa, U. C., gave William Buel and Y. C. H. Brotherson, of
this county, their bond to save them harmless, and the latter
entered into the necessary recognizances, and an order was
made by Judge Bowen, discharging Mr. M'Leod from impri-
sonment.
" This order was not obtained until nearly nightfall, and
owing to a rumour that there were persons about this county
prepared to commit upon Mr. M'Leod personal violence in
case he should be discharged on bail, and owing to an appear-
ance of agitation among some persons here, it was deemed
prudent that he should remain in the gaol until the next morn-
ing, and then make his appearance in the day-time publicly
among our citizens.
" soon after there were appearances of a state of high ex-
citement. Bodies of men were seen moving towards the
Court House. Drums beat, bugles sounded. About nine
o'clock a body of men, armed with muskets and bayonets, took
possession of the hall communicating with the gaol. At mid-
night, or later, a cannon, a 12-pounder, having been placed
directly opposite M'Leod's cell, was repeatedly (lactic-get', de-
molishing at every peal a portion of the glass in the Court-
house windows.
" While these proceedings were going on below, a meeting
of several hundred men was organised in the Court-room
above. About twelve o'clock at midnight committees were
appointed to wait upon the Judge who had granted the order,
and upon the gentleman who had become M'Leod's bail, and
to request their immediate appearance. The Judge, we un-
derstand, deemed it most prudent for him to get out of his bed
and obey the summons. The bail did not appear. One of
them being told that it had been stated by some of those
among the crowd that if he did not come they would bring
him at the point of the bayonet, and believing that this indi-
coted a state of feeling which might endanger his personal
safety, he declined going that night, but sent word to the
assembly, that if they would adjourn until the next morning,
he would appear before them. •
"The assembly finally, at about half-past one o 'clock, ad-
journed until nine in the morning, leaving, however, a body of
armed men in and about the gaol the remainder of the night.
In the morning accordingly was presented the novel spectacle
of an armed guard, marching with measured tread in front of
the Court-house door, and this, too, in a time of peace and a
government of law, and with no other assignable motive than
to deprive an individual of rights which that law, through its
own proper officer, had conferred.
"In the mean time an express had been dispatched to
Buffalo, to advise a Mr. Wells that M'Leod was about to be
discharged, and to procure a writ, whereon he might again
be arrested in an action for the damages arising from his
alleged agency in the destruction of the Caroline. At the
re-opening of the meeting in the morning, the messenger,
having returned, announced that he had accomplished the
purpose of his mission. Whereupon he exhibited to the as-
sembly a capias, at the suit of Wells, with a Judge's order to
hold M'Leod to bail, in the sum of 7,000 dollars. This pro-
cess, after being examined by several individuals, and pro-
nounced to be in due form, was put into the hands of or .e of
the Sheriff's deputies, and soon afterwards served.
" After the captain of the watch had formally reported the
occurrences subsequent to the adjournment, a great variety
of motions and propositions were made and discussed.
Among them was one, whether the suit commenced by
the capias might not be settled by the plaintiff and de-
fendant. An affirmative answer being given, it was fol-
lowed by a motion, that the bail surrender M'Leod
immediately.' But it being suggested, and given the
assembly to understand, that one of the bail had exhibited
satisfactory evidences of his willingmesses to do so, that motion
was withdrawn. Whereupon another, that the meeting do
not adjourn until the surrender have been completed,' was
adopted without a dissenting voice. Various leading ques-
tions, involving the power of the Judge to recommit, of the
bail to surrender, the effect of an unexecuted order for a pri-
soner's discharge, and the requisite formalities to mike a sur-
render effectual, were mooted, and after the Judge and district
attorney (who had been brought up again by a fresh commit-
tee) as well as other individuals had been heard, were satisfac-
torily to the meeting disposed of.
" One of the bail has a large amount of property and ma-
terials provided for the construction of the canal-locks at this
place, and particularly exposed to serious injury, with hardly
a possibiity of detection. During these agitations he was re-
peatedly warned that his property would be injured or de-
stroyed, unless he surrendered Mr. M'Lcod into custody.
Feeling the force which the unparalleled state of thing, gave
to these admonitions, he at length concluded to follow the ad-
vice of the meeting. At about half-past one o'clock in the
afternoon, by a singular coincidence, the same Judge, who
had been the cause of this great commotion by letting Mr.
M'Leod to bail, announced that a surrender in due form of
law had been made. Whereupon the assembly resolved that
its object was -ccomplished, and then adjourned.
"In submitting the foregoing detail of facts our purpose is
not to cast censure upon any one. For whatever may be our
own opinions of these transactions, this is not the time or place
to express them. Our sole object is to protect the interest of
our client. We are advised that an effort is already in progress
to persuade the public that the object of bailing Mr. M'Leod
was to avoid a trial. Knowing that no such design existed
for a moment, we.feel called upon to repel the charge at once,
that the conviction of its truth may not settle upon the public,
and operate to his prejudice or trial.
" For ourselves we not only believe, but have no doubt of,
Mr. M'Leod's entire innocence of the charge. And it is
painful to us to witness the effort now making to pro-
cure universal condemnation of him by the public press,
and through that by the whole body of the people,
without having heard one particle of the evidence on either
side. Not content with fanning, to his prejudice, the ex-
citement already existing on the subject of the Caroline, a
portion of the press has recently been gleaning on the other
side of the river for materials (whether true or false is alike
unimportant), for further attacks upon this defenceless indivi-
dual, and that, too, upon subjects having no connection what-
ever with the matter with winch he is charged ; attacks, the
only possible effect of which must be to render it more difficult
than it has already become to find among those who are to be
his triers that strict impartiality which the law guarantees to
every one, no matter how slight may be the offence for which
he may be arraigned.
" In these circumstances, it seems to us that it is not only
our right, but our duty, to appeal not to the sympathies, but
to the sense of justice of our fellow-citizens, and ask them,
until they shall have heard his cause, to suspend their judg-
ment as to the guilt or innocence of this man, a foreigner, in
prison, and beset so recently by a power which places itself
above the law, and arraigns before it those very officers by
whom that law has declared its own decree shall be pronounced.
In making this appeal to American citizens, whose pride it is
to administer to all even-handed justice, we are confident we
shall not appeal in vain. " H. GARDNER.
'4 A. C. BRADLEY."

JEWS TO HOLD CORPORATE OFFICES.—
The Bill for the relief of the Jews, enabling them to fill
corporate offices, is to come on for discussion on Wednes-
day, the 10th instant. It is stated in the City that several
petitions have arrived from corporate towns in favour of the
measure, and that a grest many more arc expected.
The General Steam Navigation Company's
Vessel, the Occa', John Fife, from Rotterdam, arrived off
the Custom-house at eleven o'clock yesterday, ssith the
Dutch Mail.

. -
TIMES.—The fall of the " United States" Bank naturally
draws attention to the loans contracted last year in Europe by
that institution, as they show the very great extent of liability
recently entered into, and have been so quietly conducted in
general as almost wholly to escape public notice. To meet its
pressing engagements, then, at the period referred to, the Bank
has received the following loans :—Two in London ; the first
for 800,0001., of which half will fall due in April, 1841, and
the remainder in April, 1842: and the second for
900,0001., payable in equal sums in October, 1841, and
October, 1842 ; also the Dutch loan for 700,0001., redeemable
in five years. These engagements amount collectively
to 2,400,0001., to which is to be added the 1,000,0001.,
of credits on the new agency recently established in Philadel-
phia; all entered into within the space of about two years, and
nearly the whole unfortunately derived from English capital,
employed too, be it remembered, to save a part of the loss
which otherwise must'have fallen upon the Americans them-
selves. It was a current remark in New York, when the large
credits in London in favour of the United States Bank were
made known, that they had served to realize for New York an
equal amount of " suspended debt," and to throw the whole
weight on England. Such a wreck of a great banking con-
cern has probably never before occurred. The $lOO shares,
which used to be at 251. to 26/. previous to the first suspension
of specie payments, are now quoted at 4/. 10s., and that is
almost a nominal quotation. It seems to be the nearly univer-
sal opinion that nothing is now left but a liquidation, and that
the longer it is delayed the worse it will be for the creditors.

CHRONICLE.—The continued depression in the funds
has been produced by fears as to the result of the affair of
M'Leod and that of the Boundary question. The alarm has
been sustained by a long preposterous article which appeared
in a morning paper to-day, where war, and nothing else, is
conjured up, and a demand made for an immediate increase in
the army estimates. We have conversed with some of the
best informed rarties in the City, connected with America, on
the affair of M'Leod, and certainly find no cause to apprehend
any bad results. The tenor of the private_ correspondence in-
dicates that the merchants of New York and Philadelphia are
quite unaware of the excitement entertained upon the subject
in this country, and it is almost, we may say, notorious that
M'Leod was not present at the destruction of the Caroline.
It is 'also important to remember that General Harrison's inau-
guration as President took place yesterday, and that the charge i
of the proceedings against M'Leod s now in the hands of
Mr. Webster, as Secretary of State. His moderate and en-
lightened views upon the subject of the Boundary question
may be depended on, and when the trivial and contradictory
evidence on which the Grand Jury found a true bill against
M'Leod comes under his consideration and that of Mr. Crit-
tenden, the new Attorriey-General, they will, no doubt, see
the propriety of quashing the proceedings. Much stress has
been laid by the " bears" upon certain hostile resolutions said
to have been passed by the Legislature of Maine, authorising
the Governor of that State to remove the troops of the Queen
of Great Britain now quartered on the territory called disputed
by the British Government. On examining the authorities On
which this threatening step is alleged to haver been taker :by the
State of Maine, we are inclined to think it is founded on a mis-
take altogether, and that the proposal of the resolutions in the
Legislature of Maine has been held to be synonymous with
their passing. 'I he American papers say certainly that the
Legislature of Maine had recently passed such resolutions, but
they close the subject by stating that the resolutions were
referred to the Committee on the North-east Boundary ques-
tiox." Had they passed the House, it is not easy to see cause
for referring them to a Committee, and it is much more likely
that they had been so disposed of upon their being moved in
the House, than that any such madlike and futile resolutions
were adopted by the State of Maine.
It is generally expected that the Legislature of Pennsylvania
will legalize the suspension of specie payments by the Banks.
A specific resolution, authorizing it for one year, that is to the
15th of February, 1842, had been moved in the House of Re-
presentatives by Mr. Ilinehman, and leave given.

POST.—There was some little pressure upon the Ex-
chequer Bill market to-day, the quotation receding to 6s. Bs.
prem. Otherwise, the public securities remained at much the
same figures as at the close of business yesterday.
The Money market has been disturbed in some degree since
the beginning of the week by announcements of failures. Be-
sides the stoppage at Liverpool, to which we at the time
alluded (that of Pritchard Brothers)' involving liabilities
to the amount of from 80,000/. to 100,0001., one in the
same branch cf business, the drug and seed trade, has
occurred here. The debts in this case de not, it is said, ex-
ceed. 30,0001. to 40,0001., but much mischief has been done
by the failure, owing to the high opinion that had been enter-
tained of the circumstances of the party and the consequent un-
expectedness of the event. The difficulties of the house are under-
stood to have been brought on by the stoppage of Messrs. Garry
and Curtis, to whom it had come under acceptance, in antici-
pation of some Riga produce that was to have been placed in
its possession. By some, however, they are with more confi-
dence ascribed to a failure in the country. Yesterday it be-
came known that a house in the wholesale grocery line had
been obliged to suspend its payments, and this, we have reason
to believe, will prove a heavier matter than the preceding, the
liabilities being pretty generally estimated at something ap-
proaching 100,0001.
The stoppages of concerns of this description, which have
but little in the nature of speculative contingency belonging to
them to excite distrust in the minds of bankers and others,
will, if they continue, do more to destroy confidence than have
done those of some of the larger establishments that have be-
come embarrassed through vicissitudes to which they are known
to be at all times exposed.

SUN—There was a report this afternoon of an injurious
tendency respecting the credit of a mercantile house of
some standing in the City, but as we understand that a
satisfactory arrangement is likely to be come to, we for-
bear mentioning names.
The public stocks were again heavy. The value of
Consols was reduced from 834 4 to 884 1, closing how-
ever IA 884 for money, and for April the current quota-
tions did not range higher than 884 to 4. Exchequer
Bills were worth Bs. to I Is. premium, and India Bonds
14s. to 15s. discount. In all probability these investments
will go lower. The New Three-and-a- Half per Cents
wore at 964 to 97, and the Reduced 34 per Cents. at
97i to 4.
There was a good deal of business doing to-day in
United States Bank Shares, the more current price of
which was 5/. per share, but sales were also made as low
as 4/. 10s.
The Foreign Bonds have not been much affected by the
news from America, either as regards price or demand.
Spanish Active Bonds were to-day marked 244 to 4, Por-
tuguese New Five per Cents. 314. the Three per Cents.
IColombioans Stock
Mexicands at 284, Russian Bonds
i
is worth btoand t
P
butn
2
are firm at 1104 to 4, ex-dividend. Dutch Two-and-a-
-3o
i lower,
tolt 2
Half per Cents, a good deal of business was dune at 504
u3giu, tecsi en
o d
t 6
02640 , Chilian
to 4, and in the Five per Cents. at 974 to 4.
For the Railway Shales there was not much inquiry.
GrcatWestern wire 23i, the Fifths 54 to 4, and the York
and North Midland 29 to 30 Premium. Brighton were
64, Blackwell at a rise to 34, Croydon at and North
Midland at 30 discount. Winchester and Leeds were at
par. Colonial Bank Shares brought 104 to 104 prem.,
London Joint Stock 24, and National of Ireland 24 di'.
This afternoon the Foreign Exchanges were rattier firm,
on Paris the quotation for three months' bills was 25f.
60,.. to 65c. ; on Amsterdam, 12 34 ; on Hamburgh,
13 74 to 4; on Antwerp, 12 24 to 4; on Frankfort 1494
o 4, and on Trieste, 10 1 to 10 2.

~
AN Ex-PRII\tE NIINIsTER.---There is a report
generally current that an indivi
whose
who has lately ocou-
pied much of the public attention, and vhose fault it is not
that England and France are. not at this moment at war,
is so much embarrassed in his finances that he is boing
attacked by several of his creditors. This would seem
like a refutation of all that has
.been said of his having
taken advantage of his position to job in the funds ; hut on
the other hand it is observed that his opportunity of fea-
thering hi 3 reit was a very short one, that he had to pay
off some old and very heavy embarrassments, and that be
was taken by surprise at the very moment when he was on
the point of achieving great things, and, by means of con-
tracts, &c., realising an enormous. fortune. lam inclined
extravagant. in his expen-
to take the more liberal view. owfhho.isicsonadencicu,a,lannt.eddtowbitehliehvies
that political ambition was with him a etrongor motive than
the love of lucre. That he should be embarrassed now, if
he really kept Lis hands clean, when
. he could have soiled
them, can surprise no person
habits. He always was absurdly
diture, and the story of a vast accession of we dth by a
certain connection which he formed, i
under circumstances
which would hardly hear the lig. t, f report be not alto-
gether false, is new known to have been unfounded,—
Letter from Paris.