The Sun.
London, England, 1834-03-28 00:00:00

COURT OF COMMON COUNCIL.

Yesterday a court was held for the despatch of
public business. This being the day appointed for
presenting the freedom of the city to Captain Ross,
a number of ladies were accommodated with seats
near the spot in which the Lord Mayor sat.

THE LORD CHANCELLOR'S NEW ADMINISTRATION OF

CRIMINAL JUSTICE BILL.

Mr. Deputy WOOD said that it would be unne-
cessary to detail at length the reasons for proposing
a motion of which he had given notice, for better
regulating the business at the Old Bailey, as the
Lord Chancellor had introduced a bill into Parlia-
ment, which would effect many salutary reforms in
the administration of criminal justice in the me-
tropolis, and would supersede the measure he had
contemplated. (Hear, hear.) The court had
heard much of the impediments and delays which
the judges had experienced in conducting the trials
at the Old Bailey, in consequence of the anomalous
practice which prevailed of preferring the indictments
at the Sessions-house, Clerkenwell, while the judges
and juries were waiting to try them at the Old Bailey.
—( Hear.), Another inconvenience resulting from the
existing system was, that while the judges of the land
were in attendance at the Old Bailey, in posses-
sion of the depositions on which the prisoners were
committed, and upon which they could appropriately
I
charge the grand juries, as was the case throughout
the kingdom, the presiding magistrate at Clerken-

well, where the grand jury actually sat, knew no-
thing of the cases which would be submitted to their
consideration, and was therefore unable to deliver
any charge at all.—(Hear.) The plan proposed by

the Lord ChancellOr would be attended with the
most beneficial effects—it would save the time and
charges of prosecutors and witnesses, now wasted in
heedless attendances—it would diminish the period
of confinement which the prisoners now suffered who
were afterwards acquitted, and it would accomplish
a great saving to the inhabitants of the district to
which the new system would be extended.—(Hear,
hear.) The Middlesex magistrates, in a struggle for
power and patronage, had assumed to themselves,
and perhaps properly so, the right to try prisoners
for graver charges than those which had been for-
merly tried by them ; and they had intended to give
a salary of 1,2001. a year to the chairman—an office
which, throughout the country, was filled gratui-
tously.—(Hear, hear.) It was desirable that the
measure should receive every support which the
corporation could give it, and he had therefore to
move that it be referred to a committee to take pro-
per measures to give effect to the proposed plan.—
(Cheers.)
Sir PETER LAURIE seconded the motion, in doing

'hich he felt, he said, the highest degree of satisfac:

tion. The Alagistrates of Middlesex were, he said,
exempted from Sessions' Grand Juries ; but as, by
this new arrangement, the bills which were presented
would not ultimately be disposed of by Magistrates,
as was now the case, the Old Bailey Grand Jury
would, though nominally a Sessions' Grand Jury, in
fact be on exactly the same footing as at an Assize.
Magistrates, therefore, ought to be summoned
amongst others ; and the Grand Jury, thus having
some members who were accustomed to criminal
business and evidence, much of the suppression of
evidence now practised would be prevented.—(Hear,
hear.) The advantage of having Magistrates on
Grand Juries was exemplified by the following fact :
—ln London and Middlesex every seventh bill was
thrown out ; in the country every tenth bill only was
ignored.—(Hear.) The suppression of evidence was
often unintentional, and it required some person ac-
customed to evidence to extract from an unwilling
or ignorant witness that evidence which was got out
of him at the police-office. A great advantage
would also result from having an Old Bailey Grand
Jury, in the superior accuracy exhibited in draw-
ing the indictments. In all other counties, the
Clerk of,the- Indictments had access to the deposi-
tions, because they were returned to the Clerk of the
Arraigns, and in the country that officer drew up the
indictments. At present Mr. Stafford had no means of
getting at the depositions, and, although he was a
most excellent officer, mistakes inevitably arose
which were chargeable to the system. By the new
arrangement, which could not be too much com-
mended, Mr. Clark would superintend the indict-
ments, being at the same time in possession of the
depositions to guide him.—(Hear, hear.) It would
be found that a great saving would arise from the
certainty with which it would be ascertained when a
trial was to come on—the bills would be returned
into Court immediately, and the Clerk of the Court
would then make out the trial list for that day, and
the witnesses for those trials only would be paid for
their attendance. In Scotland there was no grand
jury, that system having been abolished nearly three
hundred years ago ; and such was the care adopted
in the previous investigation before a public prose-
cutor, that the convictions were to the committals,
when compared to England, as two to one. The
only real use of a grand jury—the prevention of a
lonc, imprisonment of an innocent man—being exer-
cised by the Lord Advocate, who ordered the mime-
' diate liberation of those who were committed on too

slight grounds to render conviction probable. As a
Middlesex magistrate, he (Sir P. Laurie) stated that
he hoped the minority of that body, of which he ge-
nerally had been one, would not be confounded with
the majority, but as to what the Lord Chancellor
had said upon the necessity of the superintendence
of men learned in the law, the Clerkenwell blunders,
which had excited so much animadversion, had all
been made by the lawyers acting in opposition to the
other magistrates—(Laughter, and cries of " Hear.")
Mr. C. PEARSON observed, that he considered
the proposed measure by the Lord Chancellor as
one of the most important of all the reforms in the
institutions of the country which had been effected
by the present administration.—(Hear, hear.)
Concurring fully in all the arguments already ad-
duced in support of the measure, he felt it unne-
cessary to make any observations in defence of its
principle, or in elucidation of its details ; but he
rose to express an earnest hope that, in the further
discussion of the question, gentlemen would abstain
from those personal allusions to the magistrates of
I the county of Middlesex with which some of his

friends had considered it necessary to season their
remarks.—(Hear, hear.) The measure was so im-
portant to the interests of the public, but, at the
same time, so calculated to excite the opposition of
powerful individuals, that the Lord Chancellor
would find he had difficulties enough to encounter,
without the supporters of the measure provoking
the hostility of so influential a body as the Middle-
sex magistrates by any unnecessary allusion to the
manner in which they had conducted their business.
--.-(Hear.) The measure itself involved considera-
tions of such paramount importance, that he trusted
its success would not be endangered by placing it on
personal, instead of public grounds.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. RICHARD TAYLOR said that no proposition
had given him so much satisfaction since that of
Lord John Russell's Reform Bill, as that of Lord
Brougham's, which he had read in the Parliamen-
tary proceedings of the preceding night. He men-
tioned the intolerable nuisance to which persons
bound over were subjected in prosecuting an indict-
ment at Clerkenwell, as compared with the much
greater facilities at the Old Bailey. Sir Peter
Laurie had informed them that the blunders com-
mitted there were the work of lawyers, but he would
observe that there was a wide difference between
lawyers and Lord Brougham's expression, " men
learned in:the law."—(A laugh, and cries of "
.Hear.")
If salaries of 1,2001. a year were to be given, it
should be only to lawyers of a very different class
from those who were applying for such remunera-
tion. He thought it deplorable that his Majesty's
subjects should be put in the power of such a non-
descript and irresponsible tribunal. He had wit-
nessed a trial at Clerkenwell, and heard a charge
from the Chairman, which was the most flagrant
legal atrocity he had ever witnessed. After what
he had seen, he would not send a dog to such a
tribunal.—(A laugh, and a cry of " Order, order.")
The motion of Mr. Deputy WOOD was then
agreed to.
REMOVAL OF SMITHFIELD MARKET.

A discussion of great length took place upon a
petition signed by 200 persons, praying for the re-
moval of Smithfield market. The petition was vio-
lently opposed, and, instead of being referred to a
committee, was ordered to lie on the table.

PRESENTATION OF THE FREEDOM OF THE CITY

TO CAPTAIN ROSS.

Captain Ross was announced to the court at a
quarter to five o'clock, and was received with the
warmest acclamations. He was in full dress uniform,
and sat next to the Lord Mayor while some of the
forms were in transitu.

Sir JAMES SHAW, the highly-respected Chamber-
lain of the City, then presented the freedom of the
city to the gallant captain, whom he addressed in the
following words :—" Captain Ross, the City of Lon-
don have ever been forward in bestowing the honour
of their freedom on eminent men who have distin-
guished themselves in the service of the public. In
your person science has been largely and specially
indebted for the zeal, public spirit, and disinterested-
ness shown by you, in fitting out and taking charge of
an expedition with the patriotic view to the solution
of the problem whether a north-west paisage existed
to the Pacific. For the courage and perseverance
which have marked the whole of your proceedings in
this hazardous enterprize, and for the admirable
skill and address manifested by you, with the
blessing of Heaven, in preserving life, and health,
and harmony, amongst your brave companions,
amidst the privations and hardships of four
years' navigation in the Arctic regions—for these
services the Corporation of London have re-
corded their grateful sense, by presenting you with
the freedom of their ancient city in a box of British
oak. And, sir, I take leave heartily to offer you my
best wishes that health, honours, and length of days
may be your reward for the toils and perils you have
endured, and the benefits you have conferred on your
country. • _ _ _

Captain Ross, on receiving the present, declared
that he felt most deeply sensible of the distinguished
honour which the Corporation of London had con-
ferred upon him in presenting him with the freedom
of that great city. Amongst the many gratifying
notices which he had met with since his return from
his expedition none was more gratifying than that
with which he was at that moment honoured.—
(Cheers.) He should, he assured those around him,
hand down the flattering testimonial of their appro-
bation to his posterity ; and he hoped that his future
conduct would be such as would prove that he was
not unworthy of their esteem.
These few words were received with great appro-
bation, and the Court immediately broke up. Cap-
tain Ross accompanied the Lord Mayor in his lord-
ship's carriage to the Mansion-house, where a
splendid dinner was prepared for the occasion to a
select party of friends.

HORRIBLE STRUGGLE BETWEEN TWO

CRIMINALS CONDEMNED TO DEATH.

(From a Jamaica Paper.)

_ .
HAITI PORT-AU-PRINCE. - Some months
since a mulatto, named Eriag, was condemned
to death for the assassination of a merchant
of Haiti. This murder, accompanied by the most
horrid circumstances, was preceded by a robbery to
a large amount. A few days after, a young Portu-
guese was sentenced to the same fate for having
stabbed his mistress in a fit of jealousy. The two
criminals were confined in the same prison, but each
had a separate cell. Eriag, whose strength and fe-
rocity were the subject of much dread, occupied an
obscure dungeon,in which the air penetrated through
a small grating which overlooked the staircase of
the prison ; no ray of light reached this cell—here
the darkness of night prevailed over the light of
day. Dardeza, whose crime was less horrible, and
who had inspired the gaoler with more compassion,
was placed in a larger room with some light, and
which had a grated window overlooking the country.
The two condemned men were manacled with
chains on their feet and hands. It was announced
to each that their execution would take place in
three days, and a sufficient provision of bread and
water was given to them, which was to last until
the fatal moment arrived. For some time each
of the two prisoners had meditated their escape.
Dardeza, who had been permitted to receive
the visits of his friends, had obtained some
instruments to facilitate his project, but the unfor-
tunate young man, without vigour and address, was
soon discouraged by his fruitless essays, and had
fallen into entire apathy and despondency. He
waited with most painful dread the appearance of
the gaoler. Eriag, more vigorous—more daring, did
not despair ; he resolved to try all means to
escape
his sentence. From the position of his cell and the
way he had passed to be conducted to it, he reckoned
that one of the walls was the boundary of the prison,
and he imagined, if he could effect an opening, he
might get into the open country. He commenced
his work, and, to prevent the noise being heard and
to soften the stones, he threw water on the cement,
and with the chains which were on his hand scratched
against the walls. When he had removed some
fragments he again threw water, and recommenced
scratching ; he deprived himself of sleep, and, with
indefatigable activity, never for an instant quitted
his work. From time to time the gaoler would
come to the grating, and, with a lantern, would see
that his prisoner was safe. But all the while he was
working Eriag kept an attentive ear, and at the least
noise he stopped, and when the gaoler came he
would find Eriag lying near the hole, pretending to
sleep. Already was the wall very deeply pierced ;
but how thick was the wall? Eriag
was ignorant
what he had still to do ; he did not even
know what time remained to the hour of his
execution. He was placed in a cell so obscure
he could not tell the difference between night
and day, and was thus deprived of all means of
knowing how fast the three fatal days were passing.
However, he made a last trial, and with his clenched
teeth he attacked the wall—he is saved !—the stone
I gives way, the wall is pierced !—but, alas, the wretch
was deceived in his idea of the situation of the place.
It is not the pure air and fresh country which meets
his eager breath and look through the opening he
has so painfully effected. He perceives only another
cell feebly lighted by the pale glimmering of a lamp,

he heard heavy sighs, he calls in a low voice. It is
the cell of Dardeza. In a short time these two un-
fortunates approach each other. Eriag communi-
cates his design to Dardeza, and learning that his
window overlooked the country, he imagined their
flight was a thing effected ; but how many days had
passed since Eriag had learned the fatal news ? How
many hours were there still remaining him to live ?
He asked Dardeza, who had been able to count
both hours and days, and found that the night which
had commenced was their last, and that the morrow's
sun would light them to the gallows. Far from
dispiriting Eriag, this dreadful news only redoubled
his courage. Dardeza seconded his efforts, and the
two uniting their energies to widen the hole made by
Eriag, it was soon large enough to admit him into the
cell of Dardeza. The latter had received from a
friend a file to break away the bars from
his window, to assist his escape, but, as we
have said, the weak, unfortunate young man
had not tried to accomplish a plan which at first ap-
peared so impossible. Now, however, the presence
of Eriag animated him, he seized the file, the two
set to work, and they had soon separated several
bars of the grating. The opening was large enough
to admit them, and, if they could effect a leap of
sixty feet, their escape was assured. It remained
only to file the chains which attached their feet and
hands. But this would be still a work of time ; the
night was advancing, the day about to appear—the
day, the fatal day, that for them would only com-
mence, though for many it would end in happiness.
The precious resource, the file, could not serve both
at the same time. If one only used it scarcely would
there have been time to break his chains, and with
the weight of them flight was impossible. A terrible
dispute arose between the two ; the file was in the
hands of Dardeza ; he would use it ; Eriag threw
himself on him to wrest it away. In this narrow
cell, between two chained men devoted to death, a
mortal struggle ensued. Eriag, being the strongest,
threw his enemy. Dardeza saw himself vanquished
—but, that neither might be saved, he dragged him-
self to the window, and would have thrown out the
instrument that but a few minutes before had ap-
peared a god in their eyes. Eriag prevented him.
" You shall never have it," cried the frantic Dardeza,
and, making a violent effort to disengage himself
from the hands of his adversary, he put the file in
his mouth and swallowed it. At this sight
Eriag sank exhausted. It is done—he must die.
Dardeza, overpowered by the efforts he had made,
lay extended on the ground like one really dead, the
file he had swallowed was entangled in his throat—
he was suffocating ; suddenly a horrid idea came
over Eriag. He threw himself on Dardeza, seized
him violently by the throat to strangle him ; dashed
his head against the walls, plunged his hand in his
throat, tore open his chest, and, even, in the still-
beating breast of the unfortunate, he sought by the
pale light of the lamp the precious instrument of
safety—he drew it forth in blood—soon he is at
work, his chains fall ; then, with the linen of Dar-
deza he made a kind of line, which he attached to a
bar of the window ; he let himself out, but, arrived
to the extremity of the line, he cast his eye below
him, an abyss of more than thirty feet was still left ;
however, he did not hesitate ; his fall was broken
by a platform, on which he rolled ; then he fell on a
pavement ; but all is not yet over, he found himself
surrounded by a high wall, which it was still neces-
sary to climb. At the moment he was searching
for the place where ascent was easiest, a watch-dog
attacked him. Eriag met him, and, fearful that his
barkings should be heard, he thrust his hand into
his mouth, and strangled him ; but in the midst of
his convulsive pangs, the dog bit of his thumb.
There was no time to lose, day was beginning to
dawn. Eriag chose his spot, and soon the harassed
and mangled murderer stood at liberty. At break
of day the gaoler sought the criminals, to lead
them to the gallows—he found only a horribly muti-
lated corpse. The alarm was given ; proclamations
issued for the apprehension of the criminal ; but the
traces of blood near the dog, and the thumb,
were still there ; it was ascertained the right
hand of the murderer was mutilated, and these details
were published. Eriag had run for a space of an
hour, when, overcome by fatigue and hunger, he
stopped near a small hut and demanded refresh-
ment, thinking that the rumour of his escape could
not have preceded him there. An old negress who
inhabited the hut gave him food. He was on the
point of quitting her, when Caro, the brown son of
the old woman, arrived from the town, and imme-
diately told the news he had heard there. Eriag
thrust his hand still deeper in his bosom, but the
rapid glance of Caro caught the movement. The
brave young man rushed toward Eriag, tore off his
cloak, and perceived the bloody wound. Eriag
sprang rapidly to seize a hatchet, which was in a
corner, and threw himself on Caro, who was only
armed with a, heavy stick. Caro adroitly parried
the blow aimed at him. The axe of Eriag glided
down his adversary's club, and cleft the skull of the
old negress, who had run to protect her son. At
this sight Caro threw himself upon Eriag, and at a
blow felled him to the ground, leaving him without
sense, and hors de combat. He then vainly en-
deavoured to recall his mother to life. At the same
moment three mounted police officers, who had been
searching for the culprit in all directions, arrived
upon this new theatre of his crimes. Immediately
Eriag was seized, bound, tied to the tail of a horse,
and dragged at full gallop back to prison. Hardly
arrived, Eriag asked for a bottle of rum and a
priest. To the latter he recounted, with horrible
sang froid, all the details of his escape, and then
swallowed the former at a draught. Scarcely had
the priest left him when he fell senseless, and on the
officers entering to drag him to the gibbet he had
ceased to breathe.