The Sun.
London, England, 1804-01-14 00:00:00

would clearly be guilts' of 'murder; So ate-ain,
.he fires, and intending to kill one person, lie kills
another, against whom he had no malice, he is still
guilty of murder ; for killing any human being
without lawful authority, that is, without the com-
mand of the Law, or permission of the Law, or jus-
tification of the Law, or by accident, or fur self-
defence, or in consequence of provocatioo, by which
the infirmity of human passion subdues .Yunnan rea.
son, and one man kills .another, which is called
Manslaughter ; the steadiness of the human mind
being then suspended, which alleviates the of of
Homicide, and calls it Manslaughter ; unless one of
these qualifications,attend the at of Homicide, it is
Murder. And it is my duty to say to you, that I
do not see in this, case any one' of these circum.
stances either of excuse or. alleviation ; and there-
fore that the aft here done by the Prisoner at
the Bar amounts to Murder, and neither you
nor I should take upon yourselves, or myself,
• any thing so injurious to the Public as that Of coun-
teracting the law of the land. The law should.be
well understood, and should be put into execution :
we should not take upon ourselves to dispute the
wisdom-of the law, or resi,t the execution of it. It
this killing was without justification, excuse, or
alleviation, it is, in point. of law, murder. See
what a condition we•should be in if this were not
the case; see what the effed would he if it was per-
mitted that a man should say, this and this ad is,
in My opinion, that which deserves death, and if
any man is guilty of 'it, I will shoot him, The
law does not permit any man to hold sea language.
If I go out for the purpose of shooting a robber,
and I meet somebody an the road who has not at-
tempted to rob me, and take upon me to say that
he is a robber, and shoot him, then I am guilty of
murder. So, in any other case, it
.is nut permitted
for any man to say, that any other person who com-
mits a misdemeanour, hoWever abominable, shall
therefore he treated as a person attempting to com_.
mit an highway robbery. Nobody is to be allowed
to say, I will shoot that mats, He is not to call
it 'a capital offence, because he dislikes it, and el
this was an offence on the part of the
.supposed,
ghost very far short of a capital offence. It would•
have been sufficient for the Prisoner to have appre-
hended the man, if he thought he wasethe pretend-
ed "ghost. He was not to determineefiraton pointe
of lad that the -first man he met in a white stiit, must
be the pretended ghost. In that fadhe was mia-;
taken, and if it had been. the MaMhe-theant, he ',his-
took the law, for he had no right to destroy him,.
if he had been the wicked man who -assumed 'the.
charaCter of the ghost. By shooting the deCealed•
therefore the PriSoner was guilty of .Whai the liaiv
denominates murder. Such is the law, and I should
betray the trust reposed in the, and desert nay duty,.
if I did not say to you, with the concurrence of the.
other judges upon the Bench, that. this is murderif
you think the fads are proved.: Irea word, it may
be taken as a general rule, that all killing whatever
of any
human creature,, amounts,• by our -law, to
murder, unless it be
.done by the command of the
law, by the permission of the law, for
fence, or by an involuntary aft arising from sad-
den and sufficient -provocation; Neither of these;
qualificatios attend this ad-. Here.isfa .carryinkl
out of a loadeaLgunewith a deliberate purpose, not
of apprehending this mischievous person, which:
would have been the proper step, but to destroy
him ; and. the Prisoner at the Bar chases to think
that he was entitled to shoot him wherever he
found hint :—he determines that a man who was not
the pretended ghost, was that presendsed ghost, and
even if he was, has destroyed him with a rashness
which the law does not excuse—that is murder.—
What may be the consequence of any
circumstances
of mitigation in this case belongs to a higher tribunal'
than is my duty to tell you, , and the
requirespublic that I should tell you, that
Tetbyut iC.
one man is not to kill another without some one or
justification, •
other of the; causes of excuse,- or alle-
viation which I have enumerated, and that if he:
does he must be found guilty of murder. Therefore,
-the whale:. of yoUr province, this ease, will be:
confined to a consideration, 014 e. ,aarecito
y of the
Witnesses.
{tam the QuiEr liA R.9).1 surant eal up the whole of the
Evidence.T'
He concluded with saying,;--,"(I am --afraid that
the character of the Prisoner, h_ can-
not, in Point of law, avail in this, place; whatever
it may pi another,' anti .that is tist!efornee :to- con-
jeaure—•-but trite impossible forMe vo' a,void' saying
that there, appears;nothing in this caseesshitletalees•.
it out of the denomination of murdei. It is my!
duty to .state to you.the law and it is your. pro.:
'vince to illefermine upon the : •
The. jury Withdrew; Y. were. 'Ott upwards of an
hour, and lettlett4aosareadia,
slau,ghter. •
. ~ . . .
,Upon` 'which the Ceuta. .nA.ON told them he
'could oat suffer' that verdifi tOThe irceiiMea 'lvithOut
themethe}t were:bound. by their datbinotOto.
contrayene the 1. w, by their yer,dio. That it woo,
uporeihe,evidence imposible that the Prisoner cold
have eistnriiitted' Mr. that 'was a
iti consequeficef,of a,' quarrel eir passion.—
Heae there was nu stetrahing.. TheeP,risoner must
be guilty of mueder or guilty of nothieg-and be,
fore he 'could be foimd 'not guilty,' the 'jury must'
disbelieve the whole: of the ::evidenee,' and even•
disbelieve what .the 'Prisoner :said ::irt his oWn.tie.
• fence to-day. If after this they persisted coll..ing this offence Manslaughter,' they would take'
upon themselves the king'i'4Firei-O'gative---an as-
sumption which he need. ;notetell -them they had
no right to make.

Mr. Justice Root=s and Mr. Justice LAWRENCE:
concurred entirely in the law hid down by my Lord
CHIEF BARON, and gave their opinions with &eat
clearness a considerable length, as did also the,RE-
CO RD ER,

The Jury then found the Prisoner Guilry.

The RECORDER, after stating that in all canes
of homicide, it is murder unless a person occasioning,
dcath,can prove that the of was done by accident,
or fur sell.preservation,
,or by an involuntary irns-
p‘utse arising froth sudden and sufficient provocation;
l
pronounced the sentence of the law, which W4s,
That the Prisoner be execined, on. IVlonjaY next,