The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-04 00:00:00

TEE Al ML

Digges abused his authority, by using a degree of
violence uncalled for by the circumstances, the

killing of him was not justifiable; nor can it be
said, I think, that the facia of the case lead plainly
to the conclusion that the act of the prisoner Ander-
bon should be held to be nothing more than man-

!daughter. Upon his trial on a charge of murder, if

Major Milman's No. 2 battery, 9th Brigade of
Royal Artillery, stationed at Ballineollig, is about
to be supplied with an armament of Armstrong
guns, &c., from Woolwich Arsenal, the whole of
which are awaiting transport and will be shipped
in a few days, the old guns to be returned to Wool-
wich.

he shall be surrendered, and if he shall be tried for

Private letters received at Chatham from :the
battalion of Royal Marines serving in China, report
both officers and men to be in excellent health, the
daily average of sickness being very small. At
the date of the last mail the Marines were just re-
tiring from the city of Pekin, and would move
down to Hongkong, where it was expected they
would immediately embark for England, in which
case they may be expected to arrive home about
the middle of the summer.

The proceedings and finding of the court-martial
which assembled at Chatham a few days since for
the trial of a Sapper of the Royal Engineers,
named Patterson, on a charge of having deserted
from that corps eightyears ago, have been promul-
gated to the troops at that garrison. The prisoner
deserted from the Royal Engineers as far bask as
1852, but nothing was heard of him until a short
time since, when he was apprehended in the Royal
Artillery, into which corps he had enlisted. After
deserting from the Royal Engineers the prisoner
found his way to India, where he joined the Bengal

that offence, it will be for the jury to dispose of
(
the case under the direction of a judge. Thera may
then appear sufficient reasons to warrant the jury
in taking a favourable view of the case and to lead
them to think it probable
atnhdatstatbhbeepd him underrisoner-
vanced towards the deceased
to facilitate his own escape.
an apprehension that it was
bnuectetsosasrayv,enhoits mlifeer,eolyr
to avert threatened violence a
the case, in my judgment, Is not httene enemionmwht. Bu
t
the
which
the
t
a
justices at Brantford would have been warranted
in assuming the functions of a jury,
ing atrial for the graver offence. •W e day be told
and intercept-
that there is no assurance that the prisoner, being
a slave, will be tried fairly and without prejudice
in the foreign country ; but no court or magistrate
can refuse to give effect to an act of Parliament by
acting on such an assumption, nor can we be in•
nuanced by the consideration (a very painful one
in all such cases) that the prisoner, even if he shall
be wholly acquitted of the offence imputed to him,
must still remain a slave in a foreign country.
_
Mr. Justice M'Lean then delivered a long, able
judgment. He said—There is nothing before us to
show that the justices of the peace who have " ex-
amined the evidence," or rather the justice of the
peace who certifies the evidence as having been
taken before him, has come to any determination

Artillery, in which corps he served six years— 1 that it is "sufficient to sustain the charge accord-
during the late Indian campaign. He then re-1 ing to the laws of this province, if the alleged
turned to England, and enlisted in the Royal offence had been committed therein," or that he
Artillery, where he bore an indifferent cha- has certified his decision on the evidence, toge-
racter. The Court before which he was tried ther with a copy of all such evidence, to the Go-
sentenced him to be marked with the letter D, and - vernor. By this commitment the prisoner is not "in
to imprisoned at Fort Clarence for 112 days, in custody awaiting a surrender under the treaty with
addition to which he is to be placed under stoppages the United States," but is in gaol awaiting dis-
until the sum of £5105., of which he had defrauded charge according to law. Then, as to the designa-
the Government by his desertion and re-enlistment, tion of the offence with which it is alleged the
has been made good. prisoner was charged on the 28th of September
The command of the 22d company of Royal En- last, it is stated that he was on that day charged
gineers at Chatham has been handed over to Capt. on the oath of William C. Baker and others, with-
E. H. Steward by Lieut. Walker, the latter officer out stating who those others were, for that he did,
having been appointed to take the command of the in Howard county, in the State of Missouri, on the
sth company at Woolwich. 28th day of September, 1853, wilfully, and mali-
ciously, and ferociously stab and kill one Seneca
T. P, Digges. There is no charge of murder in the
offence alleged against Anderson by William C.
Baker, and we cannot assume that it was intended
to prefer a charge for murder, for, in truth, the
deposition made by Baker before the justice of the
peace, which is returned with the evidence, contains
no charge whatever against the prisoner. He
expressly says in his deposition that he did not see
the wound made of which Digges is said to have
died, and that he came to the province employed
and paid by the county of Howard, for the purpose
of identifying the prisoner. He does not pretend
to give any statement of his own, or to make any
charge against the prisoner. All he does say as to
the cause or the death of Digges, he says Digges
told him, so that in truth the greater portion of
what his deposition contains is a detailed statement
of his several conversations with Digges. That
statement, in the absence of any proof that it was
made by Digges, in the full belief that his life was
drawing speedily to a close, ought not to have
been received, and cannot be considered as legal
evidence, so that, without the necessary requisites
to confer that character on the hearsay statements
of Baker, they cannot possibly form the founda-
tion of a criminal charge against the prisoner.
Then there is the testimony of Benjamin F. Digges,
a son of Seneca T. P. Digges, who was with his
father at the time he was stabbed, and who at that
time was a little better than eight years of age.
This witness says very candidly that he had never
seen the coloured man who stabbed his father
before that time; that the prisoner was about the
colour and size of the man, but "he would not
swear he was the man." Looking, then, at all the
testimony taken before the justice of the peace, and
rejecting such portion as is wholly unnecessary and
inadmissible, there is not a witness who connects
the prisoner with the stabbing of Digges, unless it
be Thomas L. Digges, in his statement of the death-
bed declarations of his father to him, and these only
show that the negro by whom Digges was stabbed
made certain declarations as to himself and his
identity which would be true if made by the pri-
soner. On the grounds, therefore, that the prisoner
was arrested in the first instance on an insufficient
complaint, and that he is now detained in custody
on a warrant of commitment until discharged by
due course of law for an offence committed in a
foreign country, and on the further grounds that
the offence stated in the warrant of commitment is
not one for which the prisoner is liable to be
detained under the Provincial Act for carrying out
the treaty with the United States for the surrender
of certain fugitive criminals, and that the evidence
as given before the justice of the peace is of too
vague a character to establish the offence of murder
against the prisoner according to the laws of this
province, I am of opinion that the prisoner is now
entitled to be discharged from custody. In conclu-
sion, the learned judge said the law of England, or
rather of the British Empire, not only does not
recognise slavery within the dominions of the
Crown, but imposes upon any British subject who
shall have become the owner of slaves in a
foreign State the severest penalties, and declares
that all persons engaged in carrying on the
slave trade, when captured at sea, shall be
liable to be treated as pirates. The prisoner Ander-
son, as appears by the statement of Baker, who
came to this province to identify him, has felt
the horrors of such treatment. He was brought up
to manhood by one Moses Burton, and married a
slave on a neighbouring property, by whom he had
one child. His master, for his own purpose, dis-
regarding the relation which had been formed, sold
and transferred him to a person at a distance, to
whose will he was forced to submit. The laws of
Missouri, enacted by their white oppressors, while
1 they perpetuate slavery, confer no rights on the
slaves, unless it be the bare protection of their lives.
Can it, then, be a matter of surprise that the pri-
soner should endeavour to escape from so degrading
a position—or rather, would it not be a cause of
surprise if the attempt were not made ? Digges,
though he could have had no other interest in it
but that which binds slaveholders for their common
interest to prevent the escape of their slaves, inter-
fered to prevent the prisoner getting beyond the
bounds of his bondage, and with his slaves pursued
and hunted him, with a spirit and determination
which might well drive him to desperation ; and
when at length the prisoner appeared within reach
of capture, he, with a stick in his hand, crossed
over a fence, and advanced to intercept and seized
him. The prisoner was anxious to escape, and in
order to do so made every effort to avoid his pur-
suers. Digges, as their leader, on the contrary,
was most anxious to overtake and come in contact
with the prisoner, for the unholy purpose of rivet-
ting his chains more securely. Ceuld it be expected
from any man indulging the desire to be, free,
which Nature has implanted in his breast, that he
should quietly submit to be returned to bondage and
to stripes, if, by an effort of his strength or by any
means within his reach, he could emancipate him-
self? Such an expectation, it appears to me, would
be most unreasonable, and I must say, te my judg-
ment, the prisoner was justified in using any neces-
sary degree of force to prevent what to him must
inevitably have proved a most fearful evil. He
was committing no Grime in endeavouring to escape
and to better his own condition ; and the fact
of his being a slave cannot, in my hum-
ble judgment, make that a crime which would
not be so if he were a white man. If in this country
any number of persons were to pursue a coloured
man with the avowed determination to return him
into slavery, it cannot, I think, be' doubted that
the man pursued would be justified in using, in
the same circumstances as the prisoner, the same
means of relieving himself from so dreadful a
result. Can, then, or must, the law of slavery in
Missouri be recognized by us to such an extent as
to make it murder in Missouri, while it is justifiable
in this province to do precisely the same act ? I
confess that I feel it too repugnant to every sense
of religion and every feeling of justice to recognise
a rule, designated as a law, passed by the strong
for enslaving and tyrannising over the weak—a law
which would not be tolerated a moment if those
who are reduced to the condition of slaves and de-
prived of all human rights were possessed of white
instead of black or dark complexion. The decla-
ration of independence of the present United
States proclaimed to the world that all men are
born equal and possessed of certain inalien-
able rights, among which are life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness ; but the first of
these is the only one accorded to the unfor-
tunate slaves; the others of these inalienable
rights are denied, because the white population
have found themselves strong enough to deprive
the blacks of them. A love of liberty is inherent
in the human breast, whatever may be the com-
plexion of the skin. " Its taste is grateful, and
ever wiii be 60, till nature herself shall change ;"
and, in administering the laws of a British pro-
vince, I never can feel bound to recognise as law
any enactment which can convert into chattels a
very large number of the human race, I think
that on every ground the prisoner is entitled to be
dis.charged.
Mr. Justice Burns concurred in the opinion of
the Chief Justice.
Mr. S. B. Freeman, for the prisoner, said it was,
of course, the intention of the prisoner's counsel to
appeal the case to the Court of Error and Appeal.
Mr. M. C. Cameron (for the prisoner)—lt may
be necessary to make some order with reference to
the prisoner, to allow us the necessary time to apply
for an appeal.
The prisoner was then remanded till Saturday,

TEE CANADA EXTRADITION CASE.

TORONTO, DEC. 18.
The judges of the Court of Queen's Bench gave
their decision on Saturday in the case of Anderson,
the fugitive slave, the particulars of which case I
related in my last letter. Chief Justice Robinson
and Justice Burns decided that the prisoner should
be delivered up to the United States authorities.
Justice M'Lean held that the evidence against him
was insufficient to warrant his rendition. Prisoner's
counsel have applied for an appeal to the Bench of
Judges, and it is to be decided next Saturday
whether an appeal will be allowed. It is likely
eventually to be brought before the Privy Council
in England for decision. The greatest excitement
prevails throughout the country on the subject.

(From the Toronto Globe, .Dee.l7.)
The prisoner, an intelligent looking man, listened
with the closest attention to the learned judges as
they read their judgments. When all was over a
shade of disappointment rested on his countenance.
It was very evident that he was painfully sensible
of the horrible results that would follow his being
consigned to the tender mercies of a jury of slave-
holders—the fate allotted to him by a majority of
the judges.
Chief Justice Robinson first pronounced his
judgment. After a long review of the facts of the
case, the evidence submitted against the prisoner,
and the circumstances attending his arrest and
commitment by the magistrates, the learned judge
said—The point which has been argued before us,
and the only point, is what construction and effect
it is proper to give to those words in the treaty and
in our statute of the 22d of Victoria, cap. 8, sec. 1
(Consolidated Statutes of Canada), which, when
read together, in effect provide that a person
charged with committing within any of the United
States of America any of the offences mentioned in
the treaty—that is to say, murder, or assault with
intent to commit murder, piracy, arson, robbery,
or forgery—" and charged upon such evidence of
criminality as, according to the law of the place
where the fugitive or person so charged be found,
would justify his apprehension and commitment
for trial if the crime or offence had there been com-
mitted," may be apprehended upon complaint made
under oath, is order that he may be brought before
the judge or justice of the peace who caused him to
be apprehended, to the end that the evidence of his
criminality may be heard and considered, " and that
if on such hearing the evidence be deemed sufficient
by law to sustain the charge according to the laws of
this province, he shall certify the same, together ,
with a copy of all the testimony taken before him,
to the governor of the province, in order that a war-
rant may issue upon the requisition of the proper
authorities in the United States, or of any such
States, for the surrender of the person charged ac-
cording to the stipulation of the treaty." It has
been argued on the part of the prisoner that both
of the passages of the statute in which the suffi-
ciency of the evidence to prove criminality is spoken
of have reference to the law of this province, Not
merely as regards the nature of the proof that may
be received and its conclusive tendency, but also to
the law of this province as regards the particular
offence, and in relation to whatever circumstances
may have influenced the party in committing the
act. I cannot go the whole length of that argu-
ment,
as it has been endeavoured to apply it in this
case. But the construction contended for would
seem to exact that there should be a similarity be-
tween the law of the State from which the person
has fled and that of our country in all the features
and attributes of the particular crime. To some
extent it might be reasonable to hold that the law
of the two countries should be found to correspond
For example, if it were the law of :Missouri that
every intentional killing by a slave of his master,
however sudden, should be held to be murder,
without regard to any circumstances of provoca-
tion, or of any necessity of self-defence against
mortal or cruel injury, I do not consider that a fugi-
tive slave who, according to the evidence, could not
be found guilty of murder, without applying such a
principle to the case, could legally be surrendered
by the treaty. But I could not go to the length of
holding that because a man could not, in the nature
of things, be killed in this province while he was
pursuing a slave, because there are not, and by law
cannot be, any slaves here, therefore a slave who
has fled from a Slave State into this province can-
not be given up to justice because he murdered a
man in that State who was at the time attempting
to arrest him under the authority of law, in order
to take him before a magistrate with a view to his
being sent back to his master. It would not be right,
1 think, to hold gut the fugitive should under such
circumstances, not be surrendered, and to hold this
without reference to wha- the positive law of that
country might allow, or to the conduct of the party
pursuing or of the party pursued, or to the
knowledge of the latter that the purpose for which
it was desired to arrest him was not contrary to
the law of the country, or to the fact (if it should
be so) that there was no apparent necessity to inflict
death in order to escape. It is true it is not proved
that the prisoner, if he was attempting to escape
from slavery altogether, or only from the imme-
diate control of his master, was in either case com-
mitting any criminal offence against the law of
Missouri ; nor is it shown that the law of that State
made it the duty of Digges to apprehend him under
the circumstances in which he was found ; but
Digges having, as it appears, authority to take him
up and carry him before a magistrate, under the
general law of the State, it cannot be said that he
was acting illegally at the time Anderson rushed
upon him and repeatedly stabbed him with a deadly
weapon. He was acting under a legal authority
as much as if he had been armed with process,
the fact being proved and not denied that the
statute law of Missouri applied to the prisoner un-
der the circumstances in which he was ; and unless

the 22d, when the Court again sits, and the ques-
tion of the right of appeal will be disposed of.
The Toronto Globe contains the following re•
marks :—" The prisoner is a stoutly built man, of
middle height, and of a very deep yellow com-
plexion, with a full development of forehead, and a
countenance in which mildness and intelligence are
strongly marked. Look at him as close as you will,
you fail to find indications of the stern determina-
tion which would lead a man to turn upon his
tracks and slay his ruthless pursuer in the very mo-
ment of assault. One could not help thinking that
if this man did such a thing, it was not from natu-
ral love of violence or blood, but because he was
filled at the moment with the thirst of freedom
which has in all ages inspired deeds of heroic cou-
rage. The prisoner looked around the Coat t upon
the faces of the crowd, but apparently thinking
that their sympathy could not avail him, he turned
his gaze upon his judges, and listened with mani-
fest intelligence to their decisions, a deep sigh only
now and again heaving up his broad chest. It was
an anxious moment as the Chief Justice produced
his papers and began to read. The life or death of
a human being hung on a thread ; the liberties of
hundreds of freemen depended on the opinion of
three fallible men. Was this poor fellow, after he
had by desperate adventure achieved his liberty and
enjoyed with his wife the sweets of home for seven
years, to be sent back to certain slavery, if not
death f Were the hundreds of fugitives in this pro-
vince who have committed what the laws of the
Slave States describe as felonies, in effecting their
escape, to be henceforth at the mercy of the man-
stealer P"