The Sun.
London, England, 1845-04-29 00:00:00

C4I.ONX/Ll,

SUGAR.—The market for British Plantation is heavy, only
about 300 hhds having been sold at previous prices. The
only transaction which has transpired worth reporting con-
sists of a cargo of brown and yellow Paraiba (chiefly in
bags), which has been sold afloat at 20s 3d, deliverable at
Antwerp. The quantity of British Plantation landed last
week at the East and West India Docks was 1,746 hbds, 192
tierces, 15S barrels, and there were taken for home consump-
tion 1,455 hhds, 90 tierces, 139 barrels. The stock in the
same places is 8,490 hhds, 735 tierces, 1,035 barrels.
COFFEE.-105 casks Jamaica (of the new crop), 750 bags
Ceylon, 244 bales Mocha, and 217 bags Costa Rica have been
offered by auction. The Jamaica was chiefly disposed of, but
at a reduction of fully 2s to 3s ' • about two-thirds of the Cey-
lon and all the Mocha found buyers, the former mostly at
44s 6d for good ord quality; common mixed low good ord
was taken in at 43s Gd ; and the latter at 58s to 62s fur mid
to good mid, which are previous prices. Ail the Costa Rica
was 'a ithdrawn at 34s to 43s for ord to fine ord.
Rum.—The quantity landed last week at the East and
West India Docks was 681 puns, 185 hhds ; there were taken
for home consumption 262 puns, 36 hhds; and exported 405
puns, 127 Lhds. The stock in the same places is 7,574 puns
2,521 hhds.

SPICES.-4,374 bags Pepper (chiefly Sumatra), and 300
bags Pimento were offered at auction. Nearly the whole of
the Pepper sold at 2,,,d to 24d for ord to good black Sumatra,
and good to fine ditto, Malabar kind, at 2,d to '24d, being
fully former rates. The Pimento sold steadily at 21,-d to 3id,
for mid to good mid quality.
TALLOW.—P.Y.C. is 38s to 38s 3d per cwt on the spot,
and Town 41s per cwt.
TEA.—There is a moderate trade doing.
COAL DIA 'MET.
Prices per ton at the close of the market :—Adair's Main,
16s ; New Tanfield, 13s 6d ; Ord's Redheugh, 14s ; Old Tan-
field, 14s; Taylor's West Hartley, 16s6d ; Tanfield Moor,
17s 6d; West Hartley, lis 6d ; Wall's-end, Hilda, 16s 9d ;
Kiilingworth, I6s 3d ; New March, 16s • Urpeth, 16s; Brad-
:lyll's Hetton. 20s ; Russell's Hetton, 19s 6d ; Stewart's, 20s ;
Ileugh Hall, 17s 9d; Leasingthorne, IBs 6d ; Adelaide, I9s 6d ;
Tees, 19s 6d; Merthyr, 22s 6d ; West Hartley Netherton,
17s.—Ships arrived, 19.

EXCHEQ UER.-(THIS DAY.)
TRIAL AT BAR.-THE GREAT DISTILLERY CASE.

THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL V. GEORGE SMITH,

The Court was more than usually crowded this morning, in con-
sequence of the general expectation that Mr. Fitzroy Kelly would
open the defence, and so it proved, for when the Judges took their
seats on the bench at ten o'clock, and the names of the jury were
called over,

Mr. F. KELLY rose and said, that the time had at last arrived
when it became his duty and his privilege to address them en be-
half of Mr. George Smith, and he felt that it was quite unneces-
sary for him to entreat their earnest attention to the circumstances
of the case which he would have to lay before them, because from
the beginning of that most anxious inquiry, he had witnessed the
attention which they had bestowed on every part of it.
But he had to ask that also which was more diffi-
cult for them to give. He had to ask them most
earnestly to discharge altogether from their minds, or
at least to endeavour to suspend their judgment on the charges
which bad been advanced by his Learned Friend the Solicitor-
General, while he endeavoured to meet those charges on the part
of the defendant, by showing them (and he would venture to
pledge himself to show them) that the statements of his Learned
Friend the Solicitor. General were from beginning to end most de-
lusive and most unsatisfactory. He would proceed to meet the
charge against Mr. Smith, the charge that he and his brother
had long carried on a systematic and gigantic fraud upon the
Government and upon the fair trader. He would show them that
those gentlemen were not guilty of this gigantic fraud at all, that
they were entirely guiltless of any intention to commit this fraud
on the fair trader or on the State, and that they carried on their
business in a fair and lawful way ; and he thought that at last this
very grave case, this gigantic fraud, would resolve itself into a mere
question of law, a question which they would be of opinion ought
never to have been raised at all. Without further consuming their
time by opening observations, and, once more, after earnestly be-
seeching them to suspend their judgments—to forget, if possible, the
proceedings of the Crown, and the solemn charge of systematic
and gigantic fraud brought forward by his Learned Friend, he
would, in as few, and plain, and simple words, as he c ,uld, proceed
to put into their possession the real history of the case, and the
circumstances under which that series of prosecutions had been in-
stituted against Mr. Smith. Some seventy years ago, the vast space
of ground which they ( the jury) had seen was covered with build-
ings little differing from those which were now upon its surface.
The buildings then constituted a distillery and rootirytoz-house.
and from that time to the present, and, perhaps, from an earlier
period, the two trades, or manufactures, of distiller and
rectifier, had been carried on in those premises. It was
now some forty years, or perhaps half a century
ago, since the father of the present defendant became
proprietor of this large concern. He was on those
premises both distiller and rectifier, carrying on both
trades in that place, and with the utensils necessary for that pur-
pose. At that time, and till the year 1817, to which he would
require to call their particular attention, not only were both trades
carried on, but the premises were open to each other. There was
then no regulation as at present against carrying on a distillery and
rectifying-house on the same premises, and, consequently, where
the jury would now observe a wall built up completely shutting out
the rectifying.house from the distillery, was then furnished with
doors and passages, so that spirits, or anything else of whatever
kind, might be conveyed from the one work to the other. It was
not till 1817 that any change took place in the law. The supply.of
water to which he would now solicit their attention, the supply of
water for the last seventy years, or from the very earliest period that
any one living could remember, bad been exactly the same as at
present. Both the distillery and the rectifying.house required a
constant supply of vast quantities of water, and they were supplied
in the way he was about to describe to them. (The Learned Coun.
sel then explained, by reference to a magnificent model of the
buildings in question, which fully occupied the space between the
bar and the bench, the positions he wished to establish.) The
very large tank— (one en the roof of the distillery)
which they had seen, and which now constituted
the principal reservoir, had only beers built within the last year;
but there had always been two large reservoirs containing many
scores of thousands of gallons, supplied from the Waterworks Com-
pany, which distributed, by means of numerous pipes, water
to all parts of, not the distillery alone, but the rectifying_
house also. Such had been the mode of ancient supply.
Such had been the supply since. Such'was was the supply now. In
1817, or a little before that time, the Government and the Board
of Excise seemed to have thought it expedient to prevent, as far as
might be, the contiguity of distilleries and rectifying-houses.
It was thought, and he (Mr. Kelly) did not say that it was
not a wise and prudent thought—it was thought that from the
peculiar nature of these premises, and from the facilities given to
the transmission of spirits from the distillery to the rectifying_
house, from different circumstances relating to the law, and from
the necessity for the constant supervision orofficers of Excise—it
was thought that this connexion between the various parts of the
premises might lead to the perpetration of fraud ; and
here he would remark that the Board of Excise
in getting this alteration effected in the law had not
so much reference to the distillers throughout the country
as to these very premises occupied by Mr. Smith. Mr. Smith's pre-
mises were the only premises of any magnitude in Great Britain
in which the trades of distiller and rectifier were carried on. It
was, therefore, with a view toeffect some regulation in regard to
this large establishment, that the alteration in the law was made.
On this occasion many communications had passed between Mr.
Smith and the Board of Excise solicitor, the late Mr. Carr,
relative to the putting an end altogether to the union
of the trades. It was first proposed to purchase the
rectifying-house from Mr. Smith, and he was equally well
disposed to part with it, and on receipt of a reasonable compensa-
tion to carry on the business of a distiller alone. The price he de.
manded, however, for the resignation of this trade was deemed
too high, and accordingly the treaty was broken off, and Mr. Smith
continued to carry on bells trades as before; and then, with a view
to prevent the suspicious which might arise of fraud, from the con-
tiguity of these buildings, it was thought proper to make it
the subject of a legislative enactment. Explanations took
place on this subject between Mr. Smith and the Doard
of Excise, and it was at length arranged that a wall
should be built up, effectually separating the distillery from the
rectifying-house, so that all spirits and other commodities should
be obliged to be conveyed from the one work to the other in a cart
or waggon by the public highway. It was necessary, however,
that water in large quantities should be always present in the rec-

tifying-house, and at all levels, and more particularly was large
quantities of water wanted to be poured down upon the
worm ; and, for that purpose, a trough, in all respects
the same as that at present in use, was required for this very pur-
pose of pouring down large quantities of water upon the worm,
and for supplying other parts of the rectifying-house. Formerly,
there were two troughs upon the premises, but now only one was
found necessary. With regard to the rest of the premises, the
supply took place in this way. (The Learned Counsel agaid
directed the attention of the jury to the model of the premises, in
order that they might understand them,) The pipes which supplied
the rectifying house formerly went in a transverse direction.
but in 1814, for some reason or other not very material to that
inquiry, instead of cutting off the corner in the way he had pointed
out upon the plan, it was, owing to the alterations upon the pre-
mises, continued along in this way. The Learned Counsel ex-
plained the course taken by the water.pipes, but the reader could
not possibly understand it without a reference to the model of the
premises. This mode of supplying the distillery and the rectifying-
house was perfectly well known to all the Excise-officers who were
on thity on the premises, and that mode was continued to the year

1836, and here, for the first time, he would refer to the statement
made by his Learned Friend the Solicitor-General, and would
ask the jury whether they would have imagined that this mode of
supplying the distillery and the other works, was of such ancient
date, when they heard his Learned Friend say, in
his opening address, that in the year 1836, the
brothers Smith secretly and clandestinely laid down
certain pipes, and made a communication between those distinct
houses, under the pretext of conveying water, but really for the
purpose of conveying spirits. He would here stato to them, that
he should call Mr. James Salith as a witness, and he would, after
describing the premises, and the mode by which water was sup-
plied, state upon oath that he was not aware that spirits could be
transmitted in this way, until he saw the Excise-officers
prove, with the aid of sundry little contrivances of their own, that
it was physically possible to do so. The Learned Counsel then re-
ferred to the informations filed by the Crown, and to the amount
of penalties claimed, namely, 150,0001., which, with 150,000/.
seized, and which would, in the event of an unfavourable ver-
dict, be confiscated, make altogether some 300,000/. ; and who
were the parties interested in this conviction ? A number of Ex-
cise-officers, who would reap by the ruin of the Messrs. Smiths a
moiety of the penalties, to men in their rank a considerable fortune.
The charges on the informations of the Crown were divided into
three, namely, the product of the wash and of the actual spirit, the
holes on the top of the receiver, and the falsification of the drip.
He would take the liberty of directing their attention to the fact of
those charges. The Learned Counsel then proceeded to show, by
certain returns of the charges in 1843 and 1844, that no reliance
was to be placed upon the exaggerated statements made

by the Excise-officers with reference to the watche
periods of distillation referred to so frequently in the
evidence of the witnesses Drink water and Batten.. The
Learned Gentleman then went through that part of the evi-
dence which related to watched and unwatched periods, from
which he contended it was plain that the defendants conducted
their business with equal fairness, whether they were watched or
not. In truth, the watching made no difference in the actual
results as ascertained by the Excise themselves. He had,
then, without troubling the jury too much with figures
to demonstrate, from the evidence of the Excise-officers themselves,
that there was no foundation for this charge, that the produce
was greater in the unwatched periods, and that the excess had
been made away with. He submitted that the charge in this re-
spect had entirely failed, and that it ought never to have been
brought forward. It had been kept back for the purpose of pre-
judicing the more important charge relating to the pipe.
He now came to ai.other point of the case, with which he would
not detain them long. It was very important, although it it..
volved no question of money—as it gravely affected the cha-
racter of Mr. G. Smith. It related to the holes found in the top
of the receiver.—(The Learned Gentleman then read an extract
from the speech of the Solicitor-General, to show that the prose-
cution had produced that charge in such a menner as to convey an
imputation of fraud upon Mr. George Smith, so as to prejudice
the minds of the jury in respect to the other charges.) It was
said that Mr. Smith remarked, when the hole was discovered,
that it explained an anonymous letter which he had received; and
it was asked, on the other hand, why did not Mr. Smith produce
the letter if he had received one. The auswer to that was, that
the discovery of the hole was made in 1843, and it was now
brought forward, fur the first time, in the middle of 1845, • for the
purpose of throwing additional prejudice into the scale, and
weighing down the defendant's case. Besides the fact was, that
Mr. Smith did at the time produce the letter, and it was admitted in
the evidence that the letter referred to some pilfering of spirits by his
men. This very matter of the holegave occasion for the reflection, how
little reliance could be placed upon the evidence of those men, who
were examined upon oath, with such grave temptations before
their eyes, as the witnesses for the Crown in this case. Thus the
officer Drinkwater swore that he had examined the receiver in
August, 1843, and that the hole did not exist there at that time,
and that it must have been made between that time
and the December following, when it was discovered
by Batten. Now he (Mr. Kelly) would prove that
the hole was made in 1824. The top of the
receiver was made in that year by a person named Florence Young,
out of materials furnished by Mr. Smith. The hole was made to
receive the suction pipe, but it was found not to be large enough
for the purpose, and another was made—this first one being covered
with boards, which were found by the officer carefully nailed down.
These were nailed down in 1824, and they were now so rotten
they could scarcely be held. (The production of the boards
created a strong sensation, in which the jury evidently shared.)
(The Learned Gentleman had not concluded when our report left.)