Star.
London, England, 1830-07-17 00:00:00

TRIAL OF THE GILMHITON CARTEL*.

This trial, with regard to which such an intense interest has been
elicited, proceeded on Monday with closed doors. Owing to this
circumstance, it is not in our power to give a detailed report. Our
inability, however, we might have attempted to supply, by piecing
together the accounts we have received front different persons enjoy-
ing the privilege of being present. But thus we have not ventured
to do in tile face of a distinct charge front the Court, to forbear to
publish any part of the evidence.
The Court met a little after ten o'clock, A. it..—Present, the Lords
Justice-Clerk, blesdowbank, and Moncrieff. The panelsnsbeisitnef
brought to the bar, their indictment was read to them. It consisted
of three several charges : The first was that of committing a rape on
the body of Margaret Paterson, with the usual alternative charge of
assault with intent to ravish; the second, of murdering the said
Margaret Paterson in the manner more particularly described in the
indictment, the details of which have already been sufficiently bla-
zoned abroad ; the third, of robbing the said Margaret Paterson of
sundry articles of wearing apparel, Ike. &c.
The prisoners having pleaded not guilty, the jury were ballotted
and sworn. The counsel for the prosecution then proceeded to lead
their evidence. The Crown witnesses summoned were seventy-one
in number, and of these thirty-three were examined.
Shortly before I o'clock on Tuesday morning the jury retired, when
the doors of the Court were thrown open, and after being enclosed
for a few minutes, returned a verdict, unanhpously wing both
panels guilty, actors, art and part, of them uAer, the robbery, sod
of the assault with intent to ravish as libelled, but found the drugs
"if rape not proven.
The Loan Jurrica-CLE as, In discharging the jury, stated that
tie verdict which they had returned was perfectly consonant with the
pinions entertained by the Court. Sentence was then moved for.
lard filSADOWllana—My Lord,Justice-Clerk-1t Is little more

than 18 months ago that the melancholy duty devolved on me to
propose sentence of death on a panel convicted before you of a crime
at that time considered almost unparalleled in atrocity. The ut.
most stretch of our imagination then did not lead us to anticipate
the possibility that there were living in the midst of civilized society
men who could be guilty of still greater atrocities--of more unpa-
ralleled brutality—revolting to every feeling that actuates the mind
of man. lam perfectly certain that, were the details of this case
unfortunately made public, as, thank GOD, the power of the law has
enabled you to prevent, those details would have excited such
feeling in this Christian community as never were before excited.
It is hardly possible to imagine that persons would have been found
living in this Christian land who could have brought their minds
to the commission of such atrocious crimes. Melancholy it Is to
think that, had this unprotected female been wandering the world
among the most barbarous people, she would have been in a state of
comparative safety to what she was within three miles of the me-
tropolis of this most civilized country ; such is the fact, that this
poor unhappy woman, after having Wien into the hands of these
abandoned men, was treated in a manner which, of necessity, was
to produce death--she was robbed of the miserable pittance which
she had in her possession ; and this was committed on a person on
whom they had the intention to satisfy other brutal passions. This
is the worst feature of the case. I have not words to express the
feelings which the details of this day have necessarily excited in my
bosom. I have alluded to them generally, and shall only farther
allude to them by saying, that I think it was impossible for any
human being, who beard the evidence, to entertain a doubt of the
perfect propriety of the verdict which has been returned. With
these observations, I have now simply to prone to your Lordship
to pronounce the sentence of the law, which is that of death,
and that it shall be carried into effect on Wednesday the 18th of
August next.

Lord MONCRZIFT said, very few words were necessary from
him in a cue which, for himself, he would say, beggared all his
powers of language to describe, and all his terms of condemnation
to chsrscterbe. It was not to be wondered that it should sicken the
heart of an honest man, much less a Christian, to hear the details
of it. This was a case in which was exemplified the workings of
the great enemy of the human race, and the dreadful lengths in
wickedness to which the human heart will go when left to itself...-
To think of the poor creature against whom these detestible things
were done, it .was impossible but to shudder. The panels had
I proved that she was a person of bad character, who had fallen from
the paths of virtue, and who was addicted to more vices than one ;
but surely that woman was an object of companion to every man
who had the feelings of a man. These two men, however, had de-
graded themselves into little better then beasts of prey, making this
helpless female their victim. They left her, without a particle of
feeling, lying on the road in a state of insensibility—so insensible
that two men passing did not observe her. She was found at last ;
and how she had been found he would not attempt to describe; but
sure he was that the law would be very unfit for its purpose if it did
not deal promptly with such atrocious criminals.

The Loan JusTics CLEax—James Thompson and David
Dobbie you have heard the verdict which has been recorded, and the
opinions which their Lordships entertain in regard to your case as
exhibited In evidence against you; and following their example—
feeling that no words which I can use are capable of describing the
unparalleled brutality, cruelty, and wickedness of the foul transac-
tion which has been disclosed this day, I shall not enter into de.
tails, further than to remark that the exhibition you have made is
calculated to make every man blush. Such wickedness and brutal
abomination could not have been believed to have been committed
had it not been sworn to in evidence. Following the principle of
law, by which the proceedings have been conducted with closed
doors till this stage of the proceedings, I shall refrain from saying
any thing of the crimes of which you stand convicted on the clearest
evidence ever produced before a jury. But it is my duty to warn
you to prepare for the inevitable fate which awaits you in this world;
and I warn you, in the most earnest manner, to prepare to appear
before the judgment-seat of the ALMIGHTY, to answer for all the
deeds done in the body. Rest assured that if ever there was a case
in which the law will take its full course it is yours. You are now
to consider that your days on earth are numbered, and that you
have now no other duty in the world but to pray for forgiveness of
all your crlmes—to humble yourself at the footstool of your Creator.
Do not lose a single moment in setting about heartfelt repentance—
and GOD grant that it may be sincere,—and that forgiveness be
extended to you for your crimes. His Lordship then sentenced the
panels to be executed at Edinburgh, on the 18th August, and their
bodies given to Dr. Munro, professor of anatomy, for dissection.
Dobbie said—My Lord, it Is a grand thing that you canna die.
sect the soul.

The Loma JUSTICE CLERIC then gave a strong recommends.
tion to newspapers not to publish the details of the evidence,
should it reach them.

The trial terminated about half-past one yesterday morning.
Thomson has a pale thin face, with little expression! He has
never been much downcast since in jail. In Court he heard un.
moved the whole proceedings. Once or twice he indulged for a few
minutes in a nervous vibration of his body. Only once did he cease
to turn his large unexpressive eyes round the Court, and cast them
as abashed to the earth. This was while the medical man was
giving his evidence. Dobbie's face is expressive of much more
sagacity. His eye is large and glowing. Since his apprehension
he has been unwearied In devising schemes fur counteracting the
evidence against him He has not scrupled to compromise his fel-
low-prisoner, who does not seem to possess intelligence enough to
be angry at him for this disingenuous conduct. His agitation rose
to such an excess on Sunday morning, that his keepers feared he
meditated some violence against himself. His demeanour in Court
was filgetty in the extreme. He compressed his lip at times—
again he let the under lip droop, displaying his teeth. He drank
frequent and deep draughts of water ; and sometimes the energy
with which he demanded the liquid had something of frenzy in it.—
Edinburgh Observer.

THE LAW FOR THE PUNISHMENT OF FORGERY.

The opinion entertained by Mr. Justice James Parke on the sub.
ject of inflicting the penalty of death upon persons convicted of the
of me,e of simply uttering a forged acceptance, has occasioned a great
hubbub in Lombard.street and its vicinity. In the case of Joseph
Mather, who was found guilty of uttering a forged acceptance for
the sum of ten pounds, with intent to cheat and defraud Richard
Collins, the Learned udge held that there were Acts of Parliament
' in the Statute book repealinc the mere offence of uttering as a capi.
tal offence, and respited the judgment, in the course of the late Ses-
sion of Oyer and Terminer and General Gaol Delivery, leaving the
question to be decided by the twelve Judges. It is said that some
of the most eminent lawyers of the day coincide in this opinion ;
which, if agreed to by the majority of the Judges, will effectually
strangle the Bill now in progress respecting forgery. Those bankers
who have established a Society for protection against f and
fraud, and who are in the habit of putting the efficacy of g.
ing by the neck for this crime to the test with the most contd.
derate frequency, will, if Mr. Justice Jas. Park be right in the in.
fetence he has [drawn from the Authorities he has alludid to, be
under the necessity of combining their efforts to produce a sanction
to the introduction of a more bloody law than at present exists. It
is certain a great many forgeries have been committed in the course
of the present session, and that the houses upon which those forge.
ries have been committed, would not indict for the offences on the
dread that death must be the consequence of prosecution. It is
also certain that those who were defrauded were men of known hu-
manity, and that the offenders were aware that they would owe
their impunity to the revolting nature of the existing law. There
are in Newgate at this moment some individuals who have been al-
lowed to commit forgeries upon forgeries, but at last have been
placed at the dock of the Old Bailey for having perpetrated some of.
fence not punishable by the spilling of blood. There is not, indeed,
a session which does not produce many instances of this effect of the
forgery part of our code. The fact of the impunity has not flailed
to generate a confidence in the chances of escape on charges for other
offences, and the practical men who have the care of prisons, and to
whom the tenants of the cells are in the habit of communicating
the history of their adventures, know that forgery is one of the first
on their list of crimes, and when they speak of it as one of immi.
nest danger, 6, No, no," replied the prisoners, there you are
wrong ; forgery, if you look to your man properly, is safer than
picking a pocket." It is strange, that if a man be detected in the
offence of uttering a forged order foe goods to the amount of 60001.
his punishment cannot exceed transportation for seven year; but
if he forges an order on a banker foe the sum of 81. he is liable to
be handed over to the executioner. The majority of bankers are
not, it appears from the numerous petitions presented against the
continuation of the penalty of death in cases of forgery, at all proud
of the distinction of having the platform opposite to the debtors'
door at Newgate, pointed at as the only safeguard of their property.
It may not be improper to state here that his Majesty has inti-
mated his determination not to add to the misery of those who are
condemned for capital offences, by any delay in sanding down the
report. The Recorder must, in future. prepare his papers with all
possible despatch. His Majesty did not forget the condition and
suffering of the 38 persons under sentence of death when he as.,
vended the Throne. One of his first acts was to take their cases
into consideration. The mull, we know, was a respite to all. It
was Immediately afterwards reported, in the wild spirit of exam.
ration that attends the acts of a new Sovereign, that the King's le-
silty alone saved the lives of four or Ave of the list, whose offences
were erotmous, and who were known to be persons of the meat
abandoned champ:Mrs. It is declared by those who are best qua.
lified to judge, drat the only individual of the unfortunate group
considered lately to be made an example, if the old reign had been
would have been the woman named Norris, who robbed
protracted,sts Messrs. Simms. and Pelisse!, the silkmen of St. Paul's
Churchyard, of goods to the amount of 4,000 L