Star.
London, England, 1806-02-25 00:00:00

DUTCH AND FRENCH JOURNALS.

We have received the latter to the 18th, and the
former to the 2111 inflant, from which we have given
large curses in the firft page of this paper.
The Monittur of the 17th contains fome revere ob.
fervations upon the principles of the Treaties which
were lately laid before Parliament, upon the condutt
of the parties who were privy to them, and upon the
apparent breach of faith in their publication. This
important article was, no doubt, the refult of long
and deep reflation, for it appeared in the official
paper many days after the circumflances upon which
it was founded were known at Paris. It affords mat-
ter for ferious reflation, embracing, as it does, the
whole policy of Europe. There are, however, two
points which mutt (hike every view, and thofe are
the fates of Aufilia and Naples. The delliny of the
litter is not only fworn —it is decided. The fall
of the Kiwo of NAPLES is fpoken of as an event
long paired. Auttria fees what fhe has to trutt to ;
another effort will !trip her of her rank as a re-
gal and imperial Rate. No mention is made of
Praffia in this anathema, and this we confider as a
proof that BONAPARTE does notyet feel himfelf thong
enough to infult her. If he thought the read to Ber-
lin was as open to him as the way to Vienna has been,
or that of Naples probably is, his official journal
would not have failed to announce it to Europe.

Lord SOMERVILLE'S great exhibition of cattle.
tlitep,&c.&c. commences on Monday next, at DIXON'S
Repofitory, Barbican, near Weft Smithfield.

Died at Glafgow, the tyth instant, defervedly la.
mented, Jona WILSON, Efq. of Kelvinbank, late
City Clerk, of Glafgow. Some time ago, having
reigned that office, the Magifirates and Council ac-
cepted his refignauon with sincere regret ; and one-
nimoufly voted their thanks to Mr. WILSON for his
fervices during the period he held that cffice, the
duties of which he had performed with great ability
and integrity, entirely to the fatisfadlion of bit Con-
ftitueuts. • • •

i.S. IHSEiiIGERCL

COURT OF RING'. BENCk, FEB. s4l

Tin KING V. PIM*, aso.,
Mr. Haatlsm. opened this indictment, which
gated, that the Defendant being employed in his Ma-
jefty's in a civil and military Ration out of
Great Britain, to wit, in the Mend of Trinidad, did
unlawfully, Cruelly, and inhumanly torture Louifa
Calderon, under the age of fourteen years, by fixing
a rope to her wrifi, flinging her up to a ceiling, and
faftemog her hands and feet on a (pike of wood, &c.
on the zoth of December, in the year tfiot. There
were other counts for a common streak. To which
the Defendant pleaded dot guilty, on which iffue was
joined.
Mr. Gaitairw, opened the cafe on the part of the
profecution. He hid, that the talk of Rating the
fads which belonged to this thrift extraordinary and
horrid tranfadion, was originally committed to
much abler hands than his; but which now, unfor-
tunately for hinge% had devolved on him. How-
ever, he felt tome confolation in reflecting, that this
was a cafe to be tried before an Englith Court of Jul-
rice, where no eloquence was necet(ary, and where a
plain Rattment of the fads was all that would be ne-
cam, and he had to lay before the Jury that gate,
anent, which he fhould prove to them in a way which
imould force from them a reladaot verdict of Guilty,
and without which proof no fuch verdict ought to be
obtained. He would nee the words—a reluctant us-
did of Guilts—becaufe no perfon who beard it, not
exciptiog even himfelf, whole duty it was to rapport
the prolkmation, would not be better pleafed, if the
fads would jellify the Jury in recording it, to hear
theirs prcnonnet Not Guilty." The cafe which
this record prefented to them was, that the Repre-
tentative of his Sovereign, in one of dependencies
of this country,. bound to prated the fubjeds of it
ageing all fpectes of violence, bad abufed his &us-
lion; and degraded the country to which he belonged,
by inflicting what in England few bad ever beard of,
and bad only read of with detegation and horror ;
the torture of one of his Majefly's fubeds, without
the teat pretence of law, the leaß juttification, but
to gratify, on a helplefs female, his tyrannical dap°.
fitiqn to opprefs.
The Ifland of Trinidad furrendered to his Ma jelly's
arms, eider the great and jußly renowned Sir R.
Abercrombie, in the year f ttrr. On that occafion
that great character had taken the Ifland on certain
Articles of Capitulation, which he granted to the
people of that country, and rendered by law the fame
as forinerly, and the bufinefs of Governor devolved
on the Defbndant. When Sir R. Abercrombie left
it, the fame la* was to be continued as under the
qld Spann Government, until his Majeßy's pha-
risee could be known, therefore the law was the fame
as that of the Spaniflt 'Rands before that conqueß,
and which were ordered to eziß by Sir R. Abercrom-
bie, until his Majefty's pleafure fhould be known',
and which laws were afterwards continued by his
Msjelly's Royal Proclamation, and by which the
inhabitants of Trinidad were protected. In the year
Boi, it appeared that the perfon whole fufferings
were now about to be laid before the Jury, Louie*
Calderon' then of the age of about so or t s years,
had been (educed by a perfon of the name of Pedro
Rouis, with whom the had lived as his mifirefs; that
to us in-England appeared moll horrible, but in that
country, young women became mothers at the age of
Is, and thok who had not the good fortune to form
bailout-able ermneftion, got into a Rate of concubi-
nage at as early age. Thus it was that this young crea•
lure lived with thisperfon, Don Pedro Rouis, and as he
bail nothing to conceal from the jury on this occafion,
be fhould fate to them at once, that when Die was thus
living with this perfon, the was engaged in an in-
trigue with Carlos Gonzales, who in the year tilos,
availed bimfelf of the intimacy which fubfifted
between him and Louifa Calderon, to get into the
bottle of Don Pedro Rouis and robbed him of two
thoufasti dollars, upon which Gonzales was taken
into euflody, and there being reafon to fuelled that
Louifa was acquainted with his guilt, the was
'silo, together with her mother, taken into cußody.
She was taken before one of the Magiarates, who
ads, in the firft inftance, in this island on loch
occaflons, and examined clofely as to the fade.—
She denied any knowledge of the tranfaaion, and
the Maerate felt that by the law of Spain, his
power with regard to her was at an end. The young
woman having denied knowledge of the fad, whe-
ther from her own confcioufnefs of innocence, orfrom
a with to (Breen the young man with whom the had
been thus criminally intimate, was an inquiry not
worth pureeing, the Magiftrate felt that he had
68 aethority to take any coercive Means to
procure any knowledge from her of her awn
Carat,
and he reforted to the Governor, and he
d to Rate to the Jury that he fhould produce. in
the hand writing of this Defendant, General Pidon,
the then Governor of the land of Trinidad, this
bloody lentence--,, Inflict the torture on Louifa
Calderon ;" figned with his own hand, is T. Afton."
The Jury would believe there was no great delay in
the execution of this orders She was taken to the jail
for the torture, where Se was told if the would con-
fers, all her limbs would be (pared, but If the did not,
and if her limbs were deßroyed (and to alarm her
Rill mote) If her torture thould end in death, her
errors would fall on her own head ; and to Make this
terror irrefillible, they brought a negroe to practice
upon to Phew her what the was to expel; thus had i
the torture been introduced for the firft time, into a
Britith fettlement, and that by a Britifh fubjed; and '
that fubjed the reprefentative of his Sovereign there, '
to extort coofeffion from a perfon under accufation;
in order to make her accufe another. The young wo-
man perfifted in her innocence, and then they pro.
<ceded to inflict this punifhinent upon her; a punith-
anent which Mr. Garrow laid, "tor want of a propel
name is calledpiciering, but in Which it is mifnamed,
for it thould be PICTONING"—for, he raid, it was a
libel on the military punifhment of picketing, to refers,.
ble it to this horrible ad of torture : in our picketing
the unhappy fufferer whom it became neceflary to
. chaftife for the purple of preferring fubordination
and military difcipline, had fomething like reit ;
but in the torture which had been inflicted on this
poor creature, there was nothing in the nature of
reit, but both the hands and
was feet were a
Loafrattene eced,
that the preffure of the body onp pi
of wood, and in this Rate of torture and torment,
.was this devoted young woman kept for forty-five
minutes, by a watch held in the hands of one of the

per... • .
fans who attended the horrid e n this d-
n—a
lion the poor girl accufed Gonzales, but the coacf
(ion not being confidered fatisfaitory, the was in left
than 34 hours fubjeded to the fame cruelty a fecond
time ; perhaps this faithful reprzfentatinn of the
feene would give the Jury an idea of the reality of
the fufferings of its objeet—(holiang top a piBvre of d.
which had bent draws for the purfrofe of toprefintial
the fcene).—lt appeared to him that the cote which
he had to lay before the Jury on the part of the pro-
fecution, was complete. His charge *gala the
Governor was, that he had abufed his fituation,

and, without probable caufes or jollification, inflia-
ed this poniflunent on this poor creature ; hut he un-
derftood he was to be told that although the higheft
magiftrate in that country could not do this, yet that
Governor Mon was juftified in doing it, from the
Law of Trinidad. He (hould however fuppofe, (fab-
led to my Lord's corretion, to which he fhould
implicitly bow,) that whatever might have been the
pradtice in Trinidad, or the opinions of perfnns in
Trinidad, there could be no mule for Governor
Mon for fuch an as of inhumanity, orders he could
prove the imperious and abfolute neceffity of it; us-
hers he could Thew that he had no choice; that the
fafety of the ifland depended upon it, for that other-
-I,wire he was to remember that he was a BMA ruble.
re fencing his Sovereign, bound to enforce no law
which was repugnant to the feelings of common- ha-
, manity; that one of the great inducements our ewe- •
miss have to furrender to the Britifh, is the confidence •
they have in our protedlion when they do ; that when
they become fubjeas of the Briti(b Government,
torture was at an end. But he fbould ftill. go
farther, and, until be was correaed by authority,
contend, that it was not enough for the Governor
tb new that he might inflitt this puoilhment by
* law of Trinidad, but that he mutt make out a
ate of abfolowe stereo: for it, before he tarnilbed
the. Britilh name with Co fool a deed. In Eng-
land torture was not known—it was not to be
spipeeted that we (hould know it here ; not becaufe
we were capable of underftanding it, but we had
thought of it fo feldom on account of its being fo
horrible to our feelings, and in the adminiftration of
office in England, it never had been and never could
tolerated. Our hiftory indeed informed us. that
in the reign of Henry VI. it was recorded of the
Duke of Effex, that fomething of this fort was at-
tempted, to the infamy of his name for ever ; of which
we had a good account in that valuable book,
Blackftone's Commentaries, in which it appeared
that the Duke attempted to introduce the torture of
the civil law ; and the machine was now in the Tower
under the title of if the Duke of Effie' Daughter."
Another inftance is our hiftory was the caufe of Fen-
aim, who affaffinated Villiers, Duke of Buckingham,
!when it was propofed to put that villain to the tor.
; but a queftson had been referred to the judges,
sad they all agreed that torture mild not is allowed by
at Lew of Eglasid ; nor could it be imputed to Go.!
moor Mon, that he was fuch a fool as to fuppofe
the torture could ever be ufeful in the difcovery of
truth. as had been moft ably Rated by Mr. juftice
1 Blackftone to be in its very nature that which would
make the unhappy (offerer accufc any body, or even
I secure itfelf falfely, from the escefs of pain and hor-
nor and it had been matter of calculation bow much
torture a perfon of a given firmaefs of nerve could
bear before he thould begin to (ay any thing that is
afked of him in order to be relieved : st was therefore
a wane of time to dikter* the point as to torture being
ea inftrument to procure truth, or to fuppofe that
Governor Piton could be fo fool& as to expea it
could produce any Inch effee ; indeed, the abfurdity
of k was fo great, that even Spain itfelf. and other
aoestries where it had been prevalent, had become
shamed of it, and had difufed it for many years.
N But," Paid Mr. Gaaaow, w what will you fay if I
prove to you, by many witnefies, that fo far from
torture being the daily prattice in Trinidad, and
that the Government there have ufed it, it was
never ofed there by any body but Governor Fitton
himfelf ; that he has the merit of its introduaion
that the inftrument which relocates that, which by
way of infamy is called the o Duke of Effix's
Daughter," that is, an inftrument of torture, had no
exiftence until General Mon corfed Trinidad with
its pretence ;-..that it was an inftrument never
known in that country until a Britifh Governor
introthiced it—the Reprefentatives of the Sove-
reign of this mighty Empire—who thus (ullied the
Britifh charater, always fo famed for its huma
nity. Gentlemen, if I prefent this cafe to you
in this light by proof, as lam allured I (hall—if I
prove to you that there is no fuch law as that by
which any torture can be infliaed—that there was
no inftrument by which torture could have been in-
Aided until General Piton brought it into Trinidad
—if I prove that this puni(hment of torture has been
hatted on this poor helplefs young I prove,
in the hand-writing. of General Mon hitt:deli; the
bloody order for its infliaion, I (hall leave the General
abfulutely without the (Wow of a cafe to defend him.
Gentlemen, the date I gave you of this tranfaelion Is
tome time removed from the prefent time, and ma
be raid to be far removed from it, being Mot. It be-
came expedient, in the minds of his Majefty's Minikes,
to introit certain powers of inveftigation and direaion.
to Commiffioners appointed for that purpofe ; one of
thole was Colonel Fullerton, who took much trouble
to difenver many evils which required a remedy, and
this among them. This rune being difelofed to him, be
felt it his duty, a duty he owed to the Britifh chara&ef
and to common humanity, to bring it for inquiry, as
it is now before you; for which, I think, his country
is indebted to him. Gentlemen, I have feen the
unhappy viCtim of this cruelty—l few her this more:
ing, in a room which I entered by miftake, think-
ing it was one in which a confultation was to be
held. She (hall be prefented to you, and you (ball
hear her tale. Gentlemen, I (hall heat, with as
much patience and attention, and with as much
real pleafure as any man in Court, the addrel
which will be delivered to you on behalf of the
Defendant, by my excellent and more eloquent
fritrid Mr. Dallas. But I (hall time to you with
confidence, notwithftanding any addrefs that can be
made to you, that I (hall obtain your verdia. I afk
not of your palGons, but of your jullice, a verdit of
guilty againft this defendant ; although you mull
feel that while you give it you put one of your fel.
low fubjeas of high rank In an horrible fituation,
yet you feel it to be your duty ; and therefore, what-
ever the confequence may be to the individual, you
will di:Charge that duty to your country."

Louifa Eai!ierOli wtit examined by Mr. Atha ii,
through the evidence of Mr. Lelpy, the interpreter.
She gate a long, circumflantial, and minute detail of
her fufferings under the torture, according to the
ftatement of-Mr. Garrow end of the dreadful fcene
under which the had fainted, and fell into the arms
of the officer who attended the execution of the tor.
tore on the wooden (pike, Sic. &c. She was imme-
diately put in iron, and kept in prifon eight months
afterwards, and releafed and brought to this country
by Colonel Fullerton.
Raphael Chandris gave an account of the fame
thing, and to the fame effect, and defcribed the nature
of the office of the Judges in,whofe Court the lenience
of the torture was pronounced.
Don Juan De Monies, examined by Mr. HARJU.
son, proved the hand-writing of the Defendant Go-
vernor Pidon to this order—" Inflict the torture on
Louifa Calderon. T. Pidon, ssel Dec. rflor ;" and
all that it was inflided, as already Rated, by virtue
of this order, and no other authority.
Lord E B OROUGIS" Well, we all know that
torture is no part of the Law of England. But they
muff thew on the part of the Defendant, that in
Trinidad they were, at this time, under fome other
*an the Law of England."
Mr. DALLAS addreffed the Jury with his ulnal ele-
gance in fupport of the cafe of General Pidon. He
entreated the pry to difinifs from their minds all
(pecks of prejudice which was too apt to lay bold of
men of the belt under-Readings upon fuch an occalinn
m the prefers. He obferved that a great deal of art
had been employed to bring odium on the character
of General Pidon on this occafion, for a confitiera-
ble time: he alluded to the difputes which had taken
place betweeft that Officer and Colonel Fullerton on
this fubjed, and proceeded to dilate the various cir-
cumftances of this cafe, from the time of the Hand
furrendering to the brave Gen. Abercrombie, whole
Aide de-Camp General Winn was, and for whom
General Abercrombie had the higheft efteem; as a
proof of it,he left'l'rinidad under his Government, and
left it to him to obferve all the old laws of the Spanifh
Colonies, part of which, he was forty to fay, was the
pratlice of torture, not that hors id torture, by which
human beings 101 l their limbs, and fumetimes their
lives, but a much milder fpecies of punifhment, as had
been evinced by the appearance of this young girl,
who had received no permanent injury. Here he
entered on the kifiory of tortures, Mewing how they
had been ufed nn various occafions ; and obferving,
that the way to judge of fuch a cafe as this was not
for the Jury to carry about them Englifh ideas, but
to confider that this was a Spanill colony, where
Spina( laws and Spanilh habits continued; part of
that law was to apply this milder *cies of torture
to thofe who were fufpeded of knowledge of crimes,
to make them confefs what they knew—not that
he was defending the pradice, but he was only
fitting it. A Court of competent jutifdietion had
taken this young woman up, had examined her by
the rules of their law. had determined on applying
this torture to her, but could not do fo without
the authority of the Governor—applied to him for
that authority—he being no lawyer, thought he
was bound to comply with the requek and iffued
it in which he sided merely minillerially. He re-
minded the Jury, that if the crime of which this
young woman was 'seeded had been committed in
England, it would have amounted to burglary, and
had the been convicted, the would have Offered, be-
caufe the had ailed her gallant to rob her mallet.
That although this torture was an improper mode of
punilliment, yet it was not fo cruel as many of the
laws of the Englifh Colonies againll Negroes, who
are Cajal to have their notes flit, right hand cut off,
or even to Puffer death fin obltruding a white per-
fou in the execution of the (entente of the law, &c.
He contended that the Defendant in this cafe, Gen.
Pidon, was entitled to his acquittal, on leveret
grounds : Fill, That by the law of Spain, which the
General was bound to adminifter, torture was appli-
cable in a particular inflance : if he could thew that,
there would be an end of this indictment, becaufe
every cnnnt in it charged that this was unlawfully
done. Secondly, The ground was (for Gon forbid
that General Pidon's defence should relt alone upon
the &II) that the indictment in this cafe charges the
application of torture in a particular inftance, with-
out any reference of its being done malicioutly or
without probable caufe.
Lord Ettritaoaouon obferved, that this was an
untenable propofition ; for if a thing be done in the
way of a crime, and that thing be olikvwfai, it is in
law fuppofed to be making& done—no fpeciflc Proof
of malice was neceffary in the cafe of a crime ; the
malice was an inference of law oiling out of the ail ;
this had been held in the cafe of the King and the
Juftices of Cumberland, who had ailed bonafidei and
under the advice of a very eminent Gentleman at,
the bar ; yet as that happened to be an erroneous
opinion, their conduit was held illegal, and therefore
by inference of law, malicious, although it reduced
the punifhment to nothing.
Mr. Dattas continued. The third ground of ob-
Whoa was, that fuppofing the Jury to be of opinion,
that by the laws of Spain torture ought not to be in-
Sided, lint that General Pidon was milled by the
advice of others, and by books treating of the law of
Spain, into a milconceptlon of the law ; and therefore
this was a cafe in which an indictment will not lie;
for that an erroneous opinion formed under judicial
authority, is a complete rawer to any indictment
againft a perfou ailing in a judicial character. Under
all theft different heads, he argued that General
Pillion was entitled to his acquittal.
Lord ELLINIWROUGH••—•." There may be flips in
the conduct of the Governor of a great fettlemtnt
which should not be taken advantage of, when he ads
bona fuk : but the caufe will be tried fairly ; if he has
infiifted torture without the authority of the law, he
ought to be punifhed for it; if it is torture inflicted
by authority of the law, he ought to go free, however
our feelings may revolt at the Tea."
A vaR number of written documents were then
Lead, and depositions of witneffes from the illand of
Trinidad, and many Witnefies examined upon the
practice of the law in Trinidad ; bot none of them
knew of any infkance of torture having been inflicted
there, nor of any fuch thing as the inftrument or tor-
cute being feen until the defendant became its Go-
vernor; and the firft inilance was in the picketing of
fome foldiers, and the inflance in quellion was the
fecond.
Mr. Archibald Cloller, who had been Attorney•
General of the Nand. gave an account of certain

•ii by salFlll*
s, ea e ever tit es--t Curra, 'pica,
Ellizondo, Robadilia, Patrida, and its Gregori.in
Gloffary, Colones, Ito. front all which extran, were
read, and in which it appegreel that torture may be
ufeil by the laws of Spain (:fine n me of them /cave
an account of the laws tiF the Cols nies of grain,
which were alledFed to be 'different in n. Any re Ss;
and totally fo, with regard to torture, from thit Of
the mother country,
It was then propofed by Lord ELL' pianaoucti,
that this cafe be turned into a Special Verdi, and
acquiefced in by all parties; but agreed that they
fhould proceed to afcertain, and get upon his Lord-
fhip's notes as many of the fans as poffible as to the
law of Trinidad ; in the courfe of which there was a
great difference of evidence as to the fans; feveral
witneffes (wearing that none of the old laws of the mo-
ther country was applicable to the colonies : and one
gentleman who was a Spanilh Advocate who had
come from Trinidad, and had been employed by
Colonel Fullarton here to (radiate depofitions, (wore
he did not know it to be the law to be found in any
books of the bell authority, that the torture was ap•
plicable even to Old Spain, by any authority of a later
date than that of t 260. which was in a Rate of diffoe-
tude ; and others, (peaking as to the pranice of thirty
years, in which no loch thing as torture had been
known.

Upon this Lord ELLEwsnr.nucH obferved, that a
Special Verdid could be found ohly where the evi-
dence was all on one way, he could not prefent to the
Court a verdict to be argued, when the fads were
contradidory ; if he did fo, the Court would order a
venire de sew ; it mud therefore be left to the Jury
to and, as a fad, whether torture had been nfed at all
by the laws of Trinidad ; if not, there was an end
of the cafe. If they found that it had been ufed ud-
der the laws of Trinidad, then a Special Verdid might
be taken.
It was then proved that Sir R. Abercrombie con.
tinned the old Spanifh late after the conquell ; and
his Majetty exprelfed his royal pleaftite afterwards to
the fame effed.

After which Mr. Daxtes c•lntended there was
abundant evidence from the books to thew that tor.
cure had been ufed by the law of Trinidad-
Mr. Gaitaow entered on a general reply, and con-
tended that now he was entitled to a general verdid
of Guilty, which he did with great force and animation.
Lord ELLarsolouois left the quellion to the Jury
to find whether, on the whole of the evidence, they
were of opinion that torture had been ufed by the au-
thority of law, in the ifland of Trinidad ?—That thi
law books, out of which extrads had been read, fpoke
of torture being agreeable to the law of Old Spain,
was clear ; but on what terms Old Stain origin.tlly
goo/ p#Alf of Trisidad two hundred years ago,
did not appear ; it might have laws for the Colonies
different from thofe of the Mother Country, as we had
for ours ; but on that fttbjcilt there was a total ab.
fence of proof. The quellinn was this—What was
the law of the Wand of Trinidad when General Piton
took the Government of it ; Or rather, at the time bf
the capture of it ?—,Whether torture was part of that
law ?
The Jury found—There was no fuels law culling
in the ifland of Trinidad, as that of torture, at the
time of the fuirender of that idand to the BEMs.
Lord ELIA maostouGu—" Then, Gentlemen, Ge-
neral Piton cannot derive any protetton from a fop-
pofed law, after you have found that no futh law
obtained in that Mend at the furrender of it, and
when be became its Governor ; and therefore your
verdid fhould be, that he is guilty."—Gray.
Mr. D Paid he &Quid move for a new triad,
on the ground of the propofitions he had Rated.
The Trial bated from nine o'clock in the morning
till [even in the evening, and the Court was very -
much crowded. While the unfortunate objet of the
Defendant's barbarity was giving her evidence, an
unmoifiened eye was not to be feen, and in particular
when the Drawing was (hewn to her, which gave a
reprefentation of her fufferings, the Ihrunk from it
with a look of horror which excited the moft lively ,
fenfations in the audience.
Governor Piton walked the Hall of the Four
Courts during the whole of the trial. He is a tall
• man, of a very fallow complexion, apparently about
' fifty years of age, and was drefred in black. He was
accompanied by feveral of the civil officers of the
1 ldand.