Star.
London, England, 1816-04-26 00:00:00

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for the honour of justice and that of England. You
shall soon see how much troth there is in all this :
but, before we discuss his intentions, we must esta-
blish facts.
" The convict had escaped from prison, but it was
necessary to escape from Paris. He could- not here
be concealed from an active Police—a Police which
never sleeps—which has a hundred eyes to see, and
a hundred hands to apprehend—which always suc-
ceeds in seizing the object whom it pursues. It was
necessary, therefore, that Lavalette should leave
Paris, and even France. You are already acquaint-
ed with the plan and the details of his escape.
Thus Bruce, who received the first confidence,
goes to communicate it to Hutchinson, then to Wil-
son. The plan was arranged between them, and
each of them engages to act his part in co-operating
for its accomplishment. Bruce is to procure the
measure of Lavalerte ; Hutchinson orders the clothes;
Wilson is to secure two passports under feigned
names. One of them engages post horses, another
lends his carriage, and. the third his lodgings to re.
ceive' the convict on the night previous to his de.'
Torture ; and they all assemble on Sunday the 7th of
January for the final accomplishment of their object.—
The pretest of their meeting was an arrangement
lor a hunting party ; bin, at nine o'clock at night, an
rat known individual announces Lavalette, who is in-
troduced, passes the night in the lodging, and sets
out with them on the following morning. I shall not
%trouble you with as account of the journey. I shall
rot descant on the measures they took before setting
out, or the boldness and grandeur of enterprise which
they disclosed. T shall lay before you the precautions
they took. against accidents—the led horses for the
purposes of flight—the arms for the purposes of de-
fence —in a word, all those circumstances which in-
vest an expedition with adventure and honour. I
%Mead your attention to one point—l mean, the
asylum, given to the culprit before his departure from
Paris, and that given upon the road in a house at
Compiegne : this is called, in the language of the
laws, a recile. The simple fact of concealing a con-
demned criminal, is in itself a crime. The English
laws are not more liberal than ours. They do not
understind by humanity that generosity which coon.
tcracts the rules of public order. Blackstone, after
having marked the distinctions which it is necessary
to make between the ctimes of accessories and prin-
cipals, distinguishes farther those who are accessories
before and after the commission of the crime : he says,
in chap. iii. p. '29, of his treatise, 4, The accessory before
the crime is he who arranges, counsels or commands it.
—•After the criminal act is committed, a person
may render himself accessory to it by giving an
asylum or protection to the criminal, or by procuring
his escape in any possible manner." This is the law
on the subject of yielding protection to a convict
escaped from justice, which we call a retell. If I have
cited the authority of :his author, it is only in the cha-
racter of written reason ; for it is sufficiently under-
stood that there are no other laws in exercise regard-
ing crimes committed in France but French laws..—,
Who, then, can here dispute their empire ? I shall
rot, certainly, undertake to prove our right of juris.
diction over these foreigners. The opposition of the
accused Wilsen, his protest against our procedure,
his perpetual invocation as an Englishman of the ju-
dicial forms ef his oval nation, are all connected with
pretension% which'cannot be listened to in matters of
criminal justice.
6‘ Criminality give.; the right of punishment ; it
bestows jurisdiction, for it aims at public order ; and
there is not a nation on the earth, there is not a social
body, which does not in the highest degree possess
the right, and lie under the obligation to punish those
who infringe it. Every man should know, that in
planting his foot upon a foreign soil, his first duty is
to observe its laws. Does he riot enjoy their protec-
t tion—do not they watch over his safety—and can be
invoke their aid in one case, and brave their authority
in another ? Good sense alone renounces such an
error. As to the forms of inquiry, as to the mode
in which tile criminal tribunal is regulated which ap-
plies the laws, it is clear that they depend upon the
right of sovereign jurisdiction. Every state has its
justice, and also its mode of administer.ng it.
" It is sa?d, that a Frenchman accused of having
committed a crime in England is entitled to have
one half of his jurymen French. This is a privilege,
doubtless. Here, however, you will have no need of
this privilege ; it will be useless to you : justice does
not inquire whether you are natives or toreigneri; it
views you only as accused, and it will know no other
distinctions -but those which proofs shall' establish
between innocence and guilt. I proceed to the exa-
mination of these proofs, but I must first touch upon
the head of accusation.
66 Bruce, Hutchinson, and Wilson, are charged
with being accomplices in concealing Lavalette,
kaowing that he was condemned to die. The conse-
quence is, that they facilitated and consummated his
escape. And here I must anticipate a dispute about
words. It will be said, that the escape was the act of
issuing from prison ; that outside the gates it was
consummated ; and that thus it islalse to charge the
accused with having facilitated and consummated a
thing already done.
But we must look to the sense in which they are
inculpated—it must be true, that the escape was fa-
cilitated in this sense—that the recapture of the con.
vict was rendered impossible. In vain did the Police
make its searches at Paris, when the convict was no
longer there ; in vain, also, did it search for him in
France, when he had passed the frontier; and thus
the escape was consummated.
" 'But ihe fact which constitutes the crime. which
stands at the head of the accusation, is the conceal-
ment. It does net signify whether it aided or did not
aid the escape ; it is, indeed, of so little importance,
that even it the convict had not been ultimately able
to save himself, had he been Betaken in the very
place which served as his asylum, the man who had
procured it for him would have been not less guilty.
In one word, concealment is a distinct offence froth
that of escape ; and to establish this point of criminal
law unanswerably, it is sufficient to compare the
_enactments of the law on the two subjects. _
• 64 In the offence of escape,- all who cooperated in
it are punished : there is no distinction, except in the
penalt ,for ht more
guilty is placed as the keeper is ore
ies
guilty than him who is not; beyond this thrquality
of the person is no farther regarded f and though pub.
lie opinion may revolt at st, and humanity shed a
tear, a 1100 is not at giottp Ifgally sPe4idoist to aid