Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1856-06-26

II 1 y l 1 " Ill uUj l
accompany Lord Clarendon's NOTE
Ito you Of the 30th of April.
The Earl Of Clarendon perfectly
we'll understands that in Great Brf
tain, as well as in the United States
lit would be impossible to admins
ter penal justice without occasional.
,lly receiving the evidence Of accom-.
IpIices. In Great Britain not only
is evidence of this class received
continually, in State trials as veil as
in inferior matters, but rewards and
other special inducements are held
out to such witnesses by not a few
provisions Of acts Of Parliament =
The competency of such persons as
witnesses in q given case, and their
Icredibility, are, in both countries,
questions upon which the court and
Jury, in their respective sphere of
jurisdiction, ultimately pass. In the
present case conclusions have been
established on documentary proofs,
and other unimpeachable evidence,
by proceedings before the proper
tribunals of the United States, by
the verdicts Of juries, and by the
rulings of Judges, which must be held
as final in the estimation Of the
President. M
The Earl of Clarendon suggests,
as consideration pertinent to this
question, that the minister and con-
|suls had no means or opportunity of
rebutting the charges thus Indirect
ly brought against them in the trial
Of the inferior recruiting agents.
In regard to the eonsuls, the Earl
Of Clarendon errs in supposing that
they had not full means and loppor-
tunity. if they saw fit, to appear and
to confront and contradict any &C.
cusing witnesses.
They were not allowed to inter-
fere in the trials by mere letters
written for the occasion, which, in
deed, they could not have done law
fully had there been no such prohi-
bition; but ifconscious of their own
innocence, and that Of the parties
on trial, and their own acts would
bear examination, it was alike their
duty and their right, to appear and
say so on oath, and to contradict by
their testimony whatever was alleged
against British officers or agents, if
known to them to be untrue.
i Nor is it any jns. cause Of com
Iplaint that evidence was received
upon these trials impugning the acts
OF Mr.. Champion. It was, in the
due course Of proceedings required
to be shown, as against the parties
Ion trial, that the recruitments in
which they were engaged were for
the service of foreign government.
Mr. Champion was himself privileg-
ed from, trial for violation, of the
municipal law, but the persons whom
he employed were not for that cause
to go unpunished, nor was the ad-
ministration of penal justice to be
indefinitely suspended on account Of
his position, and the diplomatic i'm
munities which that conferred. On
the contrary, twas peculiarly prop
er that the facts by which he was
implicated, but for which he could
not be tried, should be verified in
due form of law for the information
of his own government, as we'll as
that of the United States. : @
The Earl of Clarendon remarks
| in his letter Of the 30th of April
that ~ '''iss sla'S - -
| ssThe ,intentionsof the British gov
ernment, and the arrangement made
! to carry these intentions into execu'
Ition, were not concealed from the
govern ment Of the United States.