The Sun. — 1841-10-20 (London, England)

THE APLEOI) CASE. UTICA, WEDNESDAY, DEPT. 29.—Late last night, and during the w hole of this mornings witnesses arrived here in great numbers, both for the prosecution and the prisoner. The survivors of the Patriot army which was in possession of Navy Island when the Caroline was destroyed have come, with all the officers of that short-lived provisional Government of which Mackenzie was President pro. tem. From Buffalo, Canada, and for a great extent along VA frontier, the cry is " Still they come." Mr. Bra,:eey. and Mr. Gardner, Mr. Spencer's associate c€Yansel for the prisoner, have arrived from Canada with voluminous testimony, taken under commission, and freany witnesses to sustain his defence, and all parties are now ready to go to trial. It is now, however, well understood that the trial will not commence until Monday next, and in the meantime Judge Gridley will clear the calendars, both civil and criminal. It is not at all improbable that the case will occupy twelve or fourteen days. The prosecuting counsel will merely open and endeavour to sustain an ordinary case of murder, but the defence will be broad, and lead to many collateral issues. An alibi, by oral testimony, will be one branch of the defence ; the next will be the examinations recently taken in Canada to negative the positive evidence that APLeod took part in the affair of the Caroline. This consists of the examinations of those who admit their own participancy in the transaction, and a question will arise as to the admissibility of such evidence. It was originally arranged that these examinations should be taken at specified places on fixed days, by interrogatories Is hick the counsel for the people and fur the prisoner have determined upon, and a legal gentleman was commissioned to be present to act on the part of the State authorities. For some days examinations were thus taken, but the Commissioners then resolved to separate themselves, and hold courts at different points at the same time, doubtless with a desire to facilitate the accomplishment of their mission ; but the legal gentleman for the State, unlike the Irishman's bird (according to a celebrated ornithologist), had not the power of übiquity, and, therefore, could not be in two places at once; consequently some of the examinations will be considered ex parte only, and their reception will be objected to. Another branch of the defence will be the general character of the transaction, the circumstances of those times—in short, impunity will be claimed on the ground that the Caroline was engaged in an open war oa the British province, and that she was cut off by the orders of the proper authorities. This part of the defence will open the case broadly, if the Judge deems it legitimate, and the termination of the trial may nut be looked for until a distant day. Both parties are prepared with hosts of witnesses in anticipation that this part of the subject may he gone into. Judge Gridley takes his seat daily before eight o'clock, and with a recess for dinner and another for tea, of thirty minutes each, sits until near midnight ; but in the MeLeod case he will not press the trial on for more than nine hours each day, that the counsel may have some time fur preparation and consultation each night ; it must, nevertheless, necessarily consume many days, unless the Judge confines the parties in their defence, and prohibits the re-opening of the case on which Judge Cowan's decision was made some time ago. Great preparations are made to give the trial to the public through the press, and the best reporters in the country are here. A very liberal proposition has just been made by the Directors of the Utica and Schenectady Railroad to run a special express gratuitously for the use of the Press of New York, to start at noon each day. This, however, cannot be accomplished, unless one newspaper proprietor will relinquish an exclusive contract which he has already made. (From the Courier and Inquirer.) CIRCUIT COURT AND COURT OF OYER AND