The Sun. — 1841-10-21 (London, England)

THE M'LEOD CASE,  UTICA, WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 29.—Late last night, and during the whole of this morning, witnesses arrived here in greitt numbers, both for the prosecution and the priioner. ,The survivors of the Patriot army which was in posses ion 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. tern. FrOin Buffalo, Canada, and for a great extent along the frontier, the cry is " Still they come."  Mr. Bradley and Mr. Gardner, Mr. Spencer's associate counsel for the prisoner,' have-arrived from Canada with voluminous-testimony, taken under commission, and many witnesses to sustain his defence, and all parties are now ready to go to trial. It i 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 wilt be broad, and lead to many collateral issues'. An aLlii, 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 M'Leod took part in the affair of the Caro.  line. 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 which the counsel for the people and for the prisoner have determined upon, and a legal gentleinan 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 Catioliee 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 de, fence will open the °case broadly, if the Judge deems it legitimate, and the termination of the trial may not 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, 3;l'Leod case he will not press the trial on for more than nine hours each day, that the counsel may have some time for 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 udge 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.)