The Sun. — 1806-11-22 (London, England)

COURT-.  This day came on the trial of Lieutenants CAUTY and NlAGuaks, on. the incli&ment found against them for a conspiracy o way,lay, assault, and otherwise ill-treat, two Du ch .Gentlemen of the .name of VANDEIii,LOOT, on tliu Oigbt Of the 21St of F bruary last..  A.j-ury having 'been chosen,,the Hon. Company's Counsel addressed them at some length on the part.. of the Crown. He observed, that it could not fail to be an extremely painful discharge of his duty to the Public, to be obliged to call their attention to the conduct of persons Whose protessiOn placed them in the rank of Gentle Men, while their, ac-1 tions degraded that character; and were a disgrace to' ,the cloth- which they had the honour,to wear. The persons mentioned in the indiament as the obleas of brutal attack and violence, were also Gentlemen, the sons of an aged and respectable inha bitant•-of Cochin, who fOrmerly held the rank of Surgeon-Major in the Dutch service. Their objeet in Outing to Bombay was to obtain redress by legal 'means for wrongs which they and' their family conceived themselves to have sustained when 'the regiment to which 4ient., CAUTY belongs was quartered at Cochin--,wrongs of a most outrageous nature, and in which they accounted that Gentleman a .principal actor. They had, accordingly cora.meneed a suit against him,, which was still pending : and it greatly ' aggravated the guilt of the conduLt charged in the lthliament, that the Defendants Made no secret of its being inieVenge of these proceedings that they had formed the resolution "of assaulting the NL:Ssrs. :VANDERSLooTS yin the dead of the night, on the highway, and for. that pose to watch their return to their own house, which,. is • situated in the woods, about a mile from the Fort. Hiving laid this atrocious plan for the gratWeation of their priVate malice, they thought a considerable reinforcement necessary before they ventured on the grand attack. of two unprOtected and defenceless strangers. To obtain an additional levy, they repaired to a tent where some brother Officers were at dinner ; and having dismissed the native attendants; proceeded to unfold their nefoious design, and to solicit aid in carrying 'it into execution.-The eloquence of their valoilr'was so captivating, that they at first obtained an assent to their proposal ; but, on secbtid thoughts, the Gentlemen \NJ-I°m they had Waited upon, conceived it-proper to: remain at home. :Whether they were informed of this defection ,froM their number or not, did, not appear ; certain it was, that they themselves '(accompanied by one whose youth, and inexperience seemed to have placed him under the complete con :rout of ,persons anxious to reduce, him to the degraded level Of their own depravity) proceeded most pliantly ,to the woods, not only armed with sticks and bludgeons, but with fire-arms likewise ; and that the King's and Hon. Company's 'Might not, for the first ,time, be worn by midnight assassins, they had ,the grace, or more properly speaking, the precaution, to sally forth dis-guised in coloured clothes. To the last hour. of their lives th 4 probably would have reason to be thankful to Providence, that by. some means •or other, 'the Dutchmen passed to' their own home without being perceived ; ,for: if a reucontre bad taken gplace nothing -seemed more probable than that blood would have been spilt, and he could tell Mr. MAGULim and Mr. CALIT; that if a ' -life had "been lust in the affray, however little, it might have been their intention to, carry matters to that extremitY, it would have been murder in the eye of the law. The evidence which was now adduced, fully Con= firmed the opening statement. It particularly appeared that the Defendants carried loaded •fire-Minis to the woodS along with them ; and an expression of Mr. Mitouirm's was positively sworn to,,that if the Dotcnoien proved obstropulous, he had'a pair of peppers at their service." In the Defence it was attempted to be shewn,. that though a purpose .of the kind, mentioned in the IndiCtment, had been entertained in the early part of the. evening, it had been abandoned be- ' fore, the party set out for the woods, where their only attraction was a' punch-house; at which hit . common good ham could be procured for supper, while the expekted attacks of pariar dogs, in their, pyogess thither,,'afforded, an excuse for proceeding armed. ;  The defence, however, having altogether failed, the Jury returned a verael of Galli! against both Defendants.. It was .then moved that they might stand committed ; which was or,ered accordingly ; and that they be brought. up t 6 receive sentence on Wednesday, the 30th. On which day, the Courtbeing moved for judgment on the part of the Crown; and nothing having been alledged to arrest the same,' or-in mitigation of punishment, except the sentence of a Court-Martial, published the day before, by which it appeared that. both Defendants were'dismissed the service for a different afence, the REafter a suitable address, sentenced them to be ititprisoued in the jltil , of Bombay for ,twelve calendar months. In the course of his: speech, the gEeORDPI said, he had been informed that the pri-. soners had formed .the desperate project of destroying their own lives at the bar where they stood, and of signalizing their suicide by the previous destruc tion of at least One of their Judges.