Page images
PDF
EPUB

object of their meeting was entirely un- I was taunted with being false to my known. It might be that they were country in my counsels. Those were the assembled for the purpose of getting up very words which were used. I regret some distinct conspiracy of their own. It that a gentleman in the high position of might be that they were burglars pre- the Attorney-General should have had paring to commit a midnight robbery in recourse to falsehood and slander in order some adjoining street, and it would be to prejudice the minds of the jury against very unjust to make the prisoners re- a prisoner. In the humble part I have sponsible for conduct which they had taken in this conflict I have been actuated never sanctioned, and of which they were by no desire for notoriety or martyrdom, probably ignorant. For aught that ap- as was alleged, nor by any other desire peared, the meetings were as distinct in than to serve my country. Tyrants may character as if they had taken place make laws to declare patriotism felony, in different quarters of the world. and they may punish it as felony, but they cannot make it felony. I have nothing more to say.

PLATT, B.: It seems to us that this evidence ought not to be objected to, because, upon the testimony of Powell, which we must take now to be evidence in the case, it seems that upon this night there was to be a considerable collection of armed persons, and we have at one of the meetings returns made by the delegates that the number of Chartist fighting men was as many as 5,000. It is not to be expected that a prosecutor is to prove the secret communications between several parties, all organised, in this private manner, to meet armed in different parts of the metropolis. The value of the evidence is a different matter. It does not certainly affect the prisoners directly, but it is for the jury to say whether it touches them indirectly by establishing the identity of motive of this meeting and the rest.

The prisoners were all found guilty.

SENTENCES.

The prisoner William Dowling was placed at the bar together with the other prisoners.

The Clerk of the Arraigns inquired of the prisoners in the usual form what they had to say why they should not receive judg. ment according to law.

The prisoner Fay; I say it must be evident to every man in the court hearing the evidence of the man Powell himself, that he was committing perjury from 1ne to line; and as to what he stated in the police office when I was taken, he contradicted himself in several points. I say it must be evident to every man here that he was perjuring himself. It is useless to

say more.

The prismer Dowling: I say with respect to the charge made against me, in | the course of this prosecution, of using treachery and duplicity towards the Chartists and using them for my own ulterior purposes, I never concealed my opinions for a moment, or my sentiments or objects. With respect to the charge of ingratitude, so far as I am personally concerned, I am content simply to deny it.

[ocr errors]

The prisoner Lacy: I can say, my lord, that I am innocent of the charge made against me. I never took any part, either directly or indirectly, to bring about the physical force movement. I approve of the six points of the Charter, and I can appeal to the great body of the Chartists, that both in public and in private I have always recommended peaceable means for the promotion of social and moral reform. I have been a moral force Chartist for the last seven years, and have always been known as a man of good moral cha racter, and I can appeal to hundreds of respectable Chartists in London to bear me out in that.

The prisoner Cuffey: My lords, I say you ought not to sentence me, first, because although this has been a long and important trial, it has not been a fair trial, and my request was not complied with to have a jury of my equals. But the jury as it is I have no fault to find with; I daresay they have acted conscientiously. The next reason that I ought not to be sentenced is on account of the great prejudice that has been raised against me in particular, for months past, Everybody that hears me is convinced that almost the whole press of this country, and even other countries, has been raising a prejudice against me. I have been taunted by the press, and it has tried to smother me with ridicule, (a) and it has done everything in its power to crush me. I crave no pity. I ask no mercy.

The prisoner Fry (with violence): Nor I. The prisoner Cuffey: Keep yourself cool, my boy. You will never get through your troubles if you do not. The press

(a) Cf. the lines written after this trial in Thackeray's "Three Christmas Waits" (vol. 18, Ballads and Tales, p. 191), beginning:

"Ven this bad year began,"
The nex man said, saysee,
"I vas a journeyman,

A taylor black and free;
And my wife went out and chaired about,
And my name's the bold Cuffee."

has strongly excited the middle class against me; therefore I did not expect anything else except the verdict of guilty, right or wrong; and instead of my being pitied I pity the Attorney-General and the Government that they could descend to such means as to raise up a conspiracy against me by infamous and base characters. I should have said "The Spy Master-General," for that is the fact. The present Government is now supported by a regular organized system of espionage which is a disgrace to this great and bousted free country. The locality to which I belong never approved of any violence of this sort and never sent any delegates to any such meetings, and that you will find proved in the trials of my fellow prisoners who have not yet been tried. They sent no delegates, and consequently there were no luminaries nor fire. brands sent to Orange Street from that locality. That is another reason why I should not be sentenced; that will be bereafter proved. Then I have to complain of the Whig manoeuvres of keeping the spy Davis back to the last moment after he had had an opportunity of reading the evidence in the newspaper and seeing what was deposed to, and then coming here with a statement written out by the inspectors of police against me and filling up all the discrepancies in the evidence of the principal spy, that miscreant with so many aliases, Powell being his proper name, it seems. He had never proved I was a delegate. He had never proved I was elected on the Ulterior Committee, and he did not state that I went out on Tuesday evening with the Ulterior Committee and proposed the place and scheme of the intended outbreak. But then comes Davis, after he had had an opportunity of reading in the papers the evidence that Powell had given, to say the time when I was elected, as he states, secretary. He states I went out with the Ulterior Committee and returned with them. All this I deny. It is most gross, perilous, and degrading to any Government to resort to such means, and, if my letters had been read, it would have been proved that my life has been threatened months ago, and that would easily account for my having a small pocket-pistol at home loaded. I was also threatened with assassination, and therefore I considered I had a right, and indeed every Englishman has a right, according to the old statute, to have arms, and he was to be liable to punishment, as your lordship is aware, for not practising the use of those arms. At the same time I am aware that there was an Act passed in the time of George the Third for punishing people for assembling to drill and

practise the use of arms, but I also know that the statute to which I have alluded had never been rescinded. I did attempt to pass a pistol to my wife, because I knew what would be made of it, but it was for self-defence I kept it. And it has been stated by your lordship to-day that it was very important that these spies should go about with a brace of pistols loaded, because their lives were in danger. Certainly I cannot conceive it is any crime therefore in me to have a small pocket pistol at home. There has been an accusation made against me likewise as to my name being mentioned in one of the books found at Lacy's about the subscription, about the Victim fund towards defraying my expenses at this trial. It is mentioned, but it is never proved in that book; nothing of the sort, my lord. That is all I need say at present, except that this is no more than what I have expected for some time. As I certainly have been an important character in the Chartist movement, I laid myself out for something of this sort from the first. I know that a great many men of good moral character are now suffering in prison only for advocating the cause of the Charter; but, however, I do not despair of its being carried out yet. may be many victims. I am not anxious for martyrdom, but I feel that, after what I have gone through this week, I have the fortitude to endure any punishment your lordship can inflict upon me. I know my cause is good, and I have a self-approving conscience that will bear me up against anything, and that would bear me up even to the scaffold; therefore I think I can endure any punishment proudly. I feel no disgrace at being called a felon. As to that Act, which your lordship has called attention to, which was passed by the legislature in the most hurried manner without time for dne consideration, I am almost one of the first victims after glorious Mitchel to fall under that Act. Any Act that has been brought forward for the good of the country has been delayed and great time has been lost in attending to it, and indeed most of them have been thrown aside or put off to the next session; but anything to abridge the rights of the working classes can be passed in a few hours. I have done, my lords.

Tuere

PLATT, B.: William Dowling, William Lacy, Thomas Fay, and William Cuffey, two juries of your country, before one of whom was tried you, William Dowling, and before the other of whom were tried you, William Lacy, Thomas Fay, and William Cuffey, have arrived at the only con clusion that twelve upright and reasonable men could have arrived at after the production of the evidence against you

respectively. It is quite impossible to doubt that you all of you devised and intended to levy war against the Queen and compel her to alter her measures by force of arms.

There is no doubt as regards you, William Dowling, for you are found guilty upon the second count only, that you joined in the movement for the purpose of assisting in the dismemberment of the Empire by separating by force of arms Ireland from this country. And it is not for you, young man, and those who are in the same condition as yourself, to set up your understanding against the experience of mankind and against the result of ancient wisdom. It is not for you to say that that which the constitution of this country has branded by the name of felony can be in any way what you call patriotism. Is it patriotism, I should like to know, for a number of persons in secret to combine to inflict misery and wretchedness and spoil, which was evidently the object of the course which all of you seemed to be taking on the 15th of August? Can any man say, that has a grain of common sense, that proceedings of that kind have anything to do with patriotism? That the town is to be in flames, that her Majesty's subjects are to be butchered, that you and your companions are to put down all law and authority and carry all before you by force of arms-is that patriotism? The law says that such proceedings constitute the crime of felony, and properly so calls it; and it is only lamentable that four persons of your apparent education and qualifications and your apparent manly energy, and your apparent independence, should be so misled as to think for an instant that atrocities of this kind, which strike at the very root and the safety of society, can be allowed in any Christian country.

The jury have come to the only conclusion at which they could have arrived. No reasonable men could doubt for an instant that, after the scene of the 15th of August, on the evening when the ribbons were given out and the order of assemblage for the next night was directed, you and each of you, when the shades of night were descended upon this metropolis, intended that a course of burning, of murder and of robbery, should surround this unfortunate city, if it had been so unfortunate as that your guilty purposes had not been discovered. That was the primary object you had in view; and a secondary, no doubt, was that you might assume the government of this country and govern things in your own way. Is this to be endured? And when men are brought within the law and are about to

85284.

answer for the breach of it, to defy the law? But your defiance would make no difference in the judgment of the Court, and, if it were possible to extend mercy to any of yon, wild and insane as you seem to be, that mercy should be extended.

But I cannot conceive that the Court would be performing its duty to the country if, when such offences as these were brought home to criminals such as yourselves, it should pass on them a slight punishment, and should not make an example, a severe example, of all those who are brought within the pale of the law.

The sentence of the Court upon each of you is that for the offence of which you have been respectively convicted, you be transported beyond the seas to such place as her Majesty, by the advico of her Privy Council, shall direct and appoint, for the term of your natural lives.

Monday, October 2nd, 1848.

Joseph Ritchie was brought up, and by the advice of his counsel, Parry, pleaded “(uilty.”

PLATT, B.: Joseph Ritchie, you have pleaded guilty to an indictment charging you with one of the most serious crimes which a member of society or a subject of her Majesty can commit. You have devised and intended to overthrow by force of arms the Government, to effect by force of arms that which you were too impatient to obtain by constitutional and legal means, if it were proper to be obtained, and you had placed yourself as the captain of that dangerous, cowardly, and savage brigade, the fire-brigade, by which this metropolis was to be in flames in the dead of night; in the course of which murder, robbery, and every infamy would have been perpetrated by the lawless mob you thus would have led. It is impossible that you, who were the leader and chief instrument of the mischief intended, should pass away from this Court without the severest punishment of the law. Four men were sentenced on Saturday last to transportation for their natural lives, and if they deserved that punishment, surely you, so willing, so daring an instrument in their hands, are fitted for that punishment too. The sentence of the Court upon you is that for the offence of which you have admitted yourself guilty, you be transported beyond the seas to such place as her Majesty, by the advice of her Privy Council, shall direct and appoint, for the term of your natural life. (a)

(a) Dowling, Cuffey, Fay, Lacy, Ritchie, and Mullins were transported 8th August 1849, and received a free pardon 19th May 1856.

After Ritchie had pleaded guilty, the Attorney-General stated that, as the leaders of the conspiracy, with the exception of Mullins, whose trial was postponed, had been dealt with, he was prepared to proceed against the other prisoners on indictments for conspiracy, instead of on indictments for felony under 11 & 12 Vict. c. 12. William Gurney, Alfred Able, James Snowball, Edward Scadding, Philip Martin, Thomas Jones, Charles Young, Henry Argue, William Winspeare, James Prowton, Hugh Conway, and Samuel Morgan pleaded guilty, and were sentenced to be imprisoned for two years, to pay fines of 101., and to find sureties to keep the peace, themselves in the sum of 201., with two sureties in 107., and to be imprisoned until the fines were paid and the sureties found.

William Poole, Thomas Irons, and Thomas Herbert, not having been found in arms, were sentenced to be imprisoned for eighteen months, and to pay fines of 101., &c.

Five other men who pleaded "Not Guilty" were allowed to enter into recognizances to appear to take their trial when called on.

Mullins was tried and convicted at the following sessions. (a)

MATERIALS MADE USE or. The above

report is compiled from the shorthand note preserved at the Treasury, and from the report in 3 Cox C.C. 517.

(a) See below, App. A, p. 1110.

THE QUEEN against CUMMING.

PROCEEDINGS IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICIARY, EDINBURGH, ON AN INDICTMENT AGAINST JAMES CUMMING FOR TREASON FELONY AND SEDITIOUS CONSPIRACY, NOVEMBER 7, 1848, PRESENT-THE LORD JUSTICE-CLERK, AND LORDS MACKENZIE AND MEDWYN; AND NOVEMBER 9, 1848, PRESENT THE LORD JUSTICE-CLERK, AND LORDS MACKENZIE, MONCREIFF, MEDWYN, COCKBURN, AND WOOD. (Reported in J. Shaw, Justiciary Reports, 17.) (a)

Libel for felony under the Treason Felony Act, 1848,(b) 11 & 12 Vict. c. 12., and for conspiracy and sedition at common law. -Held, in repelling objections to the relevancy, by Lords Mackenzie, Moncreiff, Medwyn, Cockburn, and Wood, diss. Lord Justice-Clerk (Hope)—

Libel for felony under 11 & 12 Vict. c. 12., as, also, for conspiracy and sedition at common law. That the statute of 11 & 12 Vict. c. 12., making it felony to compass to depose the Queen, &c., or to levy war against the Queen, &c., and to express, utter, and declare such compassing, by publishing any printing or writing, or by open and advised speaking, or by any overt act or deed, did not abrogate the common law; and that it was competent to libel the same species facti in the same libel as felony under 11 & 12 Vict. c. 12., and as conspiracy and sedition at common law. (c)

By Lord Justice-Clerk and Lords Mackenzie and Medwyn—

That in a libel under 11 & 12 Vict. c. 12., it is competent to libel a previous design as evidenced by subsequent overt acts.(d)

That a libel for conspiracy is not bad for omitting to allege in the minor that the acts set forth in support of the charge had been done in pursuance of the conspiracy.

(a) See the remarks of Lord Justice General Inglis on this volume of reports, below, p. 506. (b) Short Title under the Short Titles Act, 1892. As to 11 & 12 Vict. c. 12, see note to Mitchel's case, 6 St. Tr. N.S. 599. These were the only proceedings under this Act in Scotland, until the proceedings against M'Dermott and others in December 1883. See "Report of the Trial of the Dynamitards," by Charles Tennant Couper. Edinburgh, 1884. (c) See Reg. v. O'Donnell, below, p. 638, 707n. (d) See Reg. v. Duffy, below, p. 795.

This was a libel in the High Court of Justiciary against James Cumming, shoemaker, a Chartist residing in Edinburgh, charging him with felony under 11 & 12 Vict. c. 12., and with conspiracy and sedition at common law. The proceedings on objection to the relevancy are here reported. The trial was not further proceeded with, as owing to the verdict in Grant and Hamilton's case, reported below, (a) which arose out of the same facts, the Court, on the motion of the Lord Advocate, deserted the diet, and Cumming was released.

HIGH COURT OF JUSTICIARY, EDINBURGH. Present, LORD JUSTICE-CLERK and LORDS MACKENZIE and MEDWYN.

(a) See below, p. 507.

[blocks in formation]

LIBEL ON CRIMINAL LETters.

That albeit, by an Act passed in the eleventh year of our reign, chapter twelve, intituled " An Act for the better security of the Crown and section third of the said Act enacted, "That, if Government of the United Kingdom," it is by any person whatsoever, after the passing of this Act, shall, within the United Kingdom or without, compass, imagine, invent, devise, or intend to deprive or depose Our Most Gracious Lady the Queen, her heirs and successors, from the style, honour or royal name of the Imperial Crown of the United Kingdom, or of any other of Her Majesty's dominions and countries, or

« EelmineJätka »