Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

Sir Wm. Garrow addressed the jury at some length: he strongly inferred the guilt of the prisoner, and noticed the contradictions in the evidence of the tinker and his wife. Verdict, GuiltyDeath. The prisoner again solemnly asserted his innocence, shed tears, and said he should be a murdered man. The prosecutrix was asked previous to the cominencement of the trial, whether she knew the nature of an oath, or whether she had ever received any religious instruction?-If we understood her rightly, she answered each question in the negative!

Sentence. "To you, George Post, I feel it indispensably necessary, in passing upon you the judgement of the law, to caution you against cherishing the slightest hope that your sentence will be remitted.-Your guilt is of a magnitude next to murder, precluding even the shadow of mercy; and the evidence on which you were convicted such, as to leave not a shadow of doubt of the fact. Waylaying an innocent, artless, unsuspecting young female returning to her employment after a sabbath-day's visit to her aged grandmother; robbing her of her bundle, which contained the little property which she required; brutally assaulting her person, and indecently exposing that person for a considerable time: You wind up the horrible catalogue of your turpitude by throwing your innocent victim into the canal; and when with tears and cries she prays you to rescue her from her impending danger, you exclaim, "Drown then, and be d-d!" This case, with all its shocking circumstances, was proved against you by evidence which admitted not of a doubt.-With a long, artful and plausible tale you occupied the attention of the Court, and attempted to impose on the jury by calling on your behalf two persons, the witnesses of untruth, who, by their previously planned narrative, wished to impress on the minds of the jury a belief operating against your identity. This fact, if any thing - could aggravate it, has aggravated your crime, and stained it with a deeper dye. I dare not, therefore, encourage you to entertain the slightest hope of mercy here. Employ, I conjure you, the residue of your time seriously, diligently, and piously. Attend to the religious directions of those excellent and pious ministers who will visit you in your confinement, and soothe you with holy consolation. Invoke, with sincerity, the assistance of that God, who, whilst he is all-powerful, is all-merciful; and prepare to present yourself before that heavenly tribunal, at which in a short time you will have to appear."

Post feebly addressed his lordship as he was going from the bar, asserting that they were going to hang an innocent man.Many persons are inclined to think that some further inquiry

ought to have been made, in this instance, into the prosecutrix's general character: she appeared rather too bold (out of court) for a girl of her years.

Chester Courant, Sept. 20, 1814.

MISCELLANEA.

We learn with pleasure that several highly respectable magistrates and other gentlemen of this county have been laudably exerting themselves to save the life of George Post, the poor man who was left for execution at this place on Saturday the 24th Aug. on a charge of assaulting and ill-using a girl named Ann Postles (as already stated in this paper). We are informed that, from the examinations and inquiries that have taken place, no doubt remains on the minds of the respectable characters al luded to, that the wretched man is completely innocent of the crime laid to his charge. This, we understand, is also the opinion of the worthy clergyman who has attended him in his confinement.

We were in court during the whole of this trial, to which we paid the greatest attention; and we had also an opportunity of seeing the prosecutrix out of court :-the result was, a firm conviction in our mind of the man's innocence; which conviction has been strengthened by every thing that has since transpired. Our information, if correct, states, that the substance of the examinations has been put into the hands of Judge Burton; and we have no doubt a proper representation will be immediately made to the Home Secretary of State.

There is another case that we would wish to see taken in hand,-we mean that of John Pellitt. This unfortunate young man, it will be recollected, was sentenced to suffer death for inficting a slight simple wound on a horse, the rider of which had rode against him and knocked him down; and afterwards beat him when in prison! which said prison, it seems, is kept by prosecutor's father.

Pellitt was described as an industrious young man, of good character, and never known to be intoxicated until the day of the unfortunate occurrence taking place. We have heard other cir cumstances which induce us to particularly commiserate the fate of this young man; but unless the parties would come forward to authenticate them, it would not be altogether prudent in us to lay them before the public. We venerate the English laws and the trial by jury; but excellent as they are, (constituted

as society is,) no man can make sure, however virtuously and honestly he may live, that he shall not end his life on the gallows! We have before expressed ourselves to this effect; and what we have on former and recent occasions both seen and read, only strengthens our conviction of the melancholy truism.

Chester Courant, Sept. 27, 1814.

GEORGE POST.

A respite during pleasure for this unfortunate man was received in this city on Wednesday. Under the head Miscellanea, in our last Courant, we adverted rather pointedly to this case; and our readers will do us the justice to recollect, that from the first moment of the termination of the trial we declared our conviction of the unhappy man's innocence. We are now glad to find that what we then advanced (in opposition to the dictum of the learned judge, the verdict of the jury, and the strong current of public opinion,) has been confirmed.

The severe address of Sir William Garrow to the prisoner, after passing on him the sentence of death, having been disseminated over the united kingdom, through the medium of the newspapers, we hope our brother-editors, who may chance to see the present statement, will, as an act of common justice, give equal publicity to what we now insert. To our readers, for having so repeatedly drawn their attention to this case, we shall offer no apology: we consider it as one of the greatest importance; and although the unhappy being, whose cause we are advocating, is a wretched and wandering stranger, we feel as interested in his wrongs as if he were a nobleman residing in the greatest respect in our own immediate neighbourhood.

We stated in our last, that exertions were making by several highly respectable characters to save the life of this much-injured and innocent man; but we now learn that he is indebted for the respite which has arrived, to the humane and unwearied exertions of the truly respectable governor of the Castle, Mr. Matthew Hudson. This worthy gentleman, in addition to his many amiable and good qualities, is happily Blessed with a good memory; and after the trial he recollected that several of the prosecutrix's relations were persons of abandoned characters, and that they had been frequently tried for various crimes: this recollection very naturally induced him to suspect the correctness of her testimony, and in order to clear up his doubts he determined on a journey to Middle

wick, for the purpose of making inquiries in the immediate neighbourhood of the transaction. Here he soon obtained a body of the most respectable evidence, which amply confirmed his suspicions. Dickinson, the person with whom Post had lodged, corroborated fully the prisoner's statement, that he had not risen on the morn-> ing of the robbery till nine o'clock:-a second witness, who was on the canal bank, proved that no one had passed at the very time the robbery and attempt at murder was said to have been committed:-a third heard Ann Postles describe the man who had robbed her, as having on a ragged black coat ;—a fourth, that the petticoats of Ann Postles were not wet within six or eight inches of the top ;-a fifth, that he saw Post coming down stairs in the house of Dickinson about half-past eight or nine o'clock of the morning when the supposed crime was perpetrated, &c. These depositions, and others to the same effect, taken upon oath, were forwarded by Mr. Hudson to His Majesty's justices; and on their representations to the Throne, the execution of the sentence has been suspended. [Next follows a note of no material consequence.]

[Pellitt, the other person alluded to, has been discharged.]

Consequences of a System of Slavery.

WHEREVER the system of slavery is suffered to exist, cases of

hardship and cruel oppression will inevitably occur; for although slaves may be kindly treated by humane proprietors of estates in the West Indies, (and we believe there are many of that class,) yet, if the owner or overseer should be a stranger to the best feelings of the heart, and himself a slave to his passions, as is too often the case, the wretched victim is liable to the extreme of human suffering, and is left without any resource; for it is idle to talk of laws for the protection of slaves, while their evidence goes for nothing. We have seen in the island of Nevis, that a powerful man may commit murder; and although it may excite some inquiry and rouse some indignation, and although the form and mockery of a trial may be had upon the occasion, yet the murderer is acquitted.

In presenting to our readers the first and second Reports of an association for the relief of certain very distressing cases among the neglected and deserted negroes, &c. in the island of Antigua, we would not be understood as insinuating that the suf

ferings of the poor Africans are greater in this island than in others; we believe they are liable to the same treatment in all; and that if a knowledge of the cases of complicated misery which exist in our West Indian possessions could be communicated to the British public, they would soon make active and effectual exertions to wipe away this stain from our national cha

racter.

We are aware that the idea of inmediate emancipation cannot be entertained for a moment: a series of judicious measures will be required to prepare the slave for the full privileges of a freeman. But we rejoice to see that the steady champion in the cause of humanity, Mr. Wilberforce, has at length made a beginning in this glorious work, by obtaining leave to bring in a bill for the registration of slaves in our colonies. However this great measure may be opposed at first, we are sure that it must ultimately triumph; discussion will prepare the way for it, and the friends of humanity have only to persevere.

FIRST REPORT.-The Case of the neglected and deserted
Negroes in the Island of Antigua.

The voice of humanity on behalf of the deeply injured African race has so far aroused the feelings of the legislature of this country, as to induce it to free this nation from the blood-guiltiness consequent on the infamous traffic in the persons of men on the coasts of Africa; nevertheless slavery, with its unavoidable accompaniment, a traffic in human flesh and blood, still exists in our West India islands. To arrest the attention of the humane and benevolent to this fact, and to the scene of human woe that is necessarily connected with this fact, is the object of the present address; for though the iron hand of oppression may not lie with quite the same weight as formerly on this part of suffering humanity, yet the groans of the oppressed continue to call for our sympathy and relief.

What has been heretofore said, may be again urged by the interested partisans of slavery, "that the legislatures of the islands have provided various salutary regulations for the protection of slaves, which place them in a situation even of enviable security and comfort." But this attempt to stifle the cries of the oppressed will be as vain now as when it was first made. That some such regulations may exist, will not be denied; but we fear that it will also appear equally clear, that the same obstacle pre

« ForrigeFortsæt »