AN ENGLISH TRIAL.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 597, 23 April 1851, Page 4

AN ENGLISH TRIAL.

{From Beige, October 18.) An immense crowd thronged the approaches to the assize court at the Old Bailey. The places open to the public were filled in a moment, and « compact crowd beseiged the Se'pre’surt ® iVe

thc Chief Justi “ (LordTin<la‘) to °k his place on the bench. and aCCUSed W3S imßl ediately brought in, e “ ,aJ a “"'J intereBt •”« curiosity m the spectators. The two advn « a ‘ es who bad offered themselves to underl take his defence shook him by the hand and XnrEen/'Vb^'- 0 ’ co “ solati »" “ d middl? . The P nsoner was a man of ~ , stature and feeble frame; his eves which were blue and wild, were fixed unon the ground. His whole person conveve/an mpression of touching sadness and melancholy resignation. He had a pleasant voice and his manners, in spite of I

his apparel, bore witness to a cation. perior < The Chief Justice.—Your name- v your profession. ’ yOllr age; Prisoner.—George Hammond- 41 portrait painter. ’ 1 Y e ars; The Chief Justice.—You know th a accusation which lies against you. * y Brt H charged with having maliciously and 8,6 tionally caused the death of a ron J o * Bl1 ’ named George Baldwin, Do vou ledge your guilt? J ackn <>». It is perfectly true that I killed him regret the misfortune ; but on my So j my conscience I do not believe 4[li pable. y88!f <”>lThe Chief Justice.—As you the fact, and limit yourself to thequem' culpability, sit down. Your fellow-citj ° Q your peers, shall judge you. May Go^. 8 ' you under His protection. a * 5 The Clerk reads the indictment; then oldest barrister who has to conduct the cution for the county pronounces a few acknowledging that there never was - • ’ ner more deserving of consideration;'jg 11 * 0 ’ gues, however, that a conviction isn ecess ’ r ’ in order to prove to all that no m an civilized society may take the law intoV own hands.

The Chief Justice. —Prisoner, have von anything to say in your defence?

Prisoner.—My Lord, my justification li ei F • in a recital of the facts. Three years ao 0 [ lost a child four years old, the only token remembrance left me by an adored wife, wboo H it pleased God to recall to Himself. ' J ] o|( r-' her, but I did not see. her die as I had seen H 1 her mother die; she disappeared; she wi, W stolen from me. She was a lovely infant IP and besides her I had nobody in the wnrM ' love me. Gentlemen, what I suffered lean. H not describe, nor could you comprehend, j H have spent in advertisements and fruitless re. Sf searches all that I possessed; my furniture ■ my pictures, and even my clothes were H posed of. During three years, alone and on El foot, I sought for my child in every town and ft in every village of the three kingdoms; then, I • as soon as I had gained a little money by 8i painting portraits, I returned to London to H renew my advertisements in the papers. Al 11 last, on the 14th of April, a Wednesday, I H happened to be passing through the cattle H market at Smithfield. In the middle of the Li market-place a troop of mountebanks were B showing off. A girl was tumbling her legs in . t J ie > ai r r . her head on a sort of halberd. A E tiasn rrom the soul of her mother must at teat » moment have penetrated mine, for i recog. yH nised my child in that position. It was, in- B deed,, my poor child ! Her mother would, H perhaps, have rushed towards her, and caught S her in her arms. As for myself, a mist H passed across my eyes. I threw myself upon the leader of the band. How it happened lE' do not know. Though ordinarily good tempered, even to weakness, I seized him by his f clothes, lifted him from his feet, and dashed | him upon the ground. He was dead! I|S repented afterwards of what I had done; but at the moment, I only regretted that I could ■ kill but one. fl

The Chief Justice.—-Those are not Christian sentiments, and it is not for the interest of your cause to give utterance to them. How do you think God and the jury can pardon you if you do not know how to pardon others? Prisoner.—l do not know, my Lord, what your decision or that of the jury will be, hot God has already pardoned me, I feel that ia my heart. You do not know, nor did I know at the moment, the full extent of the injury which that man had done to me. "When some compassionate people brought my daughter to me in my prison she was no longer my child -she was no longer pure and angelic as in former days; she had been corrupted, body and soul. Her manners, her language) were inffirnous as those of the Dp.onle with whom she had lived. She did not know nor should I have recognized her myself; b o * you understand. This man had stolen f^ lll love and the soul of my child. I killed him once. J Foreman of the Jury.—My Lord, ourv® ! ’ diet is agreed upon. The Chief Justice.—l understand you, g e J' tiemen, but it is necessary that the law should have its course. However great may be interest which the prisoner inspires, youmi ls ? hear my remarks, and retire to deliberate. The jury having retired, returned in'? court in a few moments, and gave a er “ lC of acquittal.