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[From the Legal Observer, for July, 1838.]

Case of Circumstantial Evidence. In the year 1723, a young man who was serving his apprenticeship in London to a master sailmaker, got leave to visit his mother, to spend the Christmas holidays. She lived a few miles beyond Deal, in Kent. He walked the journey, and on his arrival at Deal, in the evening, being much fatigued, and also troubled with a bowel complaint, he applied to the landlady of a public house, who was acquainted with his mother, for a night's lodging. Her house was full, and every bed occupied; but she told him, that if he would sleep with her uncle, who had lately come ashore, and was boatswain of an Indiaman, he should be welcome. He was glad to accept the offer, and after spending the evening with his new comrade, they retired to rest. In the middle of the night he was attacked with his complaint, and wakening his bedfellow, he asked him the way to the garden. The boatswain told him to go through the kitchen; but as he would find it difficult to open the door into the yard, the latch being out of order, he desired him to take a knife out of his pocket, with which he could raise the latch. The young man did as he was directed, and after remaining near half an hour in the yard, he returned to his bed, but was much surprised to find his companion had risen and gone. Being impatient to visit his mother and friends, he also arose before day, and pursued his journey, and arrived home at noon.

The landlady, who had been told of his intention to depart early, was not surprised; but not seeing her uncle in the morning, she went to call him. She was dreadfully shocked to find the bed stained with blood, and every inquiry after her uncle was in vain. The alarm now became general, and on further examinatión, marks of blood were traced from the bed-room into the street, and at intervals down to the edge of the pier-head. Rumor was immediately busy, and suspicion fell of course on the young man who slept with him, that he had committed the murder, and thrown the body over the pier into the sea. A warrant was issued against him, and he was taken that evening at his mother's house. 32

VOL. XXIII.-NO. XLVI.

On his being examined and searched, marks of blood were discovered on his shirt and trowsers, and in his pocket were a knife and a remarkable silver coin, both of which the landlady swore positively were her uncle's property, and that she saw them in his possession on the evening he retired to rest with the young man. On these strong circumstances the unfortunate youth was found guilty. He related all the above circumstances in his defence; but as he could not account for the marks of blood on his person, unless that he got them when he returned to the bed, nor for the silver coin being in his possession, his story was not credited. The certainty of the boatswain's disappearance, and the blood at the pier traced from his bedroom, were two evident signs of his being murdered; and even the judge was so convinced of his guilt, that he ordered the execution to take place in three days. At the fatal tree the youth declared his innocence, and persisted in it with such affecting asseverations, that many pitied him, though none doubted the justness of his sentence,

The executioners of those days were not so expert at their trade as modern ones, nor were drops and platforms invented. The young man was very tall; his feet sometimes touched the ground, and some of his friends who surrounded the gallows contrived to give the body some support as it was suspended. After being cut down, those friends bore it speedily away in a coffin, and in the course of a few hours animation was restored, and the innocent saved. When he was able to move, his friends insisted on his quitting the country and never returning, He accordingly travelled by night to Portsmouth, where he entered on board a man-of-war, on the point of sailing for a distant part of the world; and as he changed his name, and disguised his person, his melancholy story never was discovered. After a few years of service, during which his exemplary conduct was the cause of his promotion through the lower grades, he was at last made a master's mate, and his ship being paid off in the West Indies, he, with a few more of the crew, were transferred to another man-of-war, which had just arrived short of hands from a different station. What were his feelings of astonishment and then of delight and ecstacy, when almost the first

person he saw on board his new ship was the identical boatswain for whose murder he had been tried, condemned, and executed, five years before! Nor was the surprise of the old boatswain much less when he heard the story.

An explanation of all the mysterious circumstances then took place. It appeared the boatswain had been bled for a pain in his side by the barber, unknown to his niece, on the day of the young man's arrival at Deal; that when the young man wakened him, and retired to the yard, he found the bandage had come off his arm during the night, and that the blood was flowing afresh. Being alarmed, he rose to go to the barber, who lived across the street, but a press-gang laid hold of him just as he left the public house. They hurried him to the pier, where their boat was waiting: a few minutes brought them on board a frigate, then under weigh for the East Indies, and he omitted ever writing home to account for his sudden disappearance. Thus were the chief circumstances explained by the two friends, thus strangely met. The silver coin being found in the possession of the young man, could only be explained by the conjecture, that when the boatswain gave him the knife in the dark, it is probable that as the coin was in the same pocket, it stuck between the blades of the knife, and in this manner became the strongest proof against him.

Fitness of Lawyers for Legislation. It is said that there was an Amsterdam merchant, who had dealt largely in corn all his life, who had never seen a field of wheat growing; this man had doubtless acquired, by experience, an accurate judgment of the qualities of each description of corn,-of the best methods of storing it, of the arts of buying and selling it at proper times, &c.; but he would have been greatly at a loss in its cultivation ; though he had been, in a certain way, long conversant about corn. Nearly similar is the experience of a practised lawyer, (supposing him to be nothing more,) in a case of legislation; because he has been long conversant about law, the unreflecting attribute great weight to his judgment; whereas his constant habits of fixing his

thoughts on what the law is, and withdrawing it from the irrelevant question of what the law ought to be ;-his careful observance of a multitude of rules, (which afford the more scope for the display of his skill, in proportion as they are arbitrary, unreasonable, and unaccountable,) with a studied indifference as to that which is foreign from his business, the convenience or inconvenience of those rules, may be expected to operate unfavorably on his judgment in questions of legislation: and are likely to counterbalance the advantages of his superior knowledge, even in such points as do bear on the question. Whately's Rhetoric.

Anecdote of Judge Chase. On an application made to Judge Chase in the course of a cause, the plaintiff's attorney presented his own affidavit, which he had taken care to make quite full enough. The affidavit having been read, the judge thus addressed the learned counsel, in the face of a crowded audience, "Sir, you have laid me under a particular obligation. In that affidavit you have sworn to a point of law, which I had been doubting about for twenty years." The counsel never made Judge Chase's circuit again. Journal of Law.

A Narrow Escape. In the administration of criminal justice, we are informed, that the following circumstances occurred. A young man had been arrested, on the charge of knowingly passing a counterfeit bank note-the grand jury had found a true bill against him—and he was placed on his trial. The evidence in support of the prosecution was strong; the note had been passed in a way to create suspicion; the prisoner's explanations were embarrassed and unsatisfactory; and little doubt seemed to remain of his conviction. The evidence was closed excepting the examination of a clerk of the bank, on which the forgery was supposed to have been committed, for the purpose of showing that the note was spurious. The court were detained a short time, he at length arrived; the note was placed in his hands, he examined it carefully, and pronounced it good. The accused was of course immediately acquitted. Journal of Law.

QUARTERLY LIST OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.

ENGLAND.

A Digest of the law of Evidence on the trial of Actions at Nisi Prius. By Henry Roscoe. Fifth edition, with considerable additions. By C. Crompton and E. Smirke.

The Law relating to the Public Funds, including the Practice by Distringas, &c. By James John Wilkinson.

A Selection of Precedents from Modern Manuscript Collections and Drafts of Actual Practice, &c. By Thomas Jarman. Third Edition. By George Sweet. Volumes 5 and 6.

Commentaries on Equity Jurisprudence, &c. By Joseph Story. Second Edition.

Commentaries on the Law of Agency, &c. A Treatise on the Law of Easements. T. D. Whatby.

Robinson's Magistrate's Pocket Book.

J. F. Archbold.

By the same.
By C. J. Gale and

Third Edition. By

The Law of Bills of Exchange, Promissory Notes, Checks, &c. By Cuthbert W. Johnson.

Martin's Practice of Conveyancing Precedents, with practical notes. By C. Davidson. Vol. 3, Part 2.

Practical Forms and Entries of Proceedings, in the Courts of Queen's Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer of Pleas. By William Tidd. Eighth Edition.

A Practical Treatise of the Law of Vendors and Purchasers of Estates. By sir Edward Sugden. Tenth Edition.

Archbold's Practice of the Court of Queen's Bench, in Personal Actions and Ejectment. Seventh Edition. By Thomas Chitty. Forms of Practical Proceedings, in the Court of Queen's Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer of Pleas. By Thomas Chitty. Fifth Edition.

Compendium of the Law of England, Scotland, and Ancient Rome. For the use of Students. By James Logan, Advocate. Parts 1 and 2. Of Marriage.

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