Precisely at ten o'clock, the Lord Chief Baron Macdonald took his seat on the bench, and the business was opened by arraigning the prisoner in the usual form, To the indictment he pleaded, in an audible voice," Not Guilty," and put himself on his trial.

Mr. Knapp, the clerk of the arraigns, then stated to the jury the nature of the indictment, which charged the prisoner with having, on the 23d September last in the parish of St. Mary, Rotherhithe, made an assault on Isaac Blight with a pistol and leaden bullet, and inflicted a mortal wound therewith, on his right side; of which he lingered until the 24th, and then died.

Mr. Pooley briefly opened the case on the part of the prosecution.

A most profound silence now prevailed, and a very strong interest was excited, when

Mr. Garrow rose, and stated the case on behalf of the crown against the pri soner. He addressed the court to the following effect:" I have the honour of attending on this occasion. You, are, gentlemen of the jury, engaged in an awful and important duty which will require your best and undivided attention. You will not expect from me at the opening of this case, an elaborate argument, or any endeavour, by subtle reasoning, to lead you prematurely to the conclusion, to which I must have arrived from my peculiar situation, which is certainly this, that you, in discharge of your solemn engagement, will be called upon to pronounce the prisoner guilty. You will, gentlemen, attend to the evidence in the sequel, and recollect that my principal object is merely to supply you with an index to that testimony." (The learned counsel then adverted to the motive of the trial being removed from the ordinary course at the assizes, and desired the jury' to dismiss from their minds every prejudice which might arise from the rumours they might have heard out of doors, and to apply only against the prisoner what should now be established by satisfactory evidence.)

He then proceeded-" I shall have occasion to state to you the relative situation of the deceased and the prisoner, to explain the local circumstances of the premises, and some other particulars; but I shall, I am confident, designedly say nothing calculated either to inflame or mislead your minds, although my feelings are strongly excited by what I have attended to preparatory to my appearance before you. Gentlemen, the connexion of this prisoner with the deceased will dispose you to think, that if he have indeed committed the murder with which he is charged, he is the worst man on the face of the earth. He has endeavoured to bring his benefactor and his friend into the toils of mischtef with the determined purpose to destroy him.

"The crime with which he is charged is the highest in the catalogue of guilt; and if he shall appear to you innocent, I must be ready to confess him one of the most injured and suffering men in the world; but should he prove to you guilty of this charge, and guilty I must think him beyond the possibility of a doubt, you will have no hesitation in agreeing with me, that he is one of the worst of mankind. His crime, gentlemen, would then extend to a degree beyond murder; it would be construed, in the language of the law, into petty treason.

"I know well enough, gentlemen, that I may be supposed to have imbibed some prejudices against the prisoner.-I have indeed confirmed my opinion as to his guilt; but I commenced my investigation with a mind as uubiassed and unpolluted as yours.-I inferred no guilt from publie opinion and prejudice ***

from newspaper reports, or partial testimony; I examined to the bottom a mass of evidence which I shall submit to you; and I concluded the prisoner guilty from this laborious scrutiny, this unwilling labour. My mind, therefore, is in a different state from what yours are, or should be. I have satisfied myself. It remains for me now to satisfy you. You, gentlemen, I am convinced, will approach to this painful task with unbiassed minds, and feelings alive to humanity, but which you will not suffer to divert you from the strict course of justice. I entreat you to think the prisoner as innocent as I once thought him, as if you had never heard of him before, or the charge preferred against him; hold your minds in an even and steady equipoise, and permit truth alone to decide the ba lance. An awful duty is imposed upon you. The prisoner expects life or death at your hands; and your country expects justice.

"I shall begin, gentlemen, by a kind of retrospective narrative, which is necessary to elucidate and sustain the harmony of the story I shall relate to you. I think I shall produce you such a body of circumstances, leading, by such irrefragable and necessary concentration, to the result which I intend to bring home to the prisoner, that you will plainly see the finger of Providence in the detection of this murder, and the hand of heaven itself, which has led us through many bye paths and secret ways, till we have at length mastered the labyrinth, and burst upon the prisoner with a conviction of guilt, which stares us broadly in our face as the light of day.

"Mr. Blight resided near Greenland Dock, where he followed the business of a ship-breaker. He had in his house a menial servant, who was the sister of the prisoner, and whom the latter came to see in the spring of 1803. On this occasion the woman requested that her brother might be permitted to remain all night, which being complied with, he took the opportunity of describing himself as a distressed man: he said that he had been obliged to leave the West of England on account of some claim for tythes, and added, that he should be greatly obliged to Mr. Blight if he would employ him, even in the meanest situation. The offer was accepted, and Mr. Patch was to receive his victuals in return, without any salary. This arrangement continued for some time; and I will admit Mr. Blight found him a valuable assistant, and rewarded him with a compliment at the rate of 301: a year. Afterwards it was found more convenient that the prisoner should not board in the family, and he was permitted to enjoy a salary of 1001. a year, as an acknowledgment for his services. Such, gentlemen, was the Erst introduction of the prisoner to the house of Mr. Blight.

"In the year 1805, the affairs of Mr. Blight became embarrassed, and it was necessary that he should come to some arrangement with his creditors; in consequence, a deed of trust was drawn up with a view to their adjustment, and his final exoneration. This deed was not acceded to, and matters were again thrown into confusion; Mr. Blight, therefore, to protect himself from the pressing importunity of his claimants, did that which his creditors may now see some cause to lament. The fact was that an instrument was prepared, by which the property of Mr. Blight was transferred to the prisoner, to the extent of 20001. and the lease of the premises was made over to his servant, in confirmation of which fact, a letter will be produced. This was in truth, a fraud upon the creditors, and the date of this transaction was in July, 1805. His property was in danger; and in order to secure it, he does what cannot, indeed, be called honest, but which, I am sorry to

say, is frequently the only refuge of embarrassed men against imprudent and obdurate creditors. A short time posterior to this, Mr. Blight's family went to Margate, but before he himself followed them, the deceased entered into a new arrangement with the prisoner relative to the entire transfer, the other being only a colourable agreement, for a particular purpose, and to be withdrawn altogether. The attention to this last contract is of the utmost consequence to the disclosure of the parts of this case; and by this it was stipulated, that Mr. Blight should have two-thirds of the business, in which he was concerned, and that the other one-third should devolve to the prisoner, for the valuable consideration of 1250. How the prisoner could raise so large a sum was a difficulty which will naturally occur to your minds, considering his humble situation. You will find, in point of fact, that he did not raise it, and that only 2501. was paid, leaving 10001. undischarged, attended with circumstances which will deserve your minute attention. Security was required for this amount, and it was given in the form of a draft of Mr. Goom, a glue maker, for 10001. which was to be payable on the 16th of September; and this bill or check on Goom, was paid by Patch into the hands of the deceased's banker. To give some explanation of this transaction, the prisoner said he had sold an estate in the West of England.-Upon the maturity of the draft, it was mentioned that Mr. Goom could not take it up, and the indulgence was given of another draft, to the same amount, due on the 20th of that month, with a remark, that the man had glued up the money. The day before this check was to have been paid, Mr. Blight set off to Margate, to join his family. This was on the Thursday, the 19th, and the prisoner accompanied him to Deptford, on the road. Immediately on quitting the deceased at this place, the prisoner hastened to the banker of Mr. Blight, and desired them not to present the draft, due the next day, as it would not be suitable to Mr. Goom to pay it. On the same day the prisoner returned to the house, and we see him now at home with only a female servant of the name of Kitchener. The prisoner was sitting in the front parlour, when he desired this servant to procure sixpennyworth of oysters. -The maid obeyed; but before she returned, a musket ball had been fired into the room where the family usually assembled. The prisoner said, on hearing the explosion, that he immediately quitted the apartment, but on going out he saw nobody but a man and his wife, who will be called before you as witnesses. I shall shew you, gentlemen, that this shot was fired by the prisoner, and that it was a part of the nefarious plan he had then determined to accomplish. The room into which this gun was fired was fronting the Thames, with a wharf intervening, and a considerable elevation above the river, so that it was impossible, in the situation in which the tide then was, that any person giving the ball this direction, could be in any other place than on the wharf. The lead entered the lower part of the shutter, broke the sash, and the venetian blinds within it, and so passed in the apartment. In addition to this, the ball took a sloping direction, descending inwards, so that it was impossible the weapon could have been discharged from the river, which was very considerably below the level of the dwelling. After the report had given the alarm, a publican of the name of Frost, who will also be called, ran to the spot, and enquired the cause. On being informed of the cir cumstances, he offered his assistance in various ways; but his friendly proposals were rejected by the prisoner, who said he would go to bed.

"On the next day, which was the 20th, the prisoner wrote to the deceased a long letter, apprising him of the affair, and intimating his wish that Mr. Blight should return home, as after such an event some personal communication seemed to be necessary. This letter was absolutely silent on every thing relating to Goom's money. On the receipt of this, Mr. Blight determined to comply with the wish expressed by the prisoner, and on the 23d of September he arrived at home, where he met the prisoner. Some conversation was immediately had, and probably the first subject was this supposed attempt on the family, and next on the payment of the 10001. which was so important in the condition of the affairs of the deceased.---The result was unfavourable to the wishes of Mr. Blight; and the prisoner was expressly ordered to go to London, and not on any account to return until he had obtained the money. In the evening of that day we find Mr. Patch at home with Mr. Blight, and taking grog together in the back parlour. At eight o'clock he went to the maid in the kitchen, enquired for the key of the counting-house, saying at the same time he had occasion to go to the privy. Having procured it he opened the house door, then the gate; afterwards he unlocked the counting-house, and passed through it to the privy. As soon as she heard the latter door slam to, or nearly at the same time, she saw the flash of a pistol, and before she could remove from her place, Mr. Blight had come into the kitchen, and rested his body upon the dresser. She then rushed to the house door and shut it, on which the prisoner knocked to procure admission. The single difficulty in this case is the identity of the time between the slamming of the privy door and the report of the pistol. But nothing was more deceptive than the interval of time in such circumstances; yet you, Gentlemen, will hear the testimony, and allow to my observations no weight which does not properly appertain to them. I confidently however charge the prisoner with this foul murder; with availing himself of false pretences to procure an instrument of death, and with that fatal weapon destroying his friend, when almost in the arms of sleep, after a fatiguing journey. What I have explained of the pecuniary circumstances of the prisoner, will assist in explaining the motive to this horrid crime."

(The learned counsel here commented on the various particulars regarding the money, and their application to this inquiry, and adverted to several conversations of the prisoner, in which he endeavoured to represent that persons of the name of Clarke and Webster as likely to have committed the murder. But as these matters will appear in the evidence, we shall not state them in this place.)

Mr. Garrow now directed the attention of the jury to various artifices, by which the prisoner had endeavoured, through the medium of the widow of the deceased, to acquire the possession of the papers of Mr. Blight, and by that means to obtain the alienation of the whole of his business and property. He detailed at much length on the state of the stockings of the prisoner, found by that vigilant and intelligent minister of justice Mr. Stafford, by which it appeared he had taken off his shoes; and he laid much stress upon the discovery of the ramrod in the funnel of the privy, with which the pistol had been wadded. He spoke of the state of mind in which the prisoner appeared during the examinations before the Magistrates; and on one occasion, after his return from the justices, he said, "I

M M-VOL. XXI.

have been near hanging myself just now, and if I had done it quite, I should not have been more unhappy." A beautiful model of the premises at Greenland Dock, the scene of the catastrophe, was next produced, on which the learned counsel pointed out the various parts of the buildings, and the adjacent ground, to shew that all the gates heing shut, no access could be procured, and that the prisoner alone could have perpetrated the deed.

Mr. Garrow then concluded, with a solemn appeal to the gentlemen on whom the fate of the prisoner was to depend, and with expressing his perfect confidence, that they would faithfully discharge the important duty they were now expected by their country to perform.

He then proceeded to call the witnesses on the part of the Crown.

Mr. Ashley Cooper, a surgeon of eminence, was first called. He stated, that on being sent for to the house of the deceased, to attend in his professional capacity, he found him lying on a bed on the parlour floor. He ordered him up stairs, and sent every one out of the room, except the two surgeons and Mr. Patch. He examined and dressed his wounds, and remained with him all. night. In the morning witness asked the deceased if he suspected any person to be guilty of so horrid a crime. The answer was, "No! God knows, never did any man an injury, to induce him to take away my life." Deceased observed to witness, that Mr. Patch had mentioned to him the name of Webster. Witness then turned to Patch, and said, "Who is this Webster ?”— Prisoner answered-" He is a man suspected of having robbed Mr. Blight, and whose son is run away in consequence of a warrant being out to search his father's premises." Witness suggested that the Bow-street Officers should be applied to, and that his house should be searched. Prisoner replied, he did not know; nothing might be found; and if nothing was found, he certainly would be shot; or words to that effect. On the morning of the day when Mr. Blight died, witness went to his bed side, and put some questions to him about his affairs. Deceased said he had the draft of a will, but it was not signed. Deceased wished to have the names of the prisoner and a Mr. Richard Ferguson added as executors, which the witness accordingly introduced, and the deceased signed the will, and it was witnessed. Mr. Cooper then stated that he opened the body, and was certain that the deceased died in consequence of a ball entering his side. He described the direction the ball took, &c. &c.

Miss Ann Louisa Davies was sworn. She stated that on the 19th of September, she was coming from Deptford, and on her way had to pass close to the deceased's gate; she had not passed the gate but a few yards when she saw the flash of a pistol, or gun, and heard the report; where she stood she could see the whole of that end of the premises; she stopped about two minutes, and was sure no person or persons made their escape that way; she heard no person come out of the deceased's house, nor did she hear any noise on the wharf.

Miss Martha Davies, sister to the preceding witness, was with her sister, and corroborated every thing she said; but did not see the flash of the pistol or gun.

Michael Wright was next called. He said he lived at Rotherhithe, and was coming from Deptford on the 19th of September last; that he passed along