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tions, he went to Bath, and heard
nothing of any other charge until
two messengers came to him there
from lord Sidney: He asked them
if they had any warrant? which
they said they had not: but he,
however, had no objection, and
they proceeded towards London in
a chaise and four; he paid the bills,
and at Reading ordered the supper
in the usual way, but did not think
it necessary to tell the officers that
he was going away. He did not
know of this charge; but various
injurious reports, such as his hav-
ing blown nien from the mouth of
a cannon, had since been circulated.
I am however," concluded the
prisoner, "here now to answer for
this charge, and leave it to my lords
and the gentlemen of the jury."

66

To substantiate this account of the transaction, several witnesses were called, particularly Mrs. Lacey, widow of the captain who succeeded Mr. Wall, and Mary Faulkner, who not only agreed with him in the outrageous conduct of the men, and the violent language they used, but both positively swore that Lewis, the first witness, was not the orderly sergeant on that day. John Faulkner, Peter Williains, and some others who were present, were also examined, and whose testimonies went in full corroboration of the account given by the prisoner, and so far went to his justification; but which in most material points was in direct contradiction to the evidence which had been given by the witnesses for the crown.

The learned judge recapitulated the evidence with much discrimination, and the jury, after being out of court some time, pronounced a verdict of Guilty.

The recorder then proceeded to

pass sentence of death upon him:
that he be executed on Friday the
22d, and that his body be after-
wards delivered to be anatomized,
according to the statute.

Mr. Wall seemed sensibly af
fected by the sentence, but said no◄
thing more than requesting the court
would allow him a little time to pre-
pare himself for death,

Thus ended this very extraordinary trial, which excited no common share of attention.

The rank of the party, his age, and the circumstance of the crime's having been committed nearly twenty years previously to his condemnation, all held out to public curiosity subject-matter perhaps hitherto unequalled in the annals of the country.

The clemency of his sovereign extended to the unhappy man the period of his punishment to the 28th, when he suffered death, the particulars of which may be seen in our Chronicle for this month.

And here it may not be improper or impertinent to remark, and it is indeed a natural deduction from the nature of the two trials we have that Brisuccessively detailed, tish justice has manifested in two memorable events its wis lom, its purity, and its impartiality, viz. in the exemplary punishment of MuTINEERS for disobedience to their officers, and a no less exemplary execution of a COMMANDER, for violating the delegated authority of his sovereign, in ordering a panishment, which caused the death of one of those whom he was placed over!!!

The late colonel Wall was lientenant-governor of Goree, but the office of chief governor becoming vacant. he acted in that capacity for about two years. He was colonel and commandant of an African corps, 004

.

and superintendant of trade to the colony. His family were originally Roman catholics, but he was himself a protestant. He was a native of Dublin, and was allied by marriage to many noble families (his wife being sister to lord Seaforth), and had for many years lived a most irreproachable life: it is most probable, that had he not himself solicited a trial by his application to the secretary of state, that he would never have been molested for a transaction of so distant a date. He has left children, his eldest son about eleven years old. It is rather a curious coincidence, that at three equally distant periods, in the interval of forty years, the late unfortunate Mr. Wall rose first into notice; was at the zenith of his power; and terminated his career by an ignominious death. The first, in 1762, when he fought with great bravery and effect (as was alluded to by that respectable officer, general Forbes, when speaking to Mr. Wall's character) at the reduction of the Havannah which occasioned his subsequent promotion; the second, in 1782, when with the rank of a field officer, and governor of the island of Goree, he unhappily committed that act which led to his deplorable catastrophe; and, 3dly, after a long exile, with very indifferent or precarious means of subsistence, in 1902, when he expiated those offences by an ignominious death.

Particulars of the wilfully casting away of the Brig Adventure, for the Purpose of defrauding the Underwriters, for which Richard Codling, her Captain, John Reid, Superargo, and George Easterley and

William Macfarlane,Owners of the said Brig, were tried at an Admiralty Sessions, at the Old Bailey, October 26th 1802. Extracted from the Evidence of Thomas Cooper.

Thomas Cooper, a foremast man, deposed, that he shipped himself as such on board the brig Adventure, at Limehouse; that the prisoner Codling was captain, and a man of the name of Douglas was at that time mate of her: a Mr. Storrow he understood to be supercargo, who occasionally came on board, and sailed with them to Yarmouth, where they took in 22 hogsheads of tobacco, some linen, and a quantity of ballast: from thence they sailed to Deal, where the prisoner came on board as supercargo, and Douglas being much afflicted with the rheumatism, he quitted the ship; on which the captain appointed the witness to succeed him, notwithstanding he acquainted the captain that he When they left Deal, the captain was unacquainted with navigation. charged him to have the ship's boat kept clean, and four oars constantly in her. On the Friday before the witness, that they should not be vessel sunk, the captain said to the eight and forty hours longer in her; and on the Saturday, that she was the Bay of Biscay; that he did not not capable of carrying them through think her worth trusting his life in, and why should the witness? Grog was then served round, and in the evening the witness went to relieve the captain at the helm, who went down to the cabin. quarter of an hour he came up again, In "about a and told the witness to go scuttle the ship; that he would find down and an auger on the rcabin floort he

purpose;

purpose; that he must take the scut-
ile hatch, and bore a hole in the run,
as near the bottom as he could.
The witness went down to the cabin,
and found the auger as described,
with which he bored three holes in
the bottom, as he had been directed:
he then returned and told the captain
that he had made three holes, in two
of which he had put gimlet spikes,
and left the auger in the third; on
which he bade him let them remain
so till the morning: this was ac-
cordingly done until just before
day-break, when he was directed to
pull the auger out; after which the
captain ordered that the cabin-boy
should be prevented from coming
down into the cabin to get his break-
fast, as usual, lest he might hear the
water coming in. At the time he
(the witness) made the two holes
with the auger, Reid was close by in
bed; he turned two or three times,
but did not speak, and therefore he
could not say whether Reid heard
him or not, as the auger made no
noise. At the captain's desire he
called Reid, who thereupon went
upon deck; while he was there the
captain came down and wished the
holes increased, that the water
might come in faster; the witness
recollected there was an iron crow
upon the deck, told the captain of
it, who replied, that was the very
thing; upon which he went and
fetched it into the cabin: the captain
lent him a hand to knock the lockers
down, that he might the more casily
get at the holes, and then he struck
the crow-bar through the ship's
bottom, when the water came in
freely. From the first of his having
made the holes with the auger, one
of them had been left open, to give
the appearance of a leak, and to keep
the pump at work, but soon after he
had struck the crow through the

bottom, they hoisted the signal of distress, on which the boat had been hoisted out, and all the crew had got into it but himself and the captain. For his own part, in consequence of the captain having told him that they should not be eight and forty hours longer on board, he had packed up part of his things in the breadpan, and was so far prepared to put them into the boat. The signat being seen, at about eight o'clock, a boat came up, the people in which asked if they wanted any assistance, and offered to tow the vessel on shore; but the captain told them, that the ship belonged to him while she swam, and they had no business with her. At this juncture, a boat belonging to the Swallow revenue cutter came up, a hawser was fastened to the head of the Adventure, and she was by them taken in tow; but they had scarcely brought her head about, when she went down, in consequence, he had no doubt, of the holes which he, agreeably to the captain's orders, had made in her bottom. The whole crew was taken on shore, and they all went to the Ship jun, at Brighton, where he heard Reid say that he had lost every thing. He remembered that when Reid came on board at Deal, a trunk was brought with him, but the very next day that trunk was taken ashore again.

It was on the Sunday morning that the ship sunk, and, as well as he could recollect, it was on the Tuesday following that Easterley and McFarlane came to Brighton, the former of whom asked the witness where he had bored the holes, and what were their size? He could not tell whether McFarlane was near enough to hear the question: there were at the time some carpenter's tools lying near them, and he replied, that one was

the

the size of that chissel handle; on which Easterley bid him get the handle out, that he might be prepared to plug up the hole, in case the ship should be got on shore, to which she was then making very fast; and turning to the captain, he called him a damned fool, said he had made a stupid job of it, for if he had only run over to the coast of France, from its being such fine weather, they would to a certainty have got to shore on one side or the other. Easterley and McFarlane then ordered the captain and witness to get off for London, observing, that if they did not keep close, they might be soon under sentence of death. M Farlane took places for them in the coach, for which he paid, gave the witness a direction to his house, and a guinea: the witness also received nine shillings for wages. The captain's coming to London with him was however stopped by a gentleman, and one of the cabin boys came in his stead. One of these boys the captain had early in the morning sent down to the cabin for his great coat, and who, on his return, said he was sure he had heard the water coming in; the captain said it was no such thing,

that he had only heard the water from their being on the run, bidding the witness go and see if that was not the case, at the same time giving him a hint to confirm what he had said; and which he did. On the witness's arrival in London, he parted with the boy; and having remained two nights, he set off to walk down to his mother's, who lives at a village near Saxmondham, and when he came there, he found some people had been after him, and that a hand-bill had been circulated, offering one hundred guineas reward; on this he immediately sent to a neighbouring constable, surrendered himself, and gave an account of the whole transaction.

Much other evidence was adduced to establish the guilt of the prisoners, who made little or no defence, aud were, except Reid, found guilty. In consequence of which Codling suffered death with a fortitude worthy of a better cause on the 27th of November. But there appearing some legal doubts on the criminality of Easterley and McFarlane, their case was reserved for the opinion of the twelve judgęs,

A GENERAL

A GENERAL BILL

OF

CHRISTENINGS AND BURIALS,

From DECEMBER 15, 1801, to DECEMBER 14, 1802.

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* The executions in Middlesex and Surrey are not here included, they not being re

ported within the bills of mortality.

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