tions, he went to Bath, and heard 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: Mr. Wall seemed sensibly af 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- 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 |