addressed the jury, and observed there could be no doubt in the case. The jury found the prisoner guilty, and he suffered accordingly, before Newgate, in November, 1805.

He was a genteel man, thirtyfive years of age: on the day of his trial he was dressed in black, and full powdered.

THE first of these malefactors was a man of respectability, being employed by government to supply the different garrisons in Guernsey with coals. In the discharge of this duty he became acquainted with Major Richard Hawkins, of the Royal Engineer corps, who was stationed at Guernsey from 1793 to 1798.

On the 5th of April, 1803, the major removed to the island of Trinidad, where he died on the 10th of July following. Walker at this time cohabited with a woman named Browning, who pretended to have been intimate with the deceased major, and from her information he undertook to fabricate a will, purporting to be that of Major Richard Hawkins, by which he bequeathed the greater part of his property to some persons unknown, and making Walker his sole executor, who was to appear quite disinterested, as there was not a single farthing left him.

A difficulty arose respecting witnesses to the will; for, unless they personally filed their allegations in Doctors' Commons, it would be impossible to recover the sums bequeathed. Recourse was had to one Rochester, formerly in Walker's employ; and he made application to one Heddington, servant to Walker. This man was told that only one witness had subscribed, and that three were necessary; that he might sign with impunity, as he must have been aware of his master's respectability and prudence. Hedding

ton at first consented; but, on seeing the paper, declined, though promised one hundred pounds.

Heddington subsequently meeting with Dodd, who was an attorney's clerk, related the whole affair, when he requested to be introduced to the parties. The meeting took place, and Dodd became a subscribing witness for a valuable consideration, affecting all the importance of a professional man, examining the water-marks, and directing the folding, &c.

The heir of Major Hawkins now took the alarm, and, knowing that no will was in existence, he had Walker, Dodd, Rochester, and one Richard Walker, apprehended on a charge of forgery.

Their trial came on at the Old Bailey, April 19, 1806, when Heddington appeared to give evidence against them. His testimony was corroborated by that of several others; after which Lord Ellenborough summed up in a very humane and perspicuous manner: he occupied three hours in his charge to the jury, who withdrew for about twenty minutes, and found George Richard Walker and Christopher Dodd guilty, but acquitted the other two. The trial lasted fourteen hours, and did not conclude till eleven o'clock. The court was excessively crowded, and many distinguished personages were on the bench with the judges. These two offenders suffered the sentence of the law opposite the debtors' door, Newgate.

The learned counsel here produced a drawing in water colours, in which the situation of the sufferer, and the magistrate, executioner, and secretary, was described. He then proceeded:

It appears to me, that the case, on the part of the prosecution, will be complete when these facts are established in evidence; but I am to be told, that, though the highest authority in this country could not practise this on the humblest individual, yet, that by the laws of Spain it can be perpetrated in the island of Trinidad. I should venture to assert, that if it were written in characters. impossible to be misunderstood, if it were the acknow. ledged law of Trinidad-it could be no justification of a British governor. Nothing could vindicate it but the law of imperious necessity, to which we must all submit. It was his duty to impress upon the minds of the people of that colony the great advantages they would derive from the benign influence of British jurisprudence; and that, in consequence of being received within the pale of this government, torture would be for ever banished from the island. It is, therefore, not sufficient for him to establish this sort of apology; it is required of him to show that he complied with the institutions under the circumstances of irresistible necessity. This governor ought to have been aware that the torture is not known in England; and that it never will be, never can be, tolerated in this country.

The trial by rack is utterly unknown to the law of England though once, when the Dukes of Exeter and Suffolk, and other ministers of Henry VI. had laid a design to introduce the civil law into this kingdom as the rule of

government, for a beginning thereof they erected a rack for torture, which was called in derision the Duke of Exeter's daughter, and still remains in the Tower of London, where it was occasionally used as an engine of state, not of law, more than once in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. But when, upon the assassination of Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, by Felton, it was proposed in the Privy Council to put the assassin to the rack, in order to discover his accomplices, the judges, being consulted, declared unanimously, that no such proceeding was allowable by the laws of Eng. land.

Such are the observations of the elegant and learned author of the "Commentaries on the Law of England" on this subject; and, as the strongest method of showing the horror of the practice, he gives this question in the form of an arithmetical problem :

"The strength of the muscles, and the sensibility of the nerves, being given, it is required to know what degree of pain would be necessary to make any particular individual confess his guilt.”

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But what are we to say to this man, who, so far from having found torture in practice under the former governors, has attached to himself all the infamy of having invented this instrument of cruelty? the Duke of Exeter's daughter, it never had existence until the defendant cursed the island with its production. I have incontestable evidence to show this ingenuity of tyranny in a British governor; and the moment I produce the sanguinary order the man is left absolutely without defence. The date of the transaction is removed at some distance.

It was directed that a commission should conduct the affairs

of the government, and among the persons appointed to this important situation was Colonel Fullarton. In the exercise of his duties in that situation, he attained the knowledge of these facts; and with this information he thought it incumbent on him to bring this defendant before you; and, with the defendant, I shall produce the victim of this enormity, whom, from the accident of my being conducted into a room by mistake, I have myself seen. She will be presented before you, and you will learn she at this moment bears upon her the marks of the barbarity of the defendant. In due time you will hear what my excellent and amiable friend near me has to offer in behalf of his client: I state the case at present with full confidence in your verdict; I ask nothing from your passions; nothing but justice do I require, and I have no doubt at the end of this trial that you will be found to have faithfully exercised your important duty.'

Louisa Calderon was then called. She appeared about eighteen years of age, of a very interesting countenance, being a Mulatto or Creole, of a very genteel appearance. She was dressed in white, with a turban of white muslin, tied on in the custom of the country. Her person was slender and graceful. She spoke English but very indifferently; and was examined by Mr. Adam, through the medium of a Spanish interpreter.

She deposed that she resided in the island of Trinidad in the year 1798; and lived in the house of Don Pedro Ruiz, and remembered the robbery. She and her mother were taken up on suspicion, and brought before Governor Picton, who committed them to prison, under the escort of three soldiers. She was put into

close confinement; and before, she was taken there the governor said, If she did not confess who had stolen the money, the hangman would have to deal with her.' She knew Begora, the magistrate, or lord-mayor. He came to the prison, and examined her on the subject of the robbery many times, and on different days. De Castro, the clerk of the magistrate, also attended, and took down her depositions.

She was then carried to the room where the torture was prepared. Here her left hand was tied up to the ceiling by a rope, with a pulley; her right hand was tied behind, so that her right foot and hand came in contact, while the extremity of her left foot rested on the wooden spike. A drawing representing the exact situation, with the negro holding the rope by which she was suspended, was then shown to her; when she gave a shudder, expressive of horror, which nothing but the most painful recollection of her situation could have excited; on which Mr. Garrow expressed his concern that his lordship was not in a position to witness this accidental, but conclusive, evidence of the fact.

Lord Ellenborough objected te the exhibition of this drawing to the jury, until Mr. Dallas, on the par of his client, permitted it to be shown to them. The examination then proceeded, and the remainder of Louisa Calderon's evidence corroborated the statement of Mr. Garrow. She remained upon the spike three quarters of an hour, and the next day twenty-two minutes. She swooned away each time before she was taken down, and was then put into irons, called the Grillas,' which were long pieces of iron, with two rings for the feet, fastened