THE KED TRIAL AT LARGE OF WILLIAM SPARLING, Esq Late Lieutenant in the Tenth Regiment of Dragoons, Commanded by AND SAMUEL MARTIN COLQUITT, Esq. Captain of his Majefty's Ship Princefs. ON AN INDICTMENT FOR THE MURDER OF Mr. EDWARD GRAYSON, of LIVERPOOL, SHIP-BUILDER. Before SIR ALAN CHAMBRE, KNIGHT, One of the Judges of the Common Pleas, At the ASSIZES, held at LANCASTER, on WEDNESDAY, Taken in Short Hand and Collated with the Notes of other Writers Printed by and for W. JONES, 56, Caftle-ftreet; Sold alfo in London Price, 3s. 6d. Fine Paper, or 2s. 6d. Common 1804. PREFACE.O IT is proper the Reader fhould be apprifed, that the Publication of this: Trial does not appear at the particular inftance of either of the parties concerned in it. The impropriety, therefore, if there exifts any, of thus detailing at large to the world,. through the medium of the prefs, the folemn tranfactions of a court of juftice, must be imputed to the publisher alone, at whofe requeft the proceedings were taken down in fhort-hand, and not to either of the parties fo deeply implicated in' it. With the decifion of the cafe, however, he has nothing to do. The Trial by Jury is an invaluable branch of the British Confti tution; it is defervedly the boaft of Englishmen, fince, it is the grand palladium of their Rights and Liberties. Nor, will the Publisher, he trufts, be fufpected of this in the remoteft degree, whilft, in concurrence with a great majority of his fellow fubjects, he deplores the alarming increase of the practice of Duel. ingan evil, now become the theme of almoft univerfal execra tion. No perfon who has paid any tolerable degree of attention to this fubject, can have failed to remark that the Laws of the Country and the Prattice of the Courts are completely at vari ance on this point. The Pulifher has not the prefumption to imagine for a moment, that his infignificant and feeble voice will be regarded in this matter; but as a peaceable fubject, a friend" to humanity, and, he will add alfo, to the interefts of civilized fociety, he must be pardoned in expreffing with fome degree of warmth, his abhorrence of a practice which carries in it fo manifeft and flagrant a violation of the Laws of God-and his deepest regret that fome effectual check is not put to it. The contents of the present Pamphlet, he has no doubt, will be found interefting to the community at large, and peculiarly fo to the town and neighbourhood of Liverpool. Confiderable pains, too, have been taken to render the Report as correct and circumftantial as poffible. Since the publication of the firft four editions the whole has been revised by the short hand copies as well as by the notes of fome profeffional gentlemen, in con fequence of which feveral errors have been corrected, which the defire of the publisher to gratify the general avidity by an early publication, rendered almost unavoidable. The proceedings in Liverpool on the death of Mr. Grayfon, which, in the former editions, were added to the trial as an Appendix, are now prefixed as an Introduction; and the Defence of Mr. Sparling, which was wholly omitted, is now fupplied, as well as a brief fketch of that of Capt. Colquitt. 1 "THE LAWS OF THE COUNTRY AND THE PRACTICE OF THE 66 COURTS AT VARIANCE ON THE ARTICLE OF DUELLING !" 9. d: As this remark has fubjected, the Publisher to a confiderable fhare of obloquy, and even to the threat of a profecution, he cannot difmifs this new edition into the world without fubjoining a few words by way of explanation. Should any infer from it that the writer thirsts for human blood, or that he laments that thofe Gentlemen, who on this' occafion were acquitted, have not forfeited, their lives to the laws of their country, they would most egregiously mistake his intentions. He conceives, however, that, if the practice of Duelling be, what he has ftated it-a growing evil, and now. almost universally execrated, it is the proper bufinefs of our Courts of Judicature to reprefs it, and that it is the duty of Juries to do fo. Every one must allow that there is an effential difference between verdicts which fhall tend to deter from the commiffion of crimes and those which shall encourage them: but how the late decifion at Lancaster muft operate it is furely unneceffary to point out. As to thofe perfons who have thought proper to threaten the writer with a profecution for the above remark, he begs leave to affure them, that he has no predilection for the King's Bench, nor for any other of the King's prifons, and that it will be infinitely more agreeable to himself to remain at home in the fociety of his family and attending to those duties which he owes them. Nevertheless he will take this opportu nity of declaring, that if twelve boneft Englishmen can be found who fhall concur in finding him guilty of any crime and defery-i ing of punishment for writing and printing that paragraph (unbiaffed by the fophiftical reafonings of a fpecial pleader) he pledges himself to meet his deftiny, whatever it may be, with all the apathy of a Stoic. Under thofe circumstances, however, he hopes he should be allowed the privilege of printing his own trial as an article of trade, and of accompanying it with fuch obfervations on the conduct of both Judge and Jury as he may think neceffary for the good of his countrymen. But it may be worth while analyfing this obnoxious fentence, that it may the more clearly be comprehended what are the Laws of the Country in regard to Duelling, and what is the practice of the Courts; and this, it is prefumed, may be done without any pretenfions to deep reading in English Jurifprudence. to In regard to the firft of thefe-the laws of England concern. ing Duelling, if we look into Fudge Blackflone, we fhall find that ''હે the law adjudges it be murder if one man kill another, " in a duel" and "even fighting at all, when no mischief en"fues, is punishable by fine and imprisonment, and both fender "and bearer of a challenge are deemed equally guilty." Commentaries, vol. iv.. Another great authority tells us" It is agreed, that whenever two perfons in cool blood meet and fight on a precedent ❝quarrel, and one of them is killed, the other is guilty of mur❝der, and cannot help himself by alledging, that he was first "ftruck by the deceased; or that he had often declined to meet "him, and was prevailed on to do it by his importunity; that "it was his only intent to vindicate his reputation; or that he "meant not to kill but only to difarm his adverfary. For fince. "he deliberately engaged in an act highly unlawful in defiance "of the laws, he must at his peril abide the confequences there, of. And from hence it clearly follows, that if two perfons quarrel over night and appoint to fight the next day, or ❝ quarrel in the morning and agree to fight in the afternoonand one kill the other, he is guilty of murder." Hawkins's Pleas of the Crown, B. I. c. 31. Again," An affray may receive an aggravation from the "dangerous tendency thereof; as where perfons coolly and deliberately engage in a duel, which cannot but be attended. with the apparent danger of murder, and is not only an open defiance of the law, but carries with it a direct contempt of "the juftice of the nation, as putting men under a neceffity of "righting themselves: upon which confiderations, perfons con"victed of barely fending a challenge have been adjudged to pay a fine of One Hundred Pounds, and to be imprisoned. "one month without bail; and alfo to make a public acknowledgment of their offence and to be bound to their good be"haviour." 66 Hawkins's Pleas, &c. B. I. Ch. 63~~ So much for the laws of the country on this point: that, now, has been the practice of the Courts? This, the writer is well. aware, is a delicate fubject to touch upon, and therefore he shall content himself with barely quoting two lines from a respectable writer. "I have not found ANY CASE of an aqual execution in England in confequence of a Duel fairly fought." Principles of Penal Law. 1771. Chap. Duelling. |