The Chronicles of Crime or The New Newgate Calendar. v. 1/2 / being a series of memoirs and anecdotes of notorious characters who have outraged the laws of Great Britain from the earliest period to 1841.

by Camden Pelham

The learned counsel entered at considerable length into these positions, during which he compared the law of Spain, as it prevailed in Trinidad, to the law of England, as it subsisted in some of our own islands; and he contended that the conduct of General Picton was gentleness and humanity, compared to what might be practised with impunity under the authority of the British government.

Mr. Gloucester, the Attorney-General of his Majesty in the island, was then called, and he deposed to the authenticity of several books on the laws of the island, among which were the Elisondo, the Curia Philippica, the Bobadilla, the Colom, and the Recopilacion de Leyes.

Various passages in these books were referred to, and translated, for the purpose of showing that torture was not only permitted in certain cases, but in the particular instance before the jury.

Mr. Garrow was then allowed to call a witness, to show that, however such a law might at any time have existed, or might still exist, in Spain, it did not prevail in the West Indian colonies of that power. To this end, Don Pedro de Vargass was sworn. He deposed that, during the early part of his life, he had been regularly initiated and admitted to the office of an advocate of the Spanish law-courts in the colonies; that he had practised after his admission, in the regular course, for two years, and had resided at five or six of the West India islands, in the pursuit of his profession; and that, according to his knowledge of the Book of Recapitulation, by which the laws were administered, there was nothing contained in it to justify the infliction of torture, nor was torture, to his knowledge, ever resorted to. There was a law of Old Castile, of the year 1260, which justified the torture in certain cases, but he never understood that it extended to the West Indies, and it was so much abhorred in Spain, that it was either repealed, or had fallen entirely into disuse.

Mr. Dallas and Mr. Garrow then severally addressed the jury; and Lord Ellenborough in summing up, recommended them to divest their minds of every feeling which they might have contracted in the course of the present trial, and to throw every part of the case out of their consideration, except that which related to this simple point:—What was the law by which the island of Trinidad was governed at the period of its capture by the British? It was for the consideration of the jury whether the law then subsisting authorised personal torture to be inflicted. By the indulgence of the government of this country, the subsisting law was to continue; the question was, What was that subsisting law? The jury would observe, that it did not necessarily follow, because Trinidad was a colony of Old Spain, that it must therefore, in every part, have the laws of Old Spain. It did not originally form any part of that country, but had been annexed to it; and on what terms there was no positive evidence. It did not appear that either the schedule peculiar to this island, or the recapitulation, embraced the criminal law, or made any mention of torture. So, if torture did subsist in this island, it must be on the authority of law books read to the jury; and it was ascertained by several persons, apparently of competent knowledge, that torture had not, within their recollection, ever been practised in the island. It was, therefore, for the jury to say, in the absence of all positive proof on the subject, and in the face of so much negative evidence, whether the law of Spain was so fully and completely established in Trinidad as to make torture a part of the law of that island. Without going through the authorities, he thought the jury might take it to be the existing law of Old Spain, that torture might be inflicted. It was too much to say, that a discontinuance of a practice could repeal a law; but they had to determine whether they were convinced that torture had ever been part of the law of Trinidad; and also whether they were convinced that it was part of the law of Trinidad at the time of its capture. If so, they would enter a special verdict; if otherwise they would find the defendant guilty.

The jury found—There was no such law existing in the island of Trinidad, as that of torture, at the time of the surrender of that island to the British.

Lord Ellenborough—“Then, gentlemen, General Picton cannot derive any protection from a supposed law, after you have found that no such law remained in that island at the surrender of it, and when he became its governor; and therefore your verdict should be, that he is guilty.”

By the direction of Lord Ellenborough they therefore found the defendant “Guilty.”

The trial lasted from nine in the morning till seven at night.

Governor Picton walked the hall of the courts during the whole of the trial. He was a tall man, of a very sallow complexion, apparently about fifty years of age, and was dressed in black. He was accompanied by several of the civil officers of the island.