Mr. Kelly. Confine your answer to the question.
—It is necessary to explain.
Mr. Kelly. No, not at all.
Mr. Serjeant Talfourd. You received some papers in the first instance?—Yes; the vessel’s papers on demand. I had demanded them, and on being refused by Captain Jennings to answer a question which he was bound to answer to the commander of a British man-of-war, I insisted upon its being answered, and said I should detain the vessel till it was; and that question was to whom did the vessel—
Mr. Kelly. Here I must interpose; and unless Captain Hill is to be the sole judge of what is to be admissible evidence, I ask your Lordship to interpose, or to hear me and dispose of my objection. I cannot complain of my learned friend; he puts nothing but perfectly regular questions. Captain Jennings is not my client here.
Mr. Justice Maule. You gave back the ship’s papers to Captain Jennings, and afterwards you insisted upon having these papers, or having some more?—I insisted upon having the question answered to whom the vessel was consigned.
Mr. Serjeant Bompas. He has a right to ask that; that is a question which the captain is bound to demand of him, to whom he is consigned.
Mr. Kelly. I am quite well aware that in your Lordship’s hands I am quite safe; and if Captain Jennings had committed a murder on this occasion, it would not upon your Lordship’s minds produce any influence; but it is impossible to tell, knowing that Jennings was the captain of the vessel, and that the prisoner at the bar may have had some hand in the fitting it up, what influence it may have upon the minds of the Jury if we are to have conversations or recognitions, supposing there to have been any made by Captain Jennings; and all this done in the absence of Mr. Zulueta, who had no knowledge of it or control over it. If I at all understand it to be your Lordship’s impression, that any thing said or done by Captain Jennings is evidence, having made the objection I have nothing further to submit to your Lordships; but I do conceive, that nothing done by Captain Jennings long after the vessel sailed, and long after the offence, if any, was committed, is admissible. I do feel it my duty to ask, whether evidence is to be received of what was said and done by Captain Jennings months after the departure of the vessel from this country?
Mr. Justice Maule. I do not entertain either of those two opinions. You do not put two cases which exhaust all other possible cases, but you say if I am of opinion that every thing said and done by Captain Jennings is evidence, you say no more; you say nothing. But I do not think that the thing is evidence, because Captain Jennings says it; nor do I think we can say, that nothing that Captain Jennings said can be evidence in the course of the trial. But with respect to what we have to decide, it is not whether there is such a large and general rule as that, but whether this question falls within any rule that excludes it. I think it does; I think what Captain Jennings said on that occasion is not admissible in evidence. If Captain Hill demands some other papers from him, that fact may be given in evidence.
Mr. Serjeant Talfourd. Did you afterwards receive some other papers from Captain Jennings on board?—Yes, I received a packet.