Mr. Serjeant Bompas. They are in Spanish; there is no name signed to them at all; there is the letter M, and there are directions in respect of the cargo which is on board. Now I apprehend we have two things to prove, and to give in evidence to your Lordships and to the Jury; the one is, what was the object of the vessel, what was to be done with her cargo, what was the object of her freight? There is the captain found on board, who delivers up the ship’s papers, and among others the directions to the consignees as to what is to be done with the cargo, and general instructions.
Mr. Kelly. I have three times heard my learned friend make an assertion to your Lordship, which I beg leave to deny. I am certain my learned friend is speaking under instructions false in themselves. He has never read the letters; I have. They have been before another Court in a proceeding to which this gentleman was no party, and I undertake to say they do not refer to the disposal of this cargo or this vessel in any way; and it is cruel in the extreme that such statements should be made in the hearing of the Jury, which they will never forget; and that those statements will remain when your Lordship rejects them, as you will do. I have read them all, from the beginning to the end; they were before the Privy Council, and I say they do not relate to it.
Mr. Serjeant Bompas. I have read them from the beginning to the end; I do not put my judgment against Mr. Kelly’s; but he asserts that they do not, and I assert that they do: whatever is in these letters I have carefully abstained from stating it in any way which shall injure the prisoner at the bar.
Mr. Justice Maule. Mr. Serjeant Bompas does not state that they contain any direction to employ the goods in slave trading.
Mr. Kelly. I deny that they contain any direction to employ the goods in any way.
Mr. Justice Maule. It is rather favourable to the voyage that there should be a document so produceable and regular, as instructions to the persons interested in the cargo: where there was nothing to conceal, persons would have those instructions.
Mr. Serjeant Bompas. When we come to matters of assertion, I yield to my learned friend; but when we come to the examination of documents, and to decide whether they are evidence, then we look at the evidence. It is absolutely necessary, if they are directions, that your Lordships should look at them to ascertain whether they are so or not, and in that way I should not have the slightest objection to submit them to the Court: they are at page 7; and there is one document I will call your attention to, in which there is a distinct direction as to what is to be done with the cargo on board; as far as that is necessary these are directions, or, as your Lordship says, there are none.
(A printed copy of the Letters was handed to their Lordships.)
Mr. Serjeant Bompas. If your Lordships look at the general direction, you will find it in page 7, “I have to request,” down to the words “so very precious.”
Mr. Justice Maule. Does that refer to any mention of the Augusta before that?