Gentlemen, what is the charge brought forward? Pedro de Zulueta, the young gentleman for whom I appear before you, is, I believe, the eldest son of his father: his father, now advanced in years, is the head of the house. He is a gentleman, who has filled the very highest offices in his own country, and who has been, I believe, at one time, the President of the Cortes in Spain, an office analogous to that of Speaker of the House of Commons in this country, and was member for the city of Cadiz as long as his commercial concerns required him to remain and discharge the duties of that situation. He is a gentleman, who has now reached a very advanced age without a shadow of imputation upon his character; who has been engaged during the whole of his life in commercial transactions of the largest and most important nature and extent, and who not only himself, but his father and grandfather before him, who for seventy years carried on an extensive trade in Spain, and at a time when not only Spain, but I grieve to say our own country, Britain, was engaged through her colonies in extensive slave trading, abstained from ever dealing or turning to their own account the value of a copper farthing in that trade; who, so far from that, when from some bankrupt estate some slaves became the property of the father, he immediately gave them their freedom—a number of slaves passed to him as a part of a bankrupt estate, as they might do at that time, he immediately manumitted them, and gave them their freedom—he it is, who having mainly conducted this transaction, he finds it in vain to look back to a long life, spent in honour, honesty, and integrity, a life spent in deeds of charity and kindness—he finds it in vain to look to the character of his house never before assailed by the breath of suspicion—he finds his own son indicted in this country—a country, under the protection of the laws of which he is living, and to which he has brought his commerce, and in which he and those belonging to him are spending the large fortunes they have gained in their trade; he finds, under the laws of this country, his son is indicted as a felon, for having signed his name to one or two documents—and I will prove to you that is all he has done in the course of a transaction which passed through their house as commission agents for the house of Martinez & Co., at the Havannah—and I will convince you, when I refer to the evidence before you,evidence which has been, I must say, most unfairly adduced, which has been perverted and brought before you in a way which I cannot commend, I will show you upon the evidence that that is all that can be charged upon this young man—that in the course of a transaction which passed through the house in which he is now a principal, but only since he has been of age has he been a member at all to entitle him to sign documents—he signed a letter, perfectly innocent in itself, and a charter-party, a regular mercantile transaction, the profit of which to the house was of the most trumpery amount—he did those two acts, in the absence of his father, the house here conducting the business for their agents—and for thathe is brought to the bar of the Central Criminal Court, and you are asked to pass against him a verdict of guilty, fixing upon him the crime of felony, and all the dreadful consequences of that guilt, which by this indictment he is liable to.
Gentlemen,I must say, that a proceeding of this kind does no honour to those great and zealous efforts made for the total extinction of the slave trade by Britain and British means. If those, who sincerely desire to see that trade effaced, as we all trust in God it soon will be, from the surface of the earth; if they desire to see their efforts succeed, and if they desire to aid the great exertions of Britain for the destruction of the slave trade, let them not treat as felons those merchants in Great Britain or elsewhere, who may, without having any reason to suspect they are illegal, carry on trading concerns with the coast of Africa; let them try, by their cruizers, to stop the slave vessels and liberate the slaves on board; let them exert themselves to put an end to the slave trade wherever their arms or their efforts can be carried; but let them remember, it is not by force of arms it will be abolished—it is by civilisation, and the arts and commerce, the basis of civilisation, it alone can be put an end to. If you would lead to the total destruction of that trade, let it be indeed by vigilance, let it be by all the great efforts made by our ships abroad and our councils at home; but, above all things, seek to introduce commerce—for where there is commerce, there must in time be civilisation, intelligence, and moral improvement, and education, and progress in the arts, which are calculated to raise the character of any country—wherever there is commerce, there must be commercial people, there must be educated people, there must be persons to carry on the government, there must be courts of justice established, and persons to administer the law—that commerce will increase, and will lead to civilisation, and we can introduce all that is good in this world, and promote all the best objects in life—and then the slave trade will cease, not by force, but by civilisation. And I will show you, when I go through the evidence, if you will fairly consider it altogether in the way in which it ought to be brought before you, and in which it ought to be presented to your minds, I undertake to satisfy you that these gentlemen are not capable, and that there is no ground for imputing it to them, of lending their assistance to that odious traffic; and I say, that no Englishman, nor English house, has done more to prevent and destroy it than the house of Zulueta & Co., both in Spain and in this country.
Now, Gentlemen, let us see what the charge is. The charge is this:—That the prisoner at the bar employed and dispatched a vessel, and shipped certain goods, in order that the goods and vessel might be employed in the slave trade. Gentlemen, I wish that my learned friend, Mr. Serjeant Bompas, had been more explicit in his opening address. I think it would have been but fair if he had stated distinctly what he alleged to be the object of the party prosecuted. To say he has the general object of engaging in the slave trade is speaking most vaguely. Does he mean that the prisoner has dispatchedthis vessel, intending that slaves should be taken on board the vessel? Does he mean, that Pedro de Zulueta engaged in shipping the goods, in order that the goods might be bartered against slaves? or, does he mean, that he shipped the goods, in order that the goods might be sold for money, and with that money that slaves might be bought? Gentlemen, whatever might be the object, I think I shall satisfy you that Mr. Zulueta was perfectly innocent; that he had no such object, that he had no such intention, that he had no such idea: but it is hard for him, that in a matter so much affecting his happiness I should have to grope my way in the dark to find out what the charge is, and that while I am exhausting my strength and your patience in finding out the charge, it may turn out that something more was in the mind of the prosecutor, or in the mind of the person who framed the indictment, merely because Mr. Serjeant Bompas, acting under the instructions of Sir George Stephen, has not properly defined what he imputed to Mr. Zulueta. It is very easy to say to a British merchant, who purchases and ships for another house a quantity of goods, and sends them on board a vessel consigned to the coast of Africa, it is easy to say to him, upon some part of the coast of Africa the slave trade is carried on, and you, in some way or other, intended to promote it; it is easy to say that may be, but it seems to me, it ought to have been fully and distinctly alleged what was the object they meant to impute to him—whether it was to do that which my learned friend has thought fit to accuse him of.
But, let us see what the charge is. I must assume it to be this—that, in some way or other, Mr. Zulueta knew, that when he, as a member of the firm, took some part in dispatching the vessel, or in shipping the goods, that the vessel, or the goods, or both, were to be employed in the slave trade—by whom employed, whether by Messrs. Martinez & Co., at Cadiz, or the consignees, Rolo & Co., or Captain Jennings himself, my learned friend has found it to be convenient to withhold even from you—therefore, what the precise charge is I am seeking to find out, but I am utterly unable to ascertain. It may be, that they contend that the object was that Martinez & Co., who are supposed to have some agents at the Gallinas, intended to convert the goods directly into slaves, or into money to buy slaves; it may be, that the consignees of the goods are the parties to do that; it may be, as he says, that Captain Jennings was a slave trader on his own account, and that he was to do it: which of the three it is I do not know; but whichever it is—though it would make considerable difference in the legal form, because sending goods to be converted into money is no offence, though that money may be converted into slaves, although sending goods may be an offence—but I am not entering into that, for though there is a distinction in law, I make none in fact—I entirely, on behalf of the prisoner, disclaim the slightest notion or idea of giving the slightest countenance or aid, directly or indirectly, to the slave trade, in any shape or form that any man can suggest; and I say it would be a most uncharitable wresting and perverting of facts, which may becapable of two constructions from their ordinary and fair effect, to say that they throw a shade of suspicion upon any part of the conduct of the prisoner.
Gentlemen, I pray you to consider the real nature of the transaction, as it is to be collected from that to which my learned friend has been obliged to refer—and he could not make out his case without it—from that statement made by Mr. Zulueta himself voluntarily before the Committee. It is this, that this young man, born in Spain, but having from the high station of his father had a most excellent education, being of amiable character and intelligent, thought he might be of use to the house in England—there is a house in Cadiz, but the house we have to deal with is that in England—he comes here, becomes a member of the firm, and remains here; he speaks English a great deal better than his father, and in the transactions requiring more of speaking English he took a more prominent part: but the correspondence and the evidence in the case shows, that the orders given in the commercial transactions are entirely in the handwriting of the father almost; and it is a mere accident that the name of the son is put to documents not prepared by him, as I will show you he puts his signature to them in the ordinary course of business in the house. The house of Zulueta & Co. has transactions with most parts of the world, but is most largely engaged with Spain, and the Havannah, and several other places. With regard to Africa, the house has nothing to do with it—and I pray your attention to this point, I implore your attention to it, or you may misunderstand the evidence given by Captain Hill and Captain Denman—they had no more—Zulueta & Co., had no more to do with the trade to the coast of Africa than I have, or any of you I was going to say, I hope, you have, but if none of you, had. But it so happened, that trading to the amount of three or four hundred thousand pounds in the course of three or four years, or more largely still, with this house of Martinez & Co., that Martinez & Co., whose business was carried on at the Havannah and Cadiz, also had some dealings with various parts of the coast of Africa, amongst others at the Gallinas; and out of transactions to the amount of 200,000l.or 400,000l., there are transactions to the amount of 18,000l.or 20,000l.in ten years or more—call it twenty years—I believe it is ten years—to the amount of about 18,000l.or 20,000l., which consisted in this—not a trade to Africa, but this kind of dealing—Martinez & Co., who trade to the Havannah, to which Zulueta & Co. trade, also were in the habit of consigning cargoes of sugar, and other produce, from the Havannah to England; and having some dealings with the coast of Africa, they have upon some five or six occasions desired the house of Zulueta & Co., who live in England and carry on their business here, to furnish them with this trifling amount of British manufactures, and send them on board any vessel they may buy or engage for the purpose, to such part of the coast of Africa as they may direct. The house of Zulueta & Co. carrying on business here, from the immense extent of their transactions having a house at Liverpool, upon receiving an order to ship goods to the amount of a few hundred pounds, they order the goods through theirLiverpool house, the great emporium of manufactures in that part of England, and they put them on board any ship directed by Martinez & Co.; they ship the goods in any shape or way as they may direct; and from the time the goods are shipped, they know no more of them, and have no more to do with the subsequent disposition of them, than any one of you I am addressing. It turns out, for so Captains Hill and Denman who have been upon the coast say, that the Gallinas has no produce to return for goods; they say that there is nothing but the slave trade there; that though the goods may be unshipped and landed, there is no return produce: but Messrs. Zulueta & Co., who had no trade with the Gallinas, who I will show you upon the evidence never until this transaction heard the name of any one of the three parties to whom this cargo was consigned, they sent the goods to the Gallinas as they would have done to the Havannah or to Gambia, to Madagascar or the East or West Indies, and troubled themselves no more about it as soon as the goods are shipped: because it is suggested that some parties concerned in these slave trading establishments may make an iniquitous use of these goods in the slave trade, they are to be told that this young man—(not attacking his father, whose ancient name and character for honour and integrity would protect him)—has committed a crime; they seize upon this unhappy young man; they say, because your house have sent goods to that place, ordered by your correspondents, you shall be seized as a felon and tried for a felony.
Now let us look at the evidence. I will take the evidence as it was given, and consider the evidence apart from the statement: take my statement as nothing, and take my learned friend’s statement as nothing; let us see what the case is, divested of speeches and speech-making, and those reasonings which I will show you have no application to the conduct of Mr. Zulueta.
There is the house of Zulueta & Co. many years established in England, they have correspondents abroad, the house of Martinez & Co. at Cadiz—and this young man writes a letter, in these terms, dated the 20th August, 1840: “In reply to your favour of yesterday, we have to say that we cannot exceed 500l.for the vessel in question, such as described in your letter, namely, that excepting the sails the other differences are trifling from the inventory; if you cannot therefore succeed at those limits, we must give up the purchase, and you will please act accordingly;” then it is addressed to Captain Jennings, Portsmouth. What is stated concerning that letter is true, that it is not written by this young man at all. I do not know whether the original letter was handed in, but you shall see it: my learned friend says, it was proved that it was written altogether by this young man himself to the captain.
Mr. JusticeMaule. It was proved so in this way, “I believe it to be the writing of Pedro Zulueta.”
Mr.Kelly. Whether it was so or not it is quite immaterial, I need not say that the contents are perfectly innocent. It is clear, that before this time the house had employed Captain Jennings to treat for the purchase of this vessel. There was some demur about the price. This letter was written, in order, if possible, that thevessel might be obtained for the sum of 500l.; and in the way in which people bargain they tell them, that if they will not take that sum they will not buy it at all. That letter is written by Mr. Zulueta: I need not say that there is no felony in the member of a firm like Zulueta & Co. authorising Captain Jennings, or any other man, to offer 500l.for a vessel. Here the evidence with regard to the young man I am defending is a blank: it does not appear he interfered directly or indirectly in any way, or knew what was going on; but it appears that the vessel was ultimately purchased at that sum, dispatched to Liverpool, and the goods were loaded on board the vessel; and then the charter-party was made out, to which I will now call your attention, and which was signed by the prisoner Mr. Zulueta. Now you will see how my observations apply: it is in the usual form; it is printed, and the blanks, as you will see, are filled up, not in the handwriting of the prisoner nor any member of the firm, but in the ordinary course of business by the clerk whose duty it is to prepare the charter-parties; and it is signed, because it had to be signed. Mr. Pedro Zulueta was in the counting-house, and his father was out upon some other business, and Pedro Zulueta signed, “for Martinez & Co., of Havannah, Zulueta & Co.” These are the two papers in the handwriting of the prisoner—a letter to Captain Jennings, saying, offer 500l., if they will not take that no more will be given, and the charter-party by which the vessel is chartered from Captain Jennings to Martinez & Co., the house of Zulueta acting as agents, not buying the ship, not entering into the transaction as on their own account, but acting as agents for Messrs. Martinez—that is a paper partly written and partly printed, and the name is subscribed “for Martinez & Co., Havannah, Zulueta & Co.” Those are the only two documents in the handwriting of the prisoner: his evidence I will refer to more particularly by and bye. The evidence shows what I never denied, that the house of which he is a member are civilly responsible for all the house may do. That his house effected the purchase of a vessel at the time—that it was desirable that Captain Jennings should be the captain (and I will give you a reason for that presently)—and that the house caused goods to be shipped in it at Liverpool—and that from that time they heard no more of it, is not denied. It is perfectly clear, if the case rested there, it was merely this—that the house of Zulueta & Co., as agents for Martinez & Co., purchased the ship for Jennings, and that the purchaser made Martinez & Co. the mortgagees of the ship, so as to put them in possession of the property, but to leave Captain Jennings nominally the proprietor and captain; and then they shipped for their principals a quantity of merchandise, regularly passing through the Custom-house on board the vessel, and consigned to the coast of Africa. It is perfectly clear no sort of imputation can be thrown upon any one concerned in that transaction.
But, Gentlemen, let us see what are the circumstances upon which the prosecutor calls upon you to infer, not only that Zulueta & Co., and particularly the prisoner at the bar, purchased this vessel, and dispatched this vessel, and loaded the goods on board it, but thathe did it not merely knowing, but for the very purpose, in the language of the indictment, “to accomplish the object of using them in the slave trade.” What is the evidence upon which they call upon you to infer that? First of all they do this, andI do pray your attention to this part of the case, because it is a point affecting, and vitally affecting, the safety of every manufacturer, every merchant, nay every tradesman in this country, who happens to deal in any goods, however lawful, but which may be shipped to the coast of Africa; they say this, you, young man, Pedro Zulueta, a member of this firm, you knew that these goods in this ship were to be used for the slave trade, and you dispatch the ship and goods that they may be used in the slave trade. Why, have you ever admitted you knew it? No, I have denied it, and have offered to deny it upon oath.—Have we proved you ever gave any secret instructions they should be used for that purpose? We give you notice that we call for your instructions, but before the Court and Jury we dare not call for them.—Did you receive any information from Martinez & Co. that they might be used for that purpose? No. We give you notice to produce all the letters from Martinez & Co., and his counsel comes forward and says—Here is every document, here is every account, every scrap of paper at all relating to this transaction,[15]and I offer you the oaths of every body in the counting-house, without examining them myself, that this is all that can be found. No, says the prosecutor, it suits us better to charge you with a felony, and call for documents which might or might not support the charge; but when you have got them here we will not read them before the Jury, we will not lay them before the Jury, but we will do this—in order that Sir George Stephen, sitting near Mr. Serjeant Bompas and instructing himfrom his own grossly perverted views of the facts and the truth, to misrepresent and to colour almost every material documentto be given in evidence in the cause, in order to give them a reply, they say “you may produce them.” That is what they do. This, then, is a case in which they say we will call for your instructions to the captain, because we say, although there was nothing in your handwriting found in the vessel, except this innocent letter offering 500l.for the purchase of the ship, and the charter-party signed by the house, there were some secret instructions. We call for all the letters, we will not use one, but we leave you to prove there were none such. We say, you were informed by Martinez & Co. that they were to be so used, and we give you notice to produce the letters; we will not call for them, we leave it to you: and if we were to read twenty different letters, all the letters from Martinez & Co. to Zulueta & Co., you would have from Mr. Serjeant Bompas, with Sir George Stephen behind him suggesting—Oh, there were secret instructions behind! How do we know there was not a letter behind, which contained secret instructions? That is the way that a case for felony is to be conducted; and therefore I beseech you not to look at what my learned friend urges upon you, but look at the facts. The facts are, that this young man offered 500l.for thevessel, and that this young man signed the charter-party, and those facts he admitted before the Committee of the House of Commons; he admitted that this ancient and honourable house, without a stain upon its character, purchase the ship, and charter the ship, and ship the goods, as the agents of Martinez & Co., to the coast of Africa. Then, when they have to prove the guilty knowledge that this was done for the purpose of these goods being used in the slave trade, after going through this farce of calling for papers they dare not use, they say this—We cannot prove that this young man ever thought, or wrote, or sent, about the slave trade; we cannot prove he ever said a single word to Captain Jennings that he was to use the ship or goods in the slave trade; we cannot prove that their correspondents ever wrote or said a word to them upon the subject; but I will tell you what we will do, he was never at the Gallinas, but Captain Denman was at the Gallinas, Captain Hill was at the Gallinas, Colonel Nichol was at the Gallinas, and we will prove by them that the slave trade is carried on to a considerable extent there; we will prove through them, that there are such persons there as Rolo, Alvarez, and Ximenes; and we will prove that those three persons are notorious slave dealers; and we trust that the Jury will say, here are goods sent to the coast of Africa—and it is true, because goods are constantly sent there, British produce to the amount of millions is sent there, and forms a great part of our commerce, but it is sent to that part of the coast where these three honourable gentlemen will say that nothing but the slave trade is carried on—and it will then lie upon him to show that they were not intended to be so used.
[15]Pointing to a mass of books and papers on the table.
[15]Pointing to a mass of books and papers on the table.
Now, Gentlemen, if Mr. Zulueta had known as much of the Gallinas as Captain Denman does, who has been cruizing about there since 1835, or as much as Captain Hill knows, who has been upon that coast for several years past, or as much as Colonel Nichol, who has been there twenty years; if he had ever been there or lived there to see the kind of commerce carried on, and to know that there is no lawful commerce at all, but that there is the slave trade only, I should say that you put a man living in England in a very peculiar situation, to which I will call your attention in a moment, but it would raise the question in your minds, whether he might not suspect that these goods might be sold for money, and the money applied in the purchase of slaves, or the slave trade be promoted by the transaction. But, Gentlemen, I beseech you to remember this; they have not proved this, and the contrary appears, that this young man—and I speak of the father as well—that neither he nor his father were ever on the coast of Africa. “Oh, but” says my learned friend, Mr. Serjeant Talfourd, in a question put on re-examination to Captain Denman, “could a person who had traded for twenty years to the Gallinas be ignorant that nothing but the slave trade was carried on there?” If it was so, if he had thought so, it is not by his inferences—whose honourable zeal in putting down the slave trade has carried him so far as to make him a defendant in two or three actions, which may come on to be tried in this country—however honourable his motives and feelings (and I admire the zeal he feels upon the subject, political as well as private zeal)—it is not what he knows which is to determinewhether Mr. Zulueta is to be convicted of felony. But it is not that to which I was about to call your attention. If my learned friend, Mr. Serjeant Talfourd had reflected when he used that expression in the question he put, “Do you think that a person trading twenty years there could be ignorant of the nature of the trade carried on?”—he would have seen it was wholly inapplicable to the case of Messrs. Zulueta & Co. In the first place, this young man has not been a third part of twenty years in the house; in the next place, the house has not traded to the extent of 20s.to the Gallinas, they have never had any communication with it. Mr. Serjeant Bompas opened among many other things which he has left unproved, that he would show that was untrue, and that he had had dealings with them. If that was so, it would have been easy to do it; but they find he never had any dealing with the place; he had no letter or bill from the place, or any article or thing of any sort or kind from any person there, which could convey to his mind whether it was a slave trading place, or a place where a great deal of commerce was lawfully carried on—nothing of the kind. I pray your attention to what it is my learned friend has founded this observation upon. All that Zulueta & Co. have done, as you will see by the evidence before you, is, that they have received directions from their foreign correspondents to ship goods to the Gallinas, and have put those goods on board a vessel, and then dispatched that vessel, and shipped those goods for the Gallinas; and from that time forth they have heard no more of them. Now, I beg to ask you, their correspondence taking place with Martinez &. Co. at the Havannah or Cadiz, but having no correspondence with the Gallinas, unless their curiosity led them, as it did me this morning to look at the map or globe to find the place—and they looked in vain, unless they looked at a pretty large map, to see whether it was a river, or an island, or city, or what place it was—how should they know any thing about it? I agree we did not want Captain Denman’s evidence, for that they had shipped goods for twenty years, and traded there in the ordinary sense of the word, if they had had correspondents there and dealt on their own account with them, and sent them goods from time to time, and had goods in return, or written letters to them, and had letters in return, they might through them have obtained some information of the nature of the business carried on there. But, it is no such thing. What this young man said in his evidence before the Committee turns out to be true; if it had not been so, they had abundant means to contradict that evidence: and Sir George Stephen, whose zeal spares no expense, no effort, would have satisfied you that they had written letters to the Gallinas, and had sent goods there. All that appears is, that from time to time—the transactions being really a drop of water in the ocean of their great mercantile dealings—they have out of 400,000l.in ten or twenty years shipped goods to the amount of 22,000l., which have gone to the Gallinas. But how should they have known it was for the purposes of the slave trade? Suppose any one of you were a dealer in muskets (for they are some of the goods shipped on board this vessel) and that a person in Spain writes to you, saying, I want a thousand muskets for a place called Gallinas, on the coast ofAfrica—would you dream, if you prepared the muskets and sold them, and made out the proper papers and dispatched them according to the order—would you dream, that you were committing a felony? That is what it comes to.
Just see how the case stands—Captain Denman knows, and Captain Hill knows very well, that shipments to the Gallinas may be something suspicious, because they say, as far as their experience goes, there is no lawful trade there, and that they are all slave traders there; but how is any body in this kingdom who has never been there, and never corresponded with the place, to know that?
What is the next fact?Captain Hill proves—though it was with the greatest reluctance he ever gave an answer in favour of this young man whom he is endeavouring to send to Botany Bay—at last, he let out by accident that there are places, on the coast of Africa, to which British produce in large quantities is sent, where the trade is perfectly proper, and where goods lawfully are sent and disposed of; and that at many of those places there are persons, who trade largely, and to a very great extent in British produce, who also deal in slaves.
Here, again, I beseech you to turn your attention to the facts and forget the statement. You may be manufacturers of guns or gunpowder, or commission-agents living in the country, who for the purpose of shipment purchase those goods; in either case a party comes and says, I want a thousand muskets and two tons of gunpowder to be shipped to a certain place on the coast of Africa. I ask you—are you first to consult the map to ascertain the place, and having ascertained where it is, are you to go to somebody you may hear of—Captain Hill or Captain Denman—and inquire, whether they have been upon the coast of Africa, and can tell you the character of the trade carried on there? Are you next, the person being a Spaniard or Portuguese, to inquire whether they ever deal in slaves, and if you find they do, are you to say, I will execute no order you give me?That would annihilate two-thirds of the commerce of Great Britain, and would prevent the most useful transactions of commerce which can occur upon the coast of Africa.It is, therefore, I say, in a charge of this momentous character, it is not to be determined upon suspicion. You are not to hang or transport a man upon vague suspicion; you must show that the crime has been committed; you must have before you direct evidence to prove that he must have known—not that he might have known—by inquiry, if it had been duly answered, and in the mean time the orders would be lost—not that he might have learnt, or that the result of the inquiry might be that the goods might by possibility be unlawfully employed—you must have direct evidence that they were shipped for that purpose. The statute does not say, that every one who ships goods to a slave colony shall be guilty of slave dealing; the Act does not say, that whoever ships goods to a place where the slave trade is principally carried on shall be guilty of slave dealing; the Act does not say, that any body who shall ship goods without taking care that they shall not be employed in slave dealing shall be guilty of felony; the Act does not say, that any one who ships goods which may be employed in the slave trade shall be guilty of felony—God forbid that it should say that!—butthe Act says, if a man ships goods for that object, if he ships goods with the intent—which as far as in him lies he seeks to carry into effect, that they may be used in the slave trade—that is a felony. Where, in God’s name, is there a particle or scintilla of evidence to that effect here? Where Captain Denman tells you it is a well-known slave trading colony, and that he knew it before he went there? Did you know it? I apprehend, if my learned friend knew it before he was instructed in this case, he knows geography, as he does every thing else, much better than I do. My learned friend says, you are not to shut your eyes to what you are doing. No; I agree if a man commits a crime, or does a mischief, he is not to shut his eyes to the consequences of it. I deny, once for all—and I appeal to the learned Judges whether I am not correctly stating the effect of the law—whether a man, who has no intention to do an unlawful act in the shipment of goods, is bound to make any inquiry as to what is to be done with goods, which, in obedience to the orders of a foreign correspondent, he ships to any place on the face of the earth. He is not bound to make inquiries; if he was, it would throw impediments in the way of commerce more injurious than the slave trade itself in any part of the world. Again, they speak of Messrs. Martinez being slave traders, and they speak of the admission that appears upon the evidence of Mr. Zulueta, that he knew that Martinez & Co. had been engaged in the slave trade. I will show you, when I come to refer to this evidence, which is all-important in this case, that there is nothing of the kind—he speaks of the knowledge he had; he gave his evidence in 1842, and you will find, when you look on a little further, he had learnt it since the transactions in 1840.
Now, suppose he did know it—suppose a commission-agent knows that a foreign correspondent of his house is extensively engaged in the slave trade—he knows, at the same time, he is extensively engaged in a lawful trade in sugar, tobacco, and other commodities—I ask you, whether if that foreign correspondent, by letter, desires him to freight a ship with a quantity of goods, and he does so, he is to be treated as a felon? whether, because a trader in both ways—a trader lawful and unlawful—may use his goods unlawfully, and the shipper knows it and cannot prevent it, he is to be treated as a felon or wrong doer? I deny it: if it were so, the first mercantile houses in the country would consist of none but felons. It would be in vain to suggest houses—though one rose before my mind, whose extent of transactions is equalled only by the honour and integrity of their character, that house trading largely as it does with the Havannah and the Brazils, where all the extensive merchants are slave dealers, that house must sacrifice two-thirds of its trade—and all that loss must accrue to Great Britain, because that trade may enable those who carry it on to carry on also a trade in slaves. It is quite intelligible, that that was the very object of the inquiry before the Committee, where Mr. Zulueta, Captain Hill, and Captain Denman, and a score of other persons were examined before the Colonial Secretaries under both governments, and some of the most practical men of the present day—it was for the purpose of determining and reporting to the House, whether it would be desirable to extend the criminallaw of the country, and prohibit the trade altogether with places where the slave trade was carried on, or with persons notoriously carrying it on. Nobody ever dreamt, but Sir George Stephen, that it was illegal to trade with a slave dealing place, or a notorious slave dealer; it is only illegal where you know the trade you carry on is to promote the slave trade, and you know that to be the object. That was one of the objects of the Committee, to ascertain whether it was desirable to prevent the trading with slave dealers, or slave trading places. I may not regularly refer to their opinion; but they made a Report in 1842, and no law is passed at all affecting transactions of that nature—the only Act is that, which, for another purpose, I called my Lord’s attention to, and which made that illegal, not illegal before, namely, the trading by British subjects in foreign ports—not making it criminal to trade with slave traders or slave trading places. Then let us see the result. You are called upon, where the shipment is innocent, and the employment of the ship is innocent, you are called upon to destroy this man, because he has put his name to one or two innocent documents, and because they say it was so notoriously a slave trading place that he must have known that they were to be so used. My answer is in a single sentence—he knew nothing of the kind; they have not proved it; they have proved that Captain Hill, and Captain Denman, and others, conversant with the spot, knew it; they have not proved that Mr. Zulueta knew it—the evidence is entirely a blank upon the subject. If he thought of it at all, and I think that a man is bound to inquire about the matter, he would probably think this—there are a great number of houses in the city of London executing large commissions for the African trade, and a great deal of British commerce goes to the coast of Africa is lawfully disposed of, and promotes the civilisation of Africa; and I have every right to suppose that this goes for a lawful purpose; if that is not so, it must be shown to be for an unlawful purpose. If that is not fair in the mouth of Mr. Zulueta’s house, it is not fair in the mouth of any firm trading in that way with the coast of Africa; and unless it had been shown that Mr. Zulueta himself was personally informed of, or knew, the character of this place, what is proved by Captain Denman or Captain Hill has nothing to do with the question—so much for that part of the proof, from which you are called upon to infer that the prisoner shipped these goods to accomplish this wicked object, because it is proved the slave trade was carried on there.
Now, Gentlemen, let me say one word more of Captain Denman: he does not show, in the correct sense of the words, that the slave trade is extensively carried on there; he may be right in saying there is no produce there; but is there no mode of receiving goods and selling them for money, though no goods are exported? There are various towns or villages, one of nine hundred inhabitants, and others of various numbers, and native chiefs also; there are also Europeans, principally Spaniards—I should like to know, whether the native chiefs, and the Spanish population, and the nine hundred, the population of Tiendo, do not lawfully, for pieces of money or doubloons, buy British produce lawfully? It may be said, that they can only get this money by the slave trade; that is, by having previouslydealt in slaves; but where is that to stop? If you are to trace the money from hand to hand, in order to ascertain whether, since a bank note was made or stamped, or the money coined, it has not been the medium of some illegal transaction, there is an end to all commerce. It may be, that these men, Rolo and Pedro Blanco, may have sold a thousand slaves for dollars, and may have paid a debt to Rolo, and with that Rolo may have paid somebody else, who may have bought the goods of Mr. Zulueta—I wish to know, whether Mr. Zulueta for that is to be accused of dealing in slaves, or shipping goods to dealers in slaves? There is nothing of the kind, as far as regards that part of the evidence, relating to the character of the place, or as relating to the character of the parties there. My answer to that is, that, however well known to Captain Denman and Captain Hill, it was unknown to Pedro de Zulueta; that he neither knew the place nor the persons, but that there was such a place to which his house had, without a suspicion, shipped considerable quantities of goods for their foreign correspondents—and it would be hard and cruel to say, that because other people possess a knowledge that he does not, he is to be charged as a felon—because he did not know what other parties, who had passed the latter part of their lives upon the spot, knew.
But, Gentlemen, a great deal has been said upon the mode in which this was to be carried into effect; and they say, because this vessel was bought really by Martinez & Co., and with their money—but Captain Jennings was made the captain, and Captain Jennings was made the apparent owner; therefore, that is a mark of suspicion, that is a concealment, that is putting a false colour upon the transaction—and therefore you are to infer that the transaction was with some guilty intent with respect to the slave trade. Upon that, in the first instance, I would say, this is not an indictment against Mr. Zulueta for putting an English captain on board a foreign ship, and treating it as an English ship—such a proceeding is not, that I am aware of, contrary to the law at all; and it can only be important in this case, if the nature of the transaction is such as necessarily to lead you to infer that the object of the transaction was connected with the slave trade.
Now, let me try that in all its parts; let us see if there is any thing in the mode in which the transaction was carried into effect, which ought fairly to lead a Jury to infer that the object in sending the vessel to Africa was that it should be engaged in the slave trade. First, as to the English captain—I had some difficulty in getting the facts out—it is always desirable, when the Jury have some experience in the matter, for the ends of justice—I hope you may be some of you familiar with Spanish maritime transactions: but we have the notary of the Spanish consulate, before whom charter-parties and other maritime documents come, and we have had the judgment of a naval officer upon the spot, and their evidence goes to show, that by the maritime laws of Spain, a Spanish vessel cannot be commanded by an English captain. Then, if Messrs. Martinez & Co. wished to ship these goods to the coast of Africa from England, and they wished at the same time to employ Captain Jennings as the captain,how are they to do it, except by giving an English name to the vessel, putting it under English colours, and making Captain Jennings the apparent owner? And, Gentlemen, is that to be wondered at? Is the character of a British sailor so low, that there is any thing upon which you are to suspect a man of felony, because one of his foreign correspondents prefers that a vessel he is going to freight to Africa should be commanded by an Englishman and not a Spaniard? You will find, from the evidence, that Captain Jennings had been more than once employed by Martinez & Co.—there is no doubt he is a man of considerable experience; he is a man of considerable courage, as all English sailors are—and explained in that way, what more natural than that Martinez & Co., hearing he was in England, should wish that a man they could trust should be employed in bringing out a cargo of goods to Africa, or wherever it was? Therefore it was he would employ Captain Jennings. How was he to do it? If the vessel was their own, it must sail under the Spanish flag, it would be a Spanish vessel, and could not be commanded by an English captain; so, to obtain that object, they employed Captain Jennings, whom they thought a trustworthy person—and in order to employ him, he is obliged to make the vessel appear an English vessel, and make him appear as the owner of the vessel—and this arrangement is accordingly made. And, Gentlemen, let me observe, though it was not given in evidence—but I will not stand upon technical points, I am dealing with the character of a house as high as any in Britain; I believe their Lordships, after some argument, excluded the bill of lading, in which the name of Captain Jennings appeared as the shipper—I do not know how it is—suppose heappeared—
Mr. JusticeMaule. He appeared so in the cockets.
Mr.Kelly. I do most earnestly hope that some of you have sufficient experience of the mode in which business is conducted, with respect to ships, to know, that this is not an unusual circumstance. Just consider the object of the voyage: these goods were to be taken to the Gallinas, and they were consigned to those persons whose names you have heard. You have heard that slave trading is carried on there, as it is along the whole coast—that is known to Martinez & Co.—they have a great deal of trade there, and no doubt they would know it; they would know very well that the seas swarmed with British cruizers, for the purpose of interrupting and preventing the slave trade—what more natural? If their correspondents should happen not to be upon the spot at the time the goods arrived, so that they could not be delivered, or that there should be a blockade, and the ship could not enter with the goods shipped by Martinez & Co., the captain must sail back to England or to Cadiz, and get authority from Martinez to alter the destination of the goods; if, on the contrary, they were shipped in the name of Captain Jennings, if he found a blockade, or the correspondents of Messrs. Martinez were not there, or there was any opposition to his communications with the shore, he would have the complete disposal of the goods; he might take them to other parts of the coast of Africa, or any other part of the world, or deal with them as hepleased—and the whole mystery is explained. Every body, who knows any thing of these commercial transactions, knows that a supercargo is sent out with goods, and the shipment is most frequently in the name of the supercargo; and it is for that reason, that in case when the goods arrive at the place to which they are consigned, if there is any difficulty, or any thing which requires the control or disposition of the owner, the supercargo is the party to act, and he can only do that when the shipment is in his name. Here there is a supercargo, or somebody they had confidence in, Captain Jennings, and accordingly the shipment is made in the name of Jennings, in order, in a case of difficulty, that he may exercise a control over the goods. And so far from there being any thing illegal in it, so far from there being any thing unusual in the transaction—because Captain Jennings was made the master, the apparent owner of the vessel, and the person in whose name the goods were shipped—it is the constant custom. If Messrs. Martinez wished to send these goods to the coast of Africa, and if, by reason of any blockade, it would be necessary to give them another destination, they wished to have the benefit of an English captain, Captain Jennings—and by taking the course they did, of making out the charter-party from Captain Jennings to Martinez & Co., and at the same time shipping the goods in his own name, retaining a share of the superintendence as the real owner throughout the voyage, they accomplished that. To tell me, because that is done, which is a matter of constant custom, the good sense of which strikes one at the first sight—for my learned friend to rise and say, this is a concealment, and you are to condemn this young man to transportation—is perfectly monstrous. But I will tell you what the prosecutor ought to have done—and what I should have expected from the experience of my learned friend, who has called Sir George Stephen the public prosecutor—if he meant to say, that a charter-party in this form was an illegal and unmercantile act, he ought to have called persons engaged in the trade, parties engaged in shipments of the same description, or any other foreign trade, to prove that this was an illegal, and consequently an unusual transaction. He has left that in blank. I make the same observation as to the nature of the trade: how is it—when you are called upon here to denounce this young man as a felon, because it is supposed that slave trading was carried on at this place, the Gallinas, and that any body engaged in trade to that part of the world must have known that slave trading was carried on there—how is it, that out of the scores, to say the least, of highly respectable, intelligent, and experienced merchants, carrying on trade in this city, not one is called before you—not a merchant, not a shipper, not an individual is called to speak to any part of this transaction? You are to take Mr. Serjeant Bompas’s statement for every thing—whatever Sir George Stephen instructs him to say in this case, unless you have experience in it yourself, you are to take every thing as proof. I say it became the public prosecutor to call merchants, acquainted with the coast of Africa, to give a fair mercantile character to the transaction; they have not done so; and I protest against the doctrine, that any man is to betreated as guilty, and denounced as tainted with crime, not upon any proof that the character of the transaction is contrary to mercantile usage, but upon the statement of counsel, unsupported by evidence, and more particularly where that evidence is so completely within the power of the prosecutor.
Gentlemen, let me make another observation upon this point—I fear that the length to which this case has been drawn may weary you, and my address more so than any other part of the case; but, for mercy’s sake,consider—
Foreman of the Jury.We are quite glad to hear all you have to say.
Mr.Kelly. I thank you, Gentlemen. What would be my feelings, if any thing adverse was to happen to this young man, from my omitting to say what occurred to me as important? It is said by Mr. Serjeant Bompas, but not proved, that this was done under concealment: they have not called man or boy from Liverpool to prove that any part of the transaction was unusual. I appeal to any man, who knows any thing of the nature of shipments, whether it is possible that this cargo could have been shipped without clerks and shipping agents being employed, and without the cargo and ship undergoing the inspection of the Custom-house officers. All that has been done, and my learned friend and Sir George Stephen know that that has been done; and I believe, in his opening speech, he alluded to evidence from Liverpool; but not one witness has been called. You will see the effect of that in another part of the transaction to which I have not arrived; but when Mr. Serjeant Bompas tells you, that the employment of Mr. Jennings, as captain and owner, and shipping the goods in his own name, was done for the purpose of concealment, I say it is idle; and it is an insult to the understanding of any man to say there was any concealment. Messrs. Zulueta employ Captain Jennings—he employs other people—you heard that that was the mode in which the business was conducted—the Russian consul and Mr. Emanuel are not Zulueta & Co.—it appears that the transaction could not have been conducted but by the house of Zulueta—and yet my learned friend contents himself by saying, that this was secretly done, though he has not called one witness to prove it.
Gentlemen, I was upon the point, that the employment of Captain Jennings, and the making it appear that Captain Jennings was the owner, was a circumstance of concealment. If it was, I have told you the reasons humbly occurring to my own mind for thinking it was not; but suppose it was concealed—concealment, which would facilitate the carrying on the slave trade. Now, Gentlemen, I pray your attention to this question—Was the putting this ship under British colours, and under the command of a British captain, calculated at all to enable it to carry on the slave trade? That is the question. If it was, I clearly admit—though God forbid a man should be convicted upon it!—that it is a circumstance that may require some consideration in your minds; but if I demonstrate to you, that for all the objects of the slave trade, the employment of a British captain, and the employment of British colours, was fatal to it, andrendered discovery, and forfeiture, and punishment, almost inevitable, what becomes of the statement that all this was done clandestinely to facilitate the slave trade? Recollect the account of the trade given by Captain Denman. If it be a foreign vessel, a Portuguese or Spanish, which engages in the slave trade, there are very great impediments and very great difficulties in interrupting it, in searching and in bringing the transaction to light, or the perpetrators to justice, investigating the matter judicially, and finally causing the vessel and goods to be condemned. Our newspapers are filled with discussions about the right of search. Whereas, Captain Denman could, without a moment’s pause, without any obstruction, enter upon any English vessel, and seize the English captain, and search the vessel from top to bottom—while, in an American vessel, and many other vessels, he might be met by obstruction, and it might be the cause of a war. It is true, under some treaties, it may be done; but it is not so as to Russia, because this vessel ultimately, according to my learned friend, defeated justice, and was given up to the Russian government. Where a vessel, therefore, is under foreign colours, there are many difficulties in searching, and if suspicious circumstances appear, in bringing the vessel, if I may so speak, to justice. What does Captain Denman say? “If it is an American vessel, I could not search at all unless by main force, at the peril of a war; if a Russian, it is the same thing; if a Spanish or French vessel, then, under the treaty, a search may take place.” But, remember the mode of searching: if he saw an English vessel, the English captain would feel that of necessity he must, unless he meant to be condemned, tender his vessel, and all in it, to the investigation of a British naval officer; and if the vessel has any thing suspicious about it, you may prosecute it in the British Vice-Admiralty Court, in any of the colonies throughout the world; and, if condemned, as it may be, by British law, by British officers of justice; whereas, if it be a Spanish or Russian vessel, or a Portuguese, or of any other country, there are all sorts of difficulties and formalities before a search can take place; and if any thing suspicious is found, even Captain Hill, with all his furious zeal, would pause before he seized a foreign vessel. Again, supposing there are suspicious appearances, and the officer determines to try the question, it is tried not in the British Vice Admiralty Court—not in any British court at all—but before a Mixed Commission, composed of British, Spanish, and, perhaps, the subjects of other nations, surrounded with all these difficulties, and, I grieve to say, all that corruption which taints the administration of justice in almost every other country but this.
Now, Mr. Serjeant Bompas says—Sacrifice this young man, and condemn him as a felon. Why? Because, the more easily to carry on the slave trade, he fitted out a vessel—not as a Spaniard, with a Spanish crew and Spanish colours, but with English colours, an English captain, and an English crew, which Captain Denman, Captain Hill, or any other captain might search and condemn. Now, I am the humble and inefficient advocate of this young man, and the matter may occur to my mind erroneously; I may take an erroneous view, from the zeal I feel in the case, in presenting it before you, inthe terms in which his innocence will ultimately appear; but, unless I grievously deceive myself, that argument admits of no answer, as Captain Denman said there are difficulties in the one case and none in the other—a trial by a British Court in the one case, and a Mixed Commission in the other; that there are great impediments where it is a foreign vessel, and none in the other. And has the prosecutor a right to call upon you to come to a conclusion that this young man is guilty of felony, because he fitted out a vessel with English colours, and an English captain, the more easily to carry on the slave trade? You will have to answer that question, if you think the slave trade could be more easily carried on by an English captain and an English crew. You have heard of the mutiny before they reached Cadiz; if you think an English crew were used, and English colours hoisted, the more safely to carry on the trade, it must be for some reason that does not occur to my mind, and I trust in God it will not occur to yours.
Now, Gentlemen, we come to the next point. They say—Though true it is, that this vessel was not employed in the slave trade, there is the most direct evidence that the man who fitted out the vessel meant to employ it in the slave trade, and really employed it with that object. If you cannot show the orders given by him to the captain so to employ it, the next thing would be to show it was so employed. If this ship had sailed from England to the Gallinas and discharged its cargo, and had taken in a number of slaves; or if it had bartered its cargo against a number of slaves; if that had been done, unless you can show it was done by Mr. Zulueta’s orders, he is not responsible: you may challenge the captain, and you might say, whether Mr. Zulueta intended it or not, it was so used: but there is no such evidence. Captain Hill, with his zeal to discharge his duty and to prevent slave trading, took time by the forelock, and seized the vessel in the hands of the captain before it reached the shore, and you have therefore no means of drawing inferences of what was intended by what was done. But they endeavour to make up for that in this way: they say, we will show that the vessel was originally built for the slave trade; and we will show that, while it was in the hands of Mr. Zulueta, or while Captain Jennings had it under his hands, it had fittings added, or articles furnished, calculated to assist in the slave trade. And I must say, upon this part of the case, it grieves me to refer to the mode in which it has been conducted in terms of reprobation;but I should ill discharge my duty if I did not say, that the mode in which the evidence was laid before you was unworthy the high reputation and the honourable character of my learned friend. I pray you to remember what it is has been proved upon this occasion. He calls a witness from Portsmouth, or two or three; and, as Mr. Clarkson, and my other learned friend, obtained from them on cross-examination they had been lately subpœnaed, the prisoner could not be prepared by any possibility for their testimony; and what do they prove? They prove, that on board this vessel, while Captain Jennings was in command of it, they had seen, I do not know how many, water-casks for slave trading; that they had seen shackles and bolts, and all the munimentsnecessary to carry on the slave trade. Now, I ask you, is that fair? Is that just? The prisoner is charged, not with having thrown away those things, and destroyed them, and fitted up a vessel, which, for aught he knew, might be used in the slave trade, or might be for perfectly lawful purposes; but he is charged with having dispatched it from Liverpool for the purposes of the slave trade; and, in order to prove that, the prosecutor thinks it right to give in evidence what was done at Portsmouth with these shackles and water-casks which were on board the vessel, and there he leaves the case. I cannot trust myself to speak of that mode of giving evidence. Gentlemen, the way in which they ought to have convinced you there was any thing on board this vessel calculated to carry on the trade, was to show the condition of the vessel at the time she left the port of Liverpool. There all the control of the house of Zulueta & Co. finished; the charter-party was made out, the goods were put on board, and the ship, on the 8th of November, 1840, sailed from Liverpool; then, if this young man is a felon, the felony was completed. What was the condition of the ship then? Had it then the water-casks for the nourishment of the slaves? Had it shackles and other instruments of torture, or for the conveyance of the slaves from one part of the world to the other? Gentlemen, that was the time; that was the place to show it: and it could not be by inadvertence it was omitted. Why, Captain Hill, their witness, who would not drop a single syllable, who could not bring himself to say any thing favourable to this young man (not from any improper motive, he will not understand me to say), that even Captain Hill was obliged to say—“When I seized the vessel, where the slave trade was to be carried on, it was not fitted up for the slave trade;” and one of you gentlemen of the Jury—and from the bottom of my heart I thanked you—put the question in another form through my Lord, and the answer was—“No; at the time the vessel was seized it was not fitted up for the slave trade.” So that you have this fact, that when it left Liverpool it was not fitted up for the slave trade, and had not the means on board to be so fitted up, and when on the coast of Africa it was not so fitted up; but, from their own witnesses knowing that, they call other witnesses to raise a suspicion in your minds that it was secretly prepared for the slave trade, because there were water-casks and shackles on board. And remember the evidence of the cabin-boy: they had the choice of the whole crew, and no one can say that the crew would be favourable to Mr. Zulueta, the owner, or his house; they were discharged as mutineers: they had their choice of the whole crew, and no expense, and no exertions have been spared, and yet they dare not call one of the crew to say what Captain Jennings stated, or what his object was; they called the cabin-boy, who says, “I know nothing of the loading of the vessel.”
There is a person to be tried for a felony in fitting out a vessel perfectly lawfully, but for the slave trade, and they seek to show that it was fitted up for the slave trade: they do not show it at the only time it was material to show it, but they seek to ruin and destroy this unfortunate young man, by giving evidence of its state at Portsmouth, when we have from this boy the damning fact for the integrityof their case, that though the water-vessels were changed in their form, which was to make you think that they were sent in a disguised form, they were put on shore at Liverpool, and not put back again. If there had been an inch or a scrap of old iron, or a nail, the ship was in the possession of Captain Hill, and those who acted under him, as long as he thought fit to keep it. It was put into the Vice-Admiralty Court; it was open to the witnesses for the prosecution: I have no doubt they searched it from end to end, and from top to bottom, and every crevice and cranny, and in no place was a scrap of rusty iron found applicable to the slave trade; and yet you are to be told by Mr. Serjeant Bompas, that he will prove it was adapted for the slave trade, when his own instructions had already told him that they gave a false appearance to the case, and the true appearance of the case was entirely left out of consideration. However, Gentlemen, I thank God, whatever may be the consequence, and however terrible to my own feelings as counsel for the prisoner, I had no hand—God forbid!—in such a prosecution.
Gentlemen, it is not only in the mode and to the extent I have pointed out to you, that the evidence has been sought to be perverted—and if there had been a case, and facts to be proved from the condition of the vessel, it is only from the evidence they have submitted to you that it can appear—Captain Hill seized the vessel and cargo; he had the full control of it; every species of information, every scrap of paper on board is in their power, and every thing that could be given in evidence before you has been brought before you.
Gentlemen, I must observe that I am not counsel for Captain Jennings. Captain Jennings, for aught I know, though he is an Englishman, and there is no charge against him, may have been in collusion with Martinez & Co. I am not responsible for his acts. I thought there had been some refusal to give up the papers, but Captain Hill negatived that altogether; he did not say there was any opposition; the vessel did not sail away from him, on the contrary, it sailed up to him. I do not know how that was. He asked for papers and they were given up to him—he made some request which was refused, but as to the running away, or concealment, nothing of the kind was practised; but you have here a felon, in the situation of a partner in the house of Zulueta & Co., trading to the amount of millions, trading with the house of Martinez & Co. to an immense amount in sugar and tobacco, and all sorts of goods passing between Britain and its Colonies, and a little trading upon commission in the last fifteen years, in which the commission put into the pocket of Zulueta & Co., would not pay a day’s salary to their clerks in their office, and you have a charge of felony for what this young man has done as it appears in the evidence to which I have called your attention. To talk of its being a concealment to use an English captain and an English vessel, when it would have insured a prosecution—when it would have insured discovery—when it would have insured punishment—is absurd. They say, here was something in the nature of the vessel, and to enable you to arrive at the same conclusion they prove her condition at Portsmouth, which was altered before the voyage was embarked upon, and theydo not prove the condition of the vessel at the only time important for you to inquire into.
Gentlemen, Captain Hill said it would be very easy when the vessel arrived at Gallinas to get the fittings up there; that it would be easy for the factor there, when he expected the vessel, to get them ready. No doubt it would be very easy for a man to get a gun, and load it with powder and ball, and so shoot the Queen. But, good God! are we in cases of felony not to look for evidence, not to look for facts, but to suppose a felony, because it is physically possible that somebody may do something to put this ship into a condition that may be unlawful? So I might say of Captain Hill, that when he went with one of Her Majesty’s ships upon the coast, he was disposed to assist in the slave trade instead of destroying it; he might have harboured the slaves in his vessel, or turned it into a slave establishment, or any thing else. But we are dealing with something more than the life of this young man. You are not to look at what a man 4000 miles off did, but what this man did. What he has done he is responsible for, and he is ready to answer here—he is ready to answer at a higher tribunal; but, in the name of that Judge before whom we must all stand, I implore you, do not visit him with suppositions of what other men might have done, instead of what he is proved to have done in this transaction.
Gentlemen, the evidence in the cause would have gone no further than I have stated but from the circumstance—a most extraordinary one, and unprecedented as far as my experience goes in criminal cases—of a great body of evidence being produced, that being neither more nor less than the voluntary, unsought, and unasked testimony of the criminal himself in his evidence given before the Committee of the House of Commons; and it is that to which I have finally to call your attention. I have stated to you, that the house of Zulueta & Co. had enjoyed the highest reputation from the time of their establishment, nearly seventy years ago, until the year 1842. That Committee was appointed, and is declared to have been assembled for the purpose of inquiring into the mode in which the slave trade at various places on the coast of Africa was effected by British commerce and by the employment of British capital. It was suggested, and perhaps truly suggested, that from various British houses, dealing largely in British manufactures, and exporting them as principals, or as agents to the order of Spanish houses, or Portuguese houses, or American houses, particularly in the states of South America—that by reason of those exports, commerce was introduced, and great sums of money procured, which money, being employed in the slave trade, thereby British capital and commerce tended to support the slave trade. The object of the Committee was to determine to what extent this particular allegation was true, and if true, whether it could be remedied by any alteration in the law. It is not necessary to notice the result of their deliberations; but it is important to observe, that upon the Committee were two most zealous men, Lord Stanley and Lord John Russell, neither of whom could have seen enough in the conduct of this young man to justify his prosecution. And this Committee seem to have thought whateverevil might arise in fostering or in facilitating the slave trade, directly or indirectly, by British capital and commerce, that they would too fatally interfere with the commerce and civilization of the Africans themselves, from which, and not the force of arms, the destruction of slavery must ensue, if further restrictions were placed upon general commerce of the country; and no further restrictions have been placed. But in the course of the investigation before this Committee, and at a very late period of their sittings, because it is after this part of thisimmense volume[16]had been given the house of Zulueta & Co. learnt that some evidence had been givenex parteand in their absence, which they thought threw some reflection upon the honour and integrity of their house. They felt their honour involved, and they felt themselves entirely innocent of the charge—they felt that the house of Zulueta & Co., both here and abroad, so far from assisting in the slave trade, had cautiously desisted from it, and made great sacrifices, even when both nations were engaged in it; and one of their firm came forward to give such explanation as he thought necessary to clear the house, if possible, from the imputation cast upon it—not because he knew more of it than any other member of the firm, that will appear from the evidence; but, because he spoke English more fluently than his father, he came forward and gave the evidence which is before you. And, Gentlemen, but for that evidence the whole case would have been, that the house of Zulueta & Co. shipped these goods and dispatched this vessel, and in the course of their proceedings this letter and charter-party were signed by the prisoner at the bar. But they say, what is wanting, that evidence will complete, and out of his own mouth they can clearly show he has betrayed himself into a most awful predicament—that when he went before this Committee voluntarily, he has admitted himself to be a felon. But, thank God, that is for you to judge of. It is for you, a Jury of British men, not dealing with a fellow-countryman, but where you would be more tender than with any of your own countrymen—it is you, and I thank God for it, who are to decide whether this young man has admitted himself to be a felon: if he has, he must be punished for it; but he has given a fair statement from beginning to end, and if there was any thing false, the prosecutor could prove it false by the clearest evidence; and I can, with that confidence with which I should appeal to Heaven for truth and justice, appeal to you for a verdict of acquittal of the prisoner.