397
ISSUE JOINED.
(121)
The Acting Attorney General then addressed the Court and Jury, shortly recapitulating the heads of the information. The defendant was charged with a libel against the Government under the 6th and 7th of Victoria, Cap. 69.
Attorney General. The defendant has admitted the publication of the words charged as libellous, and pleads justification. It will be for you to prove the material inducements.
was that of being in partnership with Ma-chow Wong. That charge the report of the commission runs as follows: "That a partnership with Ma-chow Wong in a lorcha is proved, and in fact admitted by Mr Caldwell, but that there is no evidence as to payments to Mr Caldwell out of the produce of plunder made at sea."
(120)
composing, printing and publishing of the same alleged Colony by the hands of certain persons unto the said defendant unknown, then having the custody or possession of the said papers and records respectively, and did thereby connivance with Sir John Bowring, in the said Information mentioned, unlawfully, contemptuously and against the said Queen or Her said Government might and otherwise declaration of the said Queen and of the Government of the said Colony, and the powers, contents of the said papers and records respectively, to ment of the Queen, accroach, assume and usurp unto himself, of the said charges and accusations and the nature and
wit in the said Colony, and the said W. T. Bridges did,
press
two witnesses only, Dr Bridges and Mr Mongan. I wish
authorities, and duties thereof within the same, and in to know whether he intends to prove by them the verity of that report; if so, to what extent does he mean to take part in that report as evidence?
Acting Attorney General. I consider the report a
the said Colony, and to require, command and compel the said Colony, avow and acknowledge his having so caus- sufficiently proved by its publication in the Government
Gazette.
Acting Attorney General. The libellous words imply subornation of perjury. The Government is charged with having, for a certain purpose, perpetrated a contemptible damnable trick. The defendant's plea is faulty, and could have been thrown out had not the Government desired the fullest enquiry—I have not demurred to the plea—but the question still exists—Does that plea justify the libel? It is no answer for the defendant to allege the truth of the matters charged.
Court. I understood it to have been admitted by Dr Bridges, that the papers were destroyed.
Acting Attorney General. The matter to be enquired into remains the same. Justification of a libel on Dr Bridges does not justify a libel on the Government.
Court. That is to say—the matter to be enquired into is simply the way in which those papers came to be destroyed.
Acting Attorney General.—The government wish for the fullest inquiry, not by a "hole and corner" committee. I consider the Government as much on their trial as the defendant, and it is for the Jury to decide whether this is not a false and scandalous charge, the defendant having charged the government with a contemptible and damnable trick, after consideration and with reference to consequences. The defendant alleges that somehow or other Dr Bridges was the government. Dr Bridges burned the papers, and therefore government was guilty of a damnable trick. The papers could have established certain charges against Mr Caldwell. It appears, as I take it, from the reports published in the newspapers, that the only charge the documents could have affected, was charge 11.
Attorney General.—Am I to understand that the newspaper statement has to be put to the Jury? It has not been contradicted?
certain documents, &c., &c. The Crown must prove that the Commission sat and made that report, and it must be proved by the evidence of the Commissioners themselves. Does the Crown mean to prove that there is no material inducement; if not, there is nothing in the indictment to prove the inuendo. If the inducement on which it is founded has not been previously proved untrue, the libel is so worded as to require inducement, the res gesta can only be proved by the actual actores.
Court. It is very easy to call one of the Commissioners as a witness?
Acting Attorney General. Dr Bridges will serve. Charge 11 which is mentioned in the indictment as the principal charge, is as follows. "With being partner with Ma-chow Wong in a lorcha, and that there were entries in Ma-chow Wong's books, and made by him, of payments made to Mr Caldwell on account or out of the produce of plunder made at sea.” There is no doubt that Ma-chow Wong papers were destroyed, and the Commission formed their own ideas about the destruction of the documents. Which is true—the verdict of this Commission, or the charge contained in this article of Mr Tarrant's? That is the issue before you, and one which I have no doubt will be impartially tried. (Publication of libel admitted.)
Call Dr Bridges.
Dr Bridges sworn.
And the said defendant further says that the said William Thomas Bridges did afterwards, to wit on the day and year last aforesaid, act in and exercise his said authorities of his said accroached, assumed and usurped Government, and did from the day and year last aforesaid for a considerable time, to wit, down to the composing, printing and publishing of the said alleged libel, continue so to accroach, assume and usurp as aforesaid, and so to act in and exercise the same pretended authority and other the said functions, powers and authorities as aforesaid.
And the said defendant further says that during the said continuance of the said W. T. Bridges so to accroach, assume and usurp, and so to act and exercise publishing of the said alleged libel, to wit, on or about as aforesaid, and before the composing, printing and the month of May, in the twenty-first year of the said Queen, he the said W. T. Bridges did unlawfully, contemptuously and against the express declaration of the said Queen, cause certain public papers and records of the said Queen of great value and importance to the peace and good order of the said Colony, and to the honor and reputation of the said Queen and Her Government, and whereby if procured and produced the truth or falsehood of certain criminal charges and accusations theretofore made and then pending before the Queen against Daniel Richard Caldwell, and which were then in the said accroached, assumed and usurped power of the said W. T. Bridges, would appear, to be burned and destroyed, to wit in the said Colony.
And the said defendant does aver that it was for the public benefit that the matters charged in the said alleged libel in the said information mentioned should be printed and published as aforesaid, and that the particular fact by reason whereof it was for the public benefit that the said matter so charged should be so printed and published by the said defendant as aforesaid, was and is that the said alleged libel was so printed and publish by the said defendant in order to the lawful punishment of the said W. T. Bridges, and of the said other persons unknown, who then and there were guilty of the lawful and contemptuous actings aforesaid, without this that he the said defendant did at the time in the said information in that behalf alleged or ever print or publish the said alleged libel with the intents or with the meanings in the said information respectively alleged, or with any or either of the same respectively. And this the said defendant is ready to verify. Wherefore he prays Judgment of the court here, and that he may be dismissed and discharged of the premises on the information above specified.
(Signed,)
W. TARRANT.
T. CHISHOLM ANSTEY.
REPLICATION Regina v. Tarrant.
1.—The Acting Attorney General takes issue on the Defendant's first plea herein.
2.—And as to the Defendant's second plea herein, the Acting Attorney General says that the defendant of his own wrong, and without the cause in his said plea alleged, composed and published the said Libel as in the said information alleged. And thus the said Acting Attorney General prays may be enquired of by the country.
(Signed) FREDK. WM. GREEN,