9839.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 885
11 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
SIR,
No. 588. (GIBRALTAR.)
TREASURY SOLICITOR to TREASURY.
-
Treasury, August 6, 1869.
THEIR Lordships have been pleased to refer to me, by Minute dated 29th July, a letter of 27th July from the Colonial Office to the Treasury with accompanying correspondence in order that I may advise their Lordships whether under the circum- stances (therein stated) Captain Pearson is entitled to receive all or any of the expenses and charges set forth in the statement which he has furnished.
It appears by the report of the Attorney General of Gibraltar that Captain Pearson was examined as a witness at a preliminary inquiry before a magistrate at Gibraltar with reference to a charge of scuttling a British barque called the "Hope;" that he was required by the magistrate to enter into his recognizance to give evidence (at the trial at the sessions); that he at first refused to be bound, but subsequently assented with the promise of the Attorney General that he should be informed when the sessions would commence.
He was accordingly duly summoned by special direction of the Attorney General to attend at Gibraltar on 31st May 1869 to give evidence on behalf of the Queen against certain persons charged with scuttling the barque "Hope," and was further informed that in default of his attendance his recognizance would be estreated to the Crown.
He did attend, and was put into the witness box (I presume as a witness for the
"that he had no occasion for his . Crown), although the Attorney General reports "attendance, and that his deposition would have been admissible in his absence."
The mode of dealing with the reimbursement of the expenses of witnesses at Gibraltar is stated by the Attorney General as follows:-
"All persons claiming reimbursement are required upon the termination of the trial in which they are engaged to give to the Clerk of Arraigns an account of his claim, which that officer taxes, and if correct certifies it as correct. It is then submitted to the Attorney General, who either approves, disapproves, or makes a special report thereon.
"The accounts certified as correct and approved are then submitted to the Chief Justice, who is authorised to recommend them to the Governor, who alone in Gibraltar can authorise payment."
In England at common law no costs are allowed to witnesses; but by various statutes the court is authorised and empowered in numerous criminal proceedings to order payment of the witnesses' expenses, and in its discretion frequently disallows a witness his expenses on the ground of misconduct.
"
It does not appear whether the Chief Justice or the presiding judge at the trial is of opinion that these expenses should be disallowed.
The circumstances which make the Attorney General of Gibraltar "unable to approve of
any payment to Captain Pearson out of Her Majesty's revenues," or in other words, which have induced him to make "a special report" disapproving of Captain Pearson's claim to reimbursement of his expenses as a witness "until the "sanction of the Lords of the Treasury has been obtained," are stated by the Attorney General in his special report.
There circumstances do not appear to have come before the court at the trial where Captain Pearson gave his evidence, but to have been in the knowledge of the Attorney General, if not before he summoned Captain Pearson, at all events before he put him into the box as a witness for the Crown.
If the practice at Gibraltar is rightly stated by the Attorney General he had a discretion to act as he has done.
I am asked by the Colonial Office on the part of Captain Pearson for my opinion on
his claim.
On the best judgment I can form on the Attorney General's report, had I been in his place, I should not have summoned Captain Pearson as a witness and certainly should not have put him into the box as a witness for the Crown. If it be true that Captain Pearson endeavoured to induce the crew of the "Hope" after they had been bound over to appear to go to America, and succeeded in inducing two of them to go, I think he ought to have been prosecuted.
16278.-797. 25.-5/86.