THE QUEEN against CUFFEY AND
OTHERS. |
WILLIAM CUFFEY, THOMAS FAY, AND WILLIAM
LACY FOR TREASON FELONY AT THE CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT, BEFORE
PLATT, B., AND WILLIAMS, J., SEPTEMBER 25, 1848, AND THE FOLLOWING
DAYS. |
| (Reported in 3 Cox C.C. 517.) |
| Indictment and evidence, as in the preceding case. - Verdict,
"Guilty." |
| Ruled by PLATT, B., and WILLIAMS, J. - |
[.....]2. Evidence. - Treason Felony, where overt act
conspiracy.(a)
On an indictment under 11 & 12 Vict. c. 12. for feloniously
compassing, &c., where the overt act charged was conspiracy
- Held, that, as in other cases of conspiracy, it was competent
to go into general evidence of the nature of the conspiracy
before showing that the defendants were parties to it, in order
to prove the conspiracy; and then to implicate the defendants
by the part they took subsequently.
Evidence having been given that, in pursuance of the conspiracy,
bodies of armed men were to assemble on a certain night in different
parts of London, evidence that a body of armed men assembled
on the night in question had admissible, without showing otherwise
that they were connected with the conspiracy.
___________________________________________________________________
|
(a) See Reg. v. Mulcahy,
L. R. 3. H. L. 306. |
The jury having retired in the last case, William Cuffey,
Thomas Fay, William Lacy, and George B. Mullins
were brought up, and pleaded "Not Guilty" to an indictment
in the same terms as in Dowling's case.
Cuffey:
I demand a fair trial by a jury of my peers in accordance with
Magna Carta.
Counsel for the Crown: The Attorney-General (Jervis),(a)
Welsby, Bodkin, and Clerk.
Counsel for the prisoners: Huddleston,(b)
Ballantine, and Metcalfe for Cuffey and Lacy;
Parry for Fay. |
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|
The prisoner Cuffey: My Lords, I say you ought not
to sentence me, first, because although this has been a long
and important trial, it has not been a fair trial, and my request
was not complied with to have a jury of my equals. But the jury
as it is I have no fault to find with; I daresay they have acted
conscientiously. The next reason that I ought not to be sentenced
is on account of the great prejudice that has been raised against
me in particular, for months past. Everybody that hears me is
convinced that almost the whole press of this country, and even
other countries, has been raising a prejudice against me. I
have been taunted by the press. and it has tried to smother
me with ridicule,(a) and it has done everything in its power
to crush me. I crave no pity. I ask no mercy.
The prisoner
Fray (with violence): Nor I.
The prisoner Cuffey:
Keep yourself cool, my boy. You will never get through your
troubles if you do not. [.....]
|
[in a footnote]
(a) Cf. the lines written after this trial in Thackeray's "Three
Christmas Waits" (vol. 18, Ballads and Tales, p. 191),
beginning:-
"Ven this bad year began,
The nex man said. saysee,
I vas a journeyman,
A taylor black and free;
And my wife went out and chaired about,
And my name's the bold Cuffee." |
|
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| That is all I need say at present, except that this is no
more than what I have expected for some time. As I certainly
have been an important character in the Chartist movement, I
laid myself out for something of this sort from the first. I
know that a great many men of good moral character are now suffering
in prison only for advocating the cause of the Charter; but,
however, I do not despair of its being carried out yet. There
may be many victims. I am not anxious for martyrdom, but I feel
that, after what I have gone through this week, I have the fortitude
to endure any punishment your lordship can inflict upon me.
I know my cause is good, and I have a self-approving conscience
that will bear me up against anything. and that would bear me
up even to the scaffold; therefore I think I can endure any
punishment proudly. I feel no disgrace at being called a felon.
|
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| [Platt, B.] The Jury have come to the only
conclusion at which they could have arrived. No reasonable
men could doubt for an instant that, after the scene of the
15th of August, on the evening when the ribbons were given
out and the order of assemblage for the next night was directed,
you and each of you, when the shades of night were descended
upon this metropolis, intended that a course of burning, of
murder and of robbery, should surround this unfortunate city,
if it had been so unfortunate as that your guilty purposes
had not been discovered. That was the primary object you had
in view; and a secondary, no doubt, was that you might assume
the government of this country and govern things in your own
way. Is this to be endured? And when men are brought within
the law and are about to answer for the breach of it, to defy
the law? But your defiance would make no difference in the
judgment of the Court, and, if it were possible to extend
mercy to any of you, wild and insane as you seem to be, that
mercy should be extended.
But I cannot conceive that the Court would be performing its
duty to the country if, when such offences as these were brought
home to criminals such as yourselves, it should pass on them
a slight punishment, and should not make an example, a severe
example of all those who are brought within the pale of the
law.
The sentence of the Court upon each of you is that for the
offence of which you have been respectively convicted, you
be transported beyond the seas to such place as her Majesty,
by the advice of her Privy Council, shall direct and appoint,
for the term of your natural lives. |
|
|
