about the characters of the plaintiff and defendant, and said, that fome of the most respectable perfonages in the kingdom were ready (if found neceffary) to prove the humane, tender, and amiable cha racter of the Governor, meaning a lift of 26 noblemen and gentlemen who were fubpoenaed for that purpofe; whereas the evidence produced would prove the plaintiff to be a diffolute immoral perfon, of a feditious and turbulent nature and difpofition. The witneffes on behalf of the defendant, viz. James Wright, Efq; Secretary to the Governor; John Pleydell, Efq; his Aid de Camp; Robert Hudfon, Efq; Fort Adjutant, &c. were then called, who proved the facts ftated in Serjeant Davy's fpeech, and fpoke to the badnefs of the plaintiff's character, and the excellency of the defendant's. They depofed likewise that the authority of the Governor was arbitrary and unlimited on the island-that his proclamations had the force of laws, and inflicted penalties and punishments on fuch as dared to disobey them.

Serjeant Glynn then arofe, and made his reply to the following effect: That, fince he had addreffed the Court and Jury laft, the cause had been perplexed and purpofely directed from its true meaning, to an enquiry foreign to the real queftion; which queftion was, whether the plaintiff, a fubject of Great Britain, circumstanced as has been proved, was entitled to have redrefs for the injuries he had fuffered from an English Jury ?-That every confideration of the characters of plaintiff and defendant, other than what arose from the cafe then under confideration, should be dif

miffed from the attention of the Jury; that he had made no malicious or uncandid enquiries into Governor M's character, nor pretended to question the existence of those virtues and excellencies, that his advocates and adherents had fo liberally expatiated upon and held up to public view, nor made any comment upon his behaviour but fuch as of neceffity refulted from the present question-that he should have been happy had the fame caution and circumfpection been obferved on the other fide, inftead of that ungenerous mode of procedure which he now complained of. A native of Minorca, though a fubject of England, yet a ftranger to our country, our language and customs, comes here to feek redrefs from an English Jury for his cruel and ill treatment abroad in the court where his adverfary's defence is made; a principal article of that defence is the plaintiff's immoral and flagitious character.

This unhappy foreigner is thought not to have fuffered a fufficient degree of punishment by his rigorous confinement in the dungeon, and banishment from his native country, and the fociety of his family and friends, but new modes of torture are added.-His domeftic character is ranfacked-he is charged with crimes which arraign his conduct as a father, a husband, a citizen-he is most ignominioufly traduced by every method of illegal cruelty, more fatal to his repofe and happiness than the utmost excefs of corporal fufferings.-In fuch a cafe as this, the Serjeant faid, he felt fomewhat beyond the line of an advocate'-the feelings of humanity were warmly interested on the occafion, and he hoped they

would

would not claim the attention of the Jury in vain.

The defence however, fet up and principally urged in behalf of General Moftyn, is that the plaintiff is a dangerous and feditious man; that his behaviour was fuch as threatened even the lofs of the ifland; that he purfued Governor M with an improper importunity, and endeavoured to avail himfelf of a popular difaffection among the Minorquins to the English government; that he threatened to come at the head of 150 or 200 men to receive an answer to his laft petition, as if he meant to appear at the head of an armed force; that the island would have been in danger had the plaintiff continued in it; the defendants Council fhould certainly have proved the existence, or, at least, the probability of fuch confiderations, before they proceeded to vindicate his conduct upon them. The plaintiff's petitions to the Governor have been read in Court; they are expreffed in very fubmiffive and refpectable terms, and do not convey the leaft idea of a feditious or turbulent purpose. The charge of his faying that he would appear at the head of 150 or 200 men is fufficiently explained even by one of the defendant's own witneffes, Mr. Pleydell, who fays that he did not think the plaintiff meant by fuch a declaration any hoftile or mutinous purpose, but merely intended to produce that body of men to fhew that he was not fingular in his wifh to have Governor Johnfon's regulation altered, but that the faid 150 or 200 men were of the fame opinion with him and would back his petition: That, if any different conftruction could be or was put

upon this declaration, an enquiry fhould certainly have been made after this body of men, and the Governor not have refted fatisfied with the punishment inflicted on the plaintiff as long as he thought that the plaintiff had 150 or 200 adherents behind him in arms mutinous and difaffected: Had the Governor conceived the island to have been in any danger (which his Counfel declare he did, and that he was driven to act as he did in confequence of fuch an opinion) is it probable to believe that he made no enquiry after this body of malecontents? That the plaintiff had acted upon no other motive than that warmth of inclination which every man muft feel who knows himself injured, and has the mortification to find, as an addition to his fufferings, his complaints unheard, and his grievances unredreffed. Even if his warmth had betrayed him into fome unguarded behaviour or language (which however had not been proved) ftill the defendant's conduct towards him was not juftifiable, and even if the law of Spain allowed his being banished from his native place of refidence, yet it gave no fanction to the cruelty of his previous imprisonment, nor juftified the feverity of his being punished without even the ceremony of judicial procefs. In this the form as well as fpirit of law was loft. That fuch illegal punishment without the forms of trial or judicial examination, and inflicted merely upon report, required great and exemplary damages. The defence of Governor MSerjeant faid, was guarded by a prefatory vindication of the defendant's conduct, which declines the jurifdiction

the

jurifdiction of an English Jury, and tells them that fuch conduct was strictly conformable to the rules and maxims of arbitrary power, and therefore not cognizable by their authority and jurifdiction; that, if arbitrary power is avowed and exercised in any part of the British dominions, a British tribunal is not to examine into and punish it; but the true reason why Governor M tells the Jury that they are incompetent for the examination of this queftion, is becaufe this is the tribunal he must ever dread, as this it is which has always been the terror of evil minifters and the fcourge of arbitrary power. He then proved in an able manner that the confideration of the Jury fhould be built on a broad and extenfive foundation, and faid that the power of the King could never be delegated to a Governor of even a conquered island to alter laws in an arbitrary manner; and that, if fuch a construction was put to a patent that paffed the feal, he hoped to fee the day when the Minifter that paffed fuch patent fhould answer it with his head, it being repugnant to every idea of law and juftice; that, if this power had been long acquiefced in and eitablished on the island, it was now high time to put a stop to it, as no precedent could justify oppreffion, nor give a fanction to the illegal exercife of authority; and that if no other method could be found out to fecure the ifland, and preserve our trade in the Mediterranean, but the exercife of that power which was now the fubject of complaint, he freely gave his confent that the whole fhould be facrificed, and would admit of no idea of preference to purchase or

3

preferve them at the expence of humanity, juftice, and law; that a Governor could not act in a legiflative capacity without receiving inftructions from home, the union of the legislative and executive authority being an union that the law abhorred; and that a Bashaw of Egypt would have loft his head had he prefumed to act in the manner Governor M- had done. He then enlarged upon the evidence given to prove the defendant's conduct juftifiable under the Spanish laws, and after very feverely commenting upon the circumftance of a number of red coats coming to tell an English Jury what was law at Minorca, and remarking on the miferable ftate of thofe wretched lawyers who lived in an island where laws are unneceffary, (if the idea of the Governor's abfolute power be admitted) and their flavifh doctrines and opinion that the Governor's power extended over this unhappy man in any fhape that he pleased, fo that immediate execution, perpetual imprisonment, or the most painful death that inventive torture could inflict, would have been as juftifiable to the full

as banishment. He anfwered the argument alledged on the other fide, that the island of Minorca would be a very insecure poffeffion, unless military difcipline and the ftricteft fyftem of authority was adhered to, by declaring it to be his opinion that the affections of the Minorquins would be fooner and more eafily reconciled to our government by admitting them, with the other fubjects of Great Britain, to a free participation of the privilege of having their complaints heard, and their grievances redreffed by the verdict of a British

Jury,

Jury, and by their being taught the blefings of the English law, than by their being kept under the rigour of military difcipline, and being ruled by the coercive fway of a rod of iron.'

This was the material part of the Serjeant's reply. Mr. Juftice Gould then fummed up the evidence to the Jury with minutenefs and accuracy; he hinted his opinion that the defendant fhould have pleaded in abatement to the jurifdiction of courts, how far a Governor of a conquered island, which ifland had petitioned for a continuance of their native laws, was amenable before an English judicature at Guildhall, on the complaint of a native of fuch conquered ifland, and how the jurifdiction of fuch court had cognizance of the complaint. Towards the conclufion of his fpeech, he observed how very neceffary it certainly was for the Governor of an island, answerable with his life for the proper execu tion of the important truft committed to his charge, to check the first feeds and appearance of mutiny and fedition in the island—but at the fame time spoke much in favour of that exprefs provifion in Magna Charta, which fays, Nullus liber bomo exuletur, and mentioned Lord Coke's opinion that the King cannot even send a man Lord Lieutenant to Ireland against his will, fince that might be only a more honourable banishment. He however humourously obferved, that there were few, he believed, who would, in the prefent age, recoil at the royal propofal. He entered a little into the doctine of conquered islands, and the laws relating to them; but, as he forbore being decifive on the point, his obfervation is here omitted.

The Jury then withdrew, and in about two hours time brought in their verdict for Mr. Fabrigas the plaintiff, with 3000l. damages.

The defendant's Counfel then tendered a bill of exceptions, which is in the nature of a writ of error, lying to the court of King's Bench; which after fome altercation was admitted, and remains to be argued before the judges of the court of King's-Bench, wherein the validity of the jurifdiction of the court, and the objections ftated by Mr. Gould, will be examined into and decided.

Summary of the Proceedings at Guildhall on the Trial relative to the Refractory Companies.

ON

N Wednesday, the 14th of July, came on, upon the huftings at Guildhall, the longdepending and important cause between the Common Serjeant of the city of London, plaintiff, and Samuel Plumbe, Efq; Prime Warden (or Mafter) of the company of Goldsmiths, defendant. This fuit was inftituted against the defendant on occafion of his refufal to obey a precept, iffued in the year 1770, by the then Lord - Mayor, (Mr. Beckford) to convene the livery of the faid company to a commonhall.

The caufe was opened in a brief manner by Mr. Allen, on the part of the plaintiff.

Mr. Dunning then entered more minutely into the bufinefs, and fpoke for near two hours. He acquainted the jury, that the charge brought against the defendant was a wilful disobedience of that authority, to which (in the present

cafe)