Mr. _Kelly_. To that I have no objection, and I do not object to the
question of my learned friend; but it is the only way I have of warning
Captain Hill not to give us other people’s statements.
Mr. Serjeant _Talfourd_. Did you obtain the papers in the first
instance?--Yes; on going on board it is my duty to demand them, and I
received them on board.
Were there any other papers subsequently given to you by Jennings, or
did you receive them all at once?--I received other papers afterwards; I
received the ship’s papers in the first instance.
Mr. _Kelly_. Confine your answer to the question.
--It is necessary to explain.
Mr. _Kelly_. No, not at all.
Mr. Serjeant _Talfourd_. You received some papers in the first
instance?--Yes; the vessel’s papers on demand. I had demanded them, and
on being refused by Captain Jennings to answer a question which he was
bound to answer to the commander of a British man-of-war, I insisted
upon its being answered, and said I should detain the vessel till it
was; and that question was to whom did the vessel--
Mr. _Kelly_. Here I must interpose; and unless Captain Hill is to be the
sole judge of what is to be admissible evidence, I ask your Lordship to
interpose, or to hear me and dispose of my objection. I cannot complain
of my learned friend; he puts nothing but perfectly regular questions.
Captain Jennings is not my client here.
Mr. Justice _Maule_. You gave back the ship’s papers to Captain
Jennings, and afterwards you insisted upon having these papers, or
having some more?--I insisted upon having the question answered to whom
the vessel was consigned.
Mr. Serjeant _Bompas_. He has a right to ask that; that is a question
which the captain is bound to demand of him, to whom he is consigned.
Mr. _Kelly_. I am quite well aware that in your Lordship’s hands I am
quite safe; and if Captain Jennings had committed a murder on this
occasion, it would not upon your Lordship’s minds produce any influence;
but it is impossible to tell, knowing that Jennings was the captain of
the vessel, and that the prisoner at the bar may have had some hand in
the fitting it up, what influence it may have upon the minds of the Jury
if we are to have conversations or recognitions, supposing there to have
been any made by Captain Jennings; and all this done in the absence of
Mr. Zulueta, who had no knowledge of it or control over it. If I at all
understand it to be your Lordship’s impression, that any thing said or
done by Captain Jennings is evidence, having made the objection I have
nothing further to submit to your Lordships; but I do conceive, that
nothing done by Captain Jennings long after the vessel sailed, and long
after the offence, if any, was committed, is admissible. I do feel it my
duty to ask, whether evidence is to be received of what was said and
done by Captain Jennings months after the departure of the vessel from
this country?
Mr. Justice _Maule_. I do not entertain either of those two opinions.
You do not put two cases which exhaust all other possible cases, but you
say if I am of opinion that every thing said and done by Captain
Jennings is evidence, you say no more; you say nothing. But I do not
think that the thing is evidence, because Captain Jennings says it; nor
do I think we can say, that nothing that Captain Jennings said can be
evidence in the course of the trial. But with respect to what we have to
decide, it is not whether there is such a large and general rule as
that, but whether this question falls within any rule that excludes it.
I think it does; I think what Captain Jennings said on that occasion is
not admissible in evidence. If Captain Hill demands some other papers
from him, that fact may be given in evidence.
Mr. Serjeant _Talfourd_. Did you afterwards receive some other papers
from Captain Jennings on board?--Yes, I received a packet.
Mr. Serjeant _Talfourd_. Is the clerk here from the Court of Admiralty?
Mr. _Kelly_. I take for granted that the papers to be produced in Court
are the papers given to this gentleman by Captain Jennings.
Mr. Serjeant _Bompas_. Yes, they have been produced before; we shall
want them in a moment.
Mr. Serjeant _Talfourd_. What steps did you take upon receiving these
papers?--I took the papers on board my own vessel on purpose to read
them. It was towards the close of the evening I received them, and I
sent an order on board the Saracen that an officer and a certain number
of men should be sent to me, and I entrusted that officer with the
charge of the vessel.
Did you, in consequence of the view you took afterwards, detain the
vessel?--Yes, I detained the vessel.
She was afterwards taken, I believe, to Sierra Leone?--Yes.