Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 3]
I ought to have mentioned that Messrs Hook & Palmer denied the competency of the court to try them, & refusd to plead, for the Patent says that the Government devolves on the Lt Govr or other superior officer in command on the death or absence of the Governor; but from the 26 Jan. 1808 the Governor had not been absent from the Territory to this day; neither has his Sovereign superseded him. Besides the officer in command has committed High Treason in so many acts of violence & indignity upon the person of His Majestys representative, publicly & in the face of day, that no man can safely acknowledge his authority or cooperate with his agents, who are implicated in his crimes. And as he has no legal authority, his Precept by which Criminal Courts are held & men executed is invalid, therefore the Judge Advocate & Members of their Courts are implicated in the crime of murder. Their Civil Courts are no better than plundering clubs & their Provost Marshal, or Sheriff a robber.
On the 29 day of May Robt Cambell Esqr another partner in the house of Campbell in India, & who resided here 10 or 11 years past, had notice given him by the Judge Advocate that Lt Govr Paterson appointed him to the Office of Coroner; as he dreaded the consequence of accepting such an Office from rebels, he refusd, & was tried by their Criminal Court, denied their competency, & refusd to plead - he was find 50£.
I know they say, & others think, that the necessity of circumstances will excuse their holding courts without any legal authority, but I know that every judge, who passed sentence of death during 18 years previous to the restoration in the person of Charles the second, was disgraced notwithstanding that necessity, merely because they had no legal authority. I also know