Copy of Mr Gores intended Defence in case they had proceeded on his Trial for perjury on the 21st March 1808', 21 March 1808 (Series 40.103) - No. 0001

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Home/Banks Papers/Series 40: Correspondence, being mainly letters received by Banks from William Bligh, 1805-1811/Copy of Mr Gores intended Defence in case they had proceeded on his Trial for perjury on the 21st March 1808', 21 March 1808 (Series 40.103)/Copy of Mr Gores intended Defence in case they had proceeded on his Trial for perjury on the 21st March 1808', 21 March 1808 (Series 40.103) - No. 0001
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[Page 1]

Gentlemen

          I am indicted for having committed wilful and corrupt perjury and I am now on my Trial.  I shall occupy as little of your time as is consistent with the duty I owe to myself, to my family, to my character and to public Justice.

          In the first place I shall ground my defence on a denial of the Jurisdiction of the six Members, who were convened by His Excellency Governor Bligh's precept for the purpose of their constituting a Court of Criminal Jurisdiction for as they refused to swear His Majesty's Judge Advocate a member of such intended Court, they never had existence as a Court, they being defective of their principal Member as prescribed by Law, and in Law it is laid down as an invariable maxim that when an Act of Parliament designates or marks out, the specific number of persons who shall Act or preside, or are to adjudicate, in any Judicial Proceedings - it shall never consist of less or fewer than

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