CoHVRVO UN T C4L-E: 
the arm. This practice, I hope, 
will not in future be called picketing, 
but pictoning, that it may be recog- 
nized by the dreadful appellation 
which belongs to it. Her position 
may be easily described. The great 
toe was lodged upon a sharp piece 
of wood, while the opposite wrist 
was suspended in a pully, and the 
other hand. and foot were lashed to- 
gether, so that it was impossible she 
could afford herself any relief fro.n 
the anguish she suffered. In this 
state of agony, she confessed that 
Carlos Gonzalez had stolen the pro- 
perty, and was continued in this 
dreadful situation, under the inspec- 
tion of a magistrate, during the 
space of fifty-three or fifty-four 
minutes by a watch, which was pro- 
vided, from some supposed notion, 
that the torture could not be inilict- 
ed for more than an hour at atime, 
and that the pleasure of seeing the 
victim might not occasion it to be 
continued longer than the personal 
security of the officer rendered pru- 
dent. The first punishment not 
being sufficient, the horrid ceremony 
was again repeated.” 
[The learned counsel here pro- 
duced a drawing in water colours, in 
which the situation of the sufferer, 
and the magistrate, executioner, and 
secretary was described. He then 
proceeded : | : 
“¢ Jt appears to me, that the case, 
_ on the part of the prosecution, will 
be complete when these facts are 
established in evidence ; but. I am 
to be told, that though the highest 
authority in this country could not 
_ practise this on the humblest indivi- 
dual, yet, by the laws of Spain, 
it can be perpetrated in the island of 
' Trinidad. I should venture to as- 
sert, that if it were written in charao- 
ters impossible to be misunderstood, 
377 
that if it were the acknowledged law 
of Trinidad, it could be uo justifica- 
tion ofa British governor. Nothing 
could vindicate such a person but 
the law of imperious necessity, to 
which we must all submit. It was his 
duty to impress upon the minds of 
the people of that colony, the great 
advantages they would derive from 
the benign influence of British juris- 
prudence; and that in consequence 
of being received within the pale of 
this government, torture would be 
for ever banished from the island. 
It is, therefore, not sufficient for 
him to establish this sort of apology; 
it is required of him to shew, that 
he complied with the institutions 
under the circumstances of irresisti- 
ble necessity. This governor ought 
to have been aware, that the tor- 
ture is not known in England; and 
that it never will be, never can be, 
tolerated in this country. 
‘¢ The trial by rack is utterly un- 
known to the law of England, 
though once, when the dukes of 
Exeter and Suffolk, and other mi- 
nisters of Henry VI. had laid a de- 
sign to introduce the civil law into 
this kingdom, as the rule of govern- 
ment, fora beginning thereof, they 
erected a rack for torture, which 
was called in derision the duke of 
Exeter’s daughter, and still remains 
in the Tower of London, where it 
was occasionally used as an engine 
of state, not of law, more than once 
in the reign of queen Elizabeth. 
But when, upon the assassination of 
Villers duke of Buckingham by 
Felton, it was proposed in the privy 
council to put the assassin to the 
rack, in order to discover his ac- 
complices, the judges, being con- 
‘sulted, declared unanimously, ta 
their own honour, and the honour 
of the English law, that nosuch pro- 
ceeding 
