CH RON CLL E. 
nidad was by direction of the defen- 
dant, who said to the gaoler, ‘* Go 
and fetch the black man to the 
picket guard, and put him to the 
torture.” After the eight months 
confinement, both Carlos and Louisa 
_were discharged. 
On his cross-examination, by Mr. 
Laws, he said that Carlos was dis- 
charged at the time the judge ordered 
him to bring the money; that he 
went from the island, he did not 
know by whose orders, and that he 
took his passage for Margarita, 
Don Juan Montes said, that he 
was acquainted with the hand-writing 
of the defendant, and proved the do- 
cument containing the order of the 
torture expressed in these terms : 
“* Anlicase la question a Louisa 
Calderon. 
(Signed) ‘* Tuomas Picton.” 
After some observations from Mr. 
Dallas, which were ‘answered by 
Mr. Garrow, the lord chief justice 
ruled, that the application of the 
alcalde Beggorrat, which led to the 
issue of this order, should be read. 
Mr. Lowten then read the repre- 
sentation of this officer, advising 
that slight torture should be applied, 
stating that his own authority was 
incompetent to do it, without the 
orders of the governor, and giving 
the result of the proceedings, in the 
- course of the examinations Louisa 
Calderon had undergone. The in- 
strument was countersigned by l’ran- 
cisco de Castro. 
Mr, Garrow.—‘* Then follow, 
my lord, the service of the order, 
and the acts of torment.” 
Lord Ellenborough.—‘* Does it 
appear, that the defendant was ac- 
quainted with the subsequent pro- 
ceeding ?” 
it,”’ 
Mr. Garrow.——** I do not want» 
381 
Mr. Harrison now proceeded with 
the testimony of Don Juan Montes, 
who said he had known the island 
of Trinidad since 1793; that the 
torture was never introduced, until 
after the conquest of the is!and, and 
was then practised by order of the 
defendant ; it was first used with 
the military in 1799, and two years 
afterwards in the gaol. ~ 
Mr. Garrow said, that he had 
more witnesses to produce, if ne- 
cessary, of the first respectability 5 
but from regard to the time of the 
court, he should here close the 
case on the part of the crown, unless 
it should be required by the counsel 
for the defendant, that it should be 
proved that general Picton was go- 
vernor of the island. 
Mr. Dallas, for the defendant, 
rested his defence upon ‘the follow- 
ing statements :— 
ist. By the law of Spain, in the 
present instance, torture was di- 
rected; and being bound to admi- 
nister that law, he was justified in 
its application. 
Qdly, The order for the torture, 
if not unlawfully, was not mali- 
ciously issued. 
3dly. If it were unlawful, yet if 
the erder were erroneously or mis- 
takenly issued, it is a complete an- 
swer to a criminal charge. 
The learned counsel entered at 
considerable length into these posi- 
tions, during which he compared the 
law of Spain, as it prevailed in Tri- 
nidad, with the law of England as it 
subsisted in some of our ownislands ; 
and he contended, that the conduct 
of general Picton was gentleness and 
humanity, compared to what might 
be practised with impunity under 
the authority of the British govern- 
ment. 
After a long interlocutory discus- 
sion, 
