140 LON 
fays, he knew Trinidad for twenty years, and never faw 
the torture inflifted, or had ever feen the inftruments 5 and 
therefore it is abi’olutely without any proof to fupport it. 
Mr. Gloucefter (peaks to books of authority, which he 
ftated to be in ule when he was in the ifland ; but the 
exiftence and reference to them can certainly not extend 
beyond the period when he himfelf was acquainted with 
them/’ His lordfhip, having made fome farther obfer- 
vations refpecling the different authorities produced, 
concluded as follows:—“The queftion, then, refolves 
itfelf into this, viz. Whether, in the abfence of ufage for 
%z years, you will infer that the law of Old Spain l'o pe- 
ceflarily involved that of Trinidad, as to induce you to 
'believe, that, as the pradtice of torture is allowed by the 
one, it is alfo by the other. If you are of opinion that 
it does, you will be fo good as to fay fo, that it may be 
inferted in the fpecial verdift; if not, you will find the 
defendant generally guilty.” 
The jury immediately returned, “That they were of 
opinion that no fuch law did exift which would autho- 
rife the defendant in inflidfing the torture in confe- 
quence of which general Pififon was found Guilty of every 
ckarge. — A new trial was afterwards granted; and this 
judgment was reverted. 
But this was not the only accufation brought againft 
the governor of Trinidad by colonel Fullarton. In the 
colonel’s printed “Statement, which was fubmitted to the 
confideration of the Lords of his Majefty’s rnoli honoura¬ 
ble Privy Council,” the’ following charges, military and 
criminal, are Hated. 
Military Charges,—\ . For iftuing orders, after the 12th 
of February, 1803, dirediing the military officers under 
his command to refufe all aid and protection to the civil 
government, and to the inhabitants of Trinidad. 
2. For unlawful endeavours to intimidate perfons fup- 
pofed capable of giving evidence or information in flip- 
port of the charges exhibited againft him ; in particular, 
for employing black foldiers belonging to the 9th or nth 
Well-India regiments, in his majefty’s fervice, to feize 
and imprifon in the common gaol, Jofeph Timbrel, efq. 
furgeon to the royal artillery, becaufe he declined anfwer- 
ing queftions, refpedting a declaration imputed to him on 
the fubjedt of Hugh Gallagher, a foldier belonging to the 
royal artillery, who was hanged at Port of Spain in the 
month of May, 1797, by order of governor Pidion, with¬ 
out any form of trial. 
3. For employing officers and foldiers in his majefty’s 
fervice to aflift in dirediing or applying torture to dif¬ 
ferent perfons. 
4. For employing foldiers on his own eftate, and for 
his own advantage, when their fervices were requifite in 
garrifon, or with their corps. 
5. For granting to Mrs. Rofetta Smith, a woman of co¬ 
lour, who lived with him, a contract for fnpplying the 
foldiers barracks with wood, and other articles. 
6. For illegally employing foldiers to feize and ejedl 
from the eftate of Orange-Grove, John Dawfon, efq. 
7. For illegally employing foldiers to ejedl from her 
own houfe, Mrs. Griffith and her three daughters ; and 
for putting Mrs. Rofetta Smith, who lived with him, in 
pofteifion of Mrs. Griffiths’s property, by means of mili¬ 
tary force. 
8. For illegally employing foldiers and others, without 
any form orfpecijcalion of cjfence, to feize and drag to pri- 
fon, arid to detain in an ignominious manner, the follow¬ 
ing perfons: Meflrs, Higham, Redhead, Rutherford, 
Bradfhaw, Mincliin, Hargrove, Sullivan, Dubois, Savig- 
non, D’Efpana, Dowding, and many others: diredlly 
violating, by military force, all forms of civil judicature 
eftablilhed by the capitulation, and granted to the colony 
under his majefty’s authority. 
9. For violating the king’s civil government, by ilTulng 
a proclamation on the. 27th of April, 1803, declaring the 
firft coinmiilioner (Col. Fullarton) to he no longer cOnfi- 
Aered as officiating in his public iituation, and by diredl- 
1 
DON. 
ing, as commandant of the troops, that all military as 
well as civil perfons fhould condudt themfelves accordingly. 
10. For difobeying the orders of the king, dated the 
23d of April, 1803 ; and for preparation of military force 
and aftual refiftance to his majefty’s civil government, and 
to the firft commiftioner, on his return to Port of Spain, 
on the 6th of June, 1803, at a time when B. G. Pifton 
held no civil authority, but ftill continued as military 
commandant until the 14th of June, when he was re¬ 
moved by order of Gen. Grinffeld. 
11. For numerous mifreprefentations, tranfmitted to the 
colonial department, and toother public offices, in a man¬ 
ner unbecoming the character of an officer and a gentle¬ 
man, with a view of attempting to repel the ferrous charges 
which had been preferred againft him. 
Criminal Charges. — 1. The cafe of Hugh Gallagher, who 
was hanged without any trial, by order of governor Pidon, 
on the 27th or 28th of May, 1797, upon the mere afler- 
tion, without oath, that he had robbed and ill-treated a 
negro woman. The chSef-juftice Nihell, to whom this 
woman firft complained, coniidered, from her own fory, 
that it was fo trifling and ludicrous, that he took no other 
notice of it (the man being a foldier alfo), but fent her 
to colonel Picton, whom he thought would be amufed at 
fuch a complaint from a negro-woman, as they are, on the 
contrary, the continual pelts of the barracks; never ima¬ 
gining more could happen than confinement to the guard- 
room ; but to his horror and furprife, he found, in his af¬ 
ternoon’s walk, this untried folder hanging from the gal¬ 
lows. 
When this poor fellow was ordered for execution, he 
innocently laughed, thinking that the threat alone was to 
be his punilbment ; nor would he believe it poffible that 
he really was to be hanged, until, upon fupplicating the 
governor to be heard, he was forbidden; and, upon affert- 
ing his innocence, the governor told him “ he was going 
to hell with a lie in his mouth,” and ordered his imme¬ 
diate execution, to the great difmay and diftrefs of the 
Britifli merchants and numerous other fpetlators. This 
poor man would have been proved innocent if he had been 
tried, as his comrade Kenny , who was one of the party 
when this negro-woman was met by them, acknowledged, 
on his death-bed, the innocence of Hugh Gallagher, own¬ 
ing himfelf to be the perfon blameable, as far as there was 
any crime. Gallagher’s alleged fault was not mutiny, or 
delertion, o,r difobedience ; and, therefore, precipitate exe¬ 
cution was inexcufable; and to inflict death without trial 
was ftill more fo. 
2. The cafe of Jean Baptife Richard. All that was ai- 
ledged againll him was, that two pafiengers, who came 
from the Spanilh Main in his boat, but who never received 
any punifbment, were di (affected perfons. This unfor¬ 
tunate man was executed without trial, leaving an aged 
mother, a wife, and three infants, to lament his fate; and, 
to add the more poignancy to their domeftic affliction, the 
governor conduced the crippled and aged father-in-law, 
upon his crutches, into the gallery of the government- 
houle, and there (flowed him the liufband of his daughter 
fufpended from the gallows ! 
3. Goliath is another cafe of a capital nature ; his death 
was caufed by being “ cut up under the gallows,” in con¬ 
formity to the words of the threat of governor Picton, as 
fworn before the privy-council, by Mr. Dawfon of Li¬ 
verpool, the owner of this (lave, and by Mr. Dawfon, jun. 
The only fault alleged againftthis man was, that he was 
a runaway. None but the owner had a right to blame fuch 
a conduct, if it had been true ; and, on the contrary, the 
owner declares againll his being a runaway, for that he 
was only on the road coming from church ; and the pu- 
nifhment, of which he died, was not for the negro’s fault, 
but, as ltated in the words of colonel Pifcton, becaufe 
Mr. Dawfon did not pay. fixteen dollars for feizing this 
innocent negro, and conducting him to gaol. 
4. Pierre IVarner. He was the Have of Francis Macna- 
mara and John JPalkes, owners of the Elturial eftate ; 
n.o 
