ene nnk eee se ee

Judge Begbie. 45
So EIS LG I pce IS Ue ON te ee a

This verdict I received long after dark, having resolved to take up my
quarters in an empty room at the back of the Court-house, purely for
Ogilvy’s sake, who was on the jury and suffering from a bad gumboil.
Had it not been for him I shod have gone back to the Fort and left
the obstinate jury here all night, without coal, food, or candle.” They
were all pretty glad to get out and seem determined never to come on
a jury again, each party calling the other a set of obstinate fools.
I think the plan of taking special verdicts, wch I opened to you in
conversation some time ago, must be followed for some time. It will
be difficult, perhaps, to get a jury to say “ guilty ” when they cannot,
on their oaths, refuse to state the result of the evidence.

The “Beaver” leaves, I believe, to-morrow morning. I shall
request Capt. Sinclair to sound his whistle at leaving, and stop oppo-
site the “ Recovery ” to take the prisoners on board; there is no prob-
ability of keeping them here, and I shall take advantage of your late
Proclamation and sentence Niel to penal servitude in Victoria; you may
afterwards do with him as you please.

I think all the proceedings, so far as they have gone hitherto,
seem to have been regarded with great respect and some little awe.
Mr. Nicol™* appears a very intelligent, active officer. There is one
boat here seized before the issuing of the late Proclamation.*? There
are 5 men, and the whole boat and seizure is estimated by Mr. Bevis**
at $150. I propose to authorize him to release the seizure on payment
of $50, 44 of the estimated amount. The parties effecting the seizure
are entitled to one-third; and in releasing the boat I do not like to
do anything wch may interfere with Mr. Bevis’s just expectations.
I think this $50 ought to go as if the goods had been sold. The
Customs dues on the freight, about $100 worth of flour and sugar,
wod. at 10 per cent. only come to $10; the sufferance for the boat
wod. at Victoria have been, as we know, $5. The fisc. will therefore
only lose $15, wch, if you think I am doing very wrong, you may
make me repay. It seems hard that the country shod lose the indus-
try of 5 men and the men themselves $150 of property in a case where
no fraud is clearly shown to have been intended, and where the fisc.
only has an interest of 1/,, part of the value of the property—viz., $15.
I propose to proceed on Monday by the “ Maria ’* to Fort Hope and
Fort Yale.

(60) This old and harsh law gave rise to the poet’s line: ‘‘ And wretches hang that jurymen
May dine.’’

(61) Charles Samuel Nicol, the first High Sheriff of British Columbia. See the Jurors
Proclamation, March 8, 1860.

(62) The Customs Act, or Proclamation, March 5, 1859.

(63) The Revenue Officer at Langley. See note (35), ante, p. 32.

(64) An American steamer which in 1858 had taken the place of the ‘‘ Umatilla ’’ when the
latter returned to San Francisco.