The Real Captain Kidd by Cornelius Neale Dalton

Author:Cornelius Neale Dalton [Dalton, Cornelius Neale]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anboco
Published: 2017-03-26T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER VI

THE SUBSEQUENT TRIALS FOR PIRACY

On the following day Kidd and his fellow prisoners were tried at the Old Bailey for the piratical seizure of the Quedagh Merchant and other alleged piracies of minor importance, this trial having, as has already been explained, been postponed in order that Kidd might get the papers which had been ordered by the House of Commons to be handed over to the Admiralty for the purposes of his trial. With admirable brevity and lucidity his two counsel, Dr. Oldish and Mr. Lemmon, had explained to the Court that these papers would constitute his defence, inasmuch as the French passes would clearly show that his seizure of his two prizes had been lawful, and that in taking them, so far from being a pirate, he had done his King and country service. Their plea that the trial should be put off in order that these papers might be procured had been allowed as reasonable; and the glibber of his two counsel, Mr. Lemmon, had apparently satisfied himself that they would be forthcoming; for he had ended by jauntily observing: “My lord, we will be ready to-morrow morning.”

What happened during the next few hours can only be conjectured. What does seem certain is, that when the morning came, neither Dr. Oldish nor Mr. Lemmon appeared on Kidd’s behalf; nor had the French passes and other papers that had been promised, been furnished to Kidd; that his trial began and ended without their production; and that not one of the judges who took part in it, the most prominent of whom was the Lord Chief Baron Ward, who had been present in Court the day before, and heard the arguments for the postponement of the trial, made any comment on the absence of Kidd’s counsel, or asked for any explanation from the Admiralty officials or any one else for the non-production of the passes, which they had been told would constitute Kidd’s defence. Indeed, as will be seen, the Lord Chief Baron in his summing up went so far as to suggest that they existed only in Kidd’s imagination.

It is inconceivable that the monstrous miscarriage of justice, which ensued, was the result of mere accident, negligence, or stupidity. It was clearly the duty of the officials of the Admiralty, in whose court Kidd was being tried, to allow him access to the papers, including the passes, which had been delivered to them by the order of the House of Commons for that purpose. It was clearly the duty of Kidd’s two paid counsel to put in an appearance and press for a further postponement of the trial, until these passes had been produced, instead of leaving him, as they did, in the lurch to conduct his own defence, with the disastrous results that might have been anticipated. It is very difficult to avoid the suspicion of foul play on behalf of one or more of the great personages interested in the case. In this connection there are certain facts which it is impossible to ignore.

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