059-434.xml

Title: [2 July 1804 Procedure and Evidence]

Description: 2 July 1804

Procedure and Evidence

Note continued

Ends

Ch.│ │

'.1. Note

It is to cases of the non-penal class that we cannot look, if we would wish to see the instance for almost all the instance in which the suffering of the losing party is likely to be greater /less/ when he is in the wrong /right/ than when he is in the right /wrong/. The suffering in this case is in proportion to the strength the intensity of the expectation disappointed. In a case of this sort When a Judge pronounces his decision whether it be to the prejudice /in favour/ of the Plff or the defendant in proportion as the rectitude of that /such his/ decision appears to him /in his own eyes/ to be clear, in the same proportion will it naturally appear to him, that the expectation on the part of the wining party must have been strong, on the part of the losing party, weak. In the same proportion must the comparative strength of the opposite expectations appear to any indifferent /third/ person, who viewing the cause with the same indifference /dispute from the same middle position/ as the Judge, sees the grounds of division in the same light in which they present /have presented/ themselves to the Judge. Setting aside the influences of those causes, natural and factitious, (but chiefly as will be seen factitious) which engage a man so /but too/ often to persist in seeking in the character either /whether/ of plff or of defendant, notwithstanding his consiousness /although he is conscious/ of being in the wrong, in causes of a non-penal nature (not to insist on /speak of/ causes of a nature slightly penal), the natural course /state/ of things is that both parties /each party/ should consider himself as being in the right: since, allowance being made /made/ for the above exceptions it is only on the supposition of his being in the right that he can entertain any expectation of any adequate sort of datisfaction for the vexation and expence to which by the continuance of the cause he is subjecting himself. But, as there are degrees of clearness in the evidences /grounds //[...?]/ on which a cause turns /rests/, so are there degrees of strength in the expectation grounded on those documents, and for forming his conjecture in respect of the comparative degrees of strength in the oposite expectations, a bystander has no other possible data than his own conception respecting the comparative strength of those opposite grounds.

059-433.xml

Title: [2 July 1804 Procedure and Evidence]

Description: 2 July 1804

Procedure and Evidence

Note continued

Ends

Ch.│ │ Vexation

'.1. Note

To /Under/ the same head of vexation might also have been referred included the evils produced by rightful decision, on whichever side, that of the Plff or that of the defendant the burthen falls. Evil, on one side or other, and [...?], for a certain period on both sides, evil in some shape and degree or other, is the result as of almost every exercise of the powers of government, so in particular of every exercise, without any exceptions worth dwelling upon of the powers of judicature. of the existence of The evil produced in this way the existence is no less incontestable in the case where the decision to a Mans prejudice is due, than where it is undue. Nor so far as this single individual alone is considered, will it be easy to say, in which of the two cases the evil is of the greatest magnitude. If In penal cases for example, the evil produced by rightful decision in respect of this branch /at this stage/ of it is beyond comparison greater /less/ than that produced by a wrongful decision importing a punishment to the same amount in appearance and in name. For the innocent man the man who /whose punishment/ is wrongfully punished, has for his support and satisfaction howsoever inadequate, all those reflections and shapes[?] which are included by /comprehended under //we have in view when we describe to him// the denomination of a good conscience: a consolation of which, if a man be guilty, and conscious of his being so, he feels himself deprived.

JB_808_058.xml

Title: [4 Sept 1811 Jug Util + B.II]

Description: 4 Sept 1811

Jug Util

+ B.II. Ch.3 D

Note

B.II. Under Revelation

Ch.3. Mischief Weakning Natural

15

Repentance

On the 8th of May 1811 was executed at Tortola for the murder of his negro slave Prospero, viz by causing him to be flogged to death, (viz for not paying more than 3 d out of 6 d that had been required to him by way of fine for negligence) the Honourable Arthur William Hodge Esq r. Arthur Hodge (d.1811), West Indian Planter, settled in Tortola in 1792, executed 8 May 1811. [Gent’s Mag. 1811 ii.79; A.M. Belisano, The Trial of A. Hodge, for the murder of his Negro Slave named Prosper ... stenographically taken by A.M. Belisano, London, 1811. Philanthropist to be found.]

'Before the jury (by whom he was convicted) retired the prisoner addressed them as follows: 'Gentlemen, as bad as I have been represented, is as bad as you may think me, I assure you that I feel support in my affliction from sustaining a proper sense of religion. As all men are subject to wrong, I can not but say that that principle is likewise inherent in me. I acknowledge myself guilty in regard to many of my slaves; but I call God to witness my innocence in respect of the murder of Prospero. i.e. in this instance it had not been my particular object with him that the torture should end in death.

... 'From the time of his condemnation to that of his execution the unhappy man was attended at suitable hours in each day, by a clergyman, whose pious labours brought him, we believe, to sincere contrition, and, when not buoyed up by that vain hope of a respite, which he indulged to the last, to a christian resignation to his fate. On the evening preceding his execution, he took leave of his three young children, which so overpowered him, as to make it matter of doubt if he would ever be restored to tranquillity. In the morning, however, he was calm, and acquired still greater fortitude by receiving the sacrament.'

Philanthropist N o 3 p.324 &c.

26 (a)

1. From Philanthropist N o 3 p.324. Case of Hodge executed at Tortola for slave murder.

2. On conviction, I feel support (says he) from a proper sense of religion.

3. Brought to contrition by a clergyman: almost maddened by leave taking of his three children, he acquired a fortitude by receiving the sacrament.