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long and uncomfortable a Voyage; after which I purpose to proceed to Town, where I shall expect the Honor of meeting Your Lordship's Commands, address'd to me at Mr. W. T. Browne's, No. 2 Bernard's Inn, Holborn. I have etc.

(Signed) LAURENCE HALLORAN, D.D.

[Enclosure 1 in the above.}

TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE EARL OF CALEDON, Governor and Commander in Chief, &c., &c.

The Memorial of the underwritten British and other Inhabitants of Cape Town respectfully setteth forth:

That your Memorialists, from their high Estimation of the general character of the Revd. Doctor Halloran, from their personal Regard for Him and His amiable family; and from their grateful Sense of his public Services for several Years in this Colony, as a Clergyman and Instructor of Youth; have learned with the Deepest Regret the sentence which has been passed upon him, their Minister, by a Dutch Court of Justice, on the Charge of having written a Libel, And which sentence has been sanctioned and affirmed by Your Excellency!

Your Memorialists presume not to enter into the Merits of the Cause, which has been productive of such a Sentence, but your memorialists feel that they would be deficient in those Sentiments which they have expressed, and justly entertained, of the Doctor's Merit, Abilities, and Services, if they did not approach Your Excellency in his Behalf, with their most Respectful, but equally earnest Entreaty, for the Remission, Or at least the Mitigation, of a Sentence So disgraceful to a British Clergyman, respectable by his Age and talents and public services, and whom they have, ever since his Arrival among them, been accustomed to Contemplate with sincere Veneration and Respect.

Your Memorialists, in Concluding this Address, have only to add that, from the Sense which they entertain of Your Excellency's humane Character, they confidently anticipate that it will be as pleasing to Yourself as it will be most gratifying to them, to have the Opportunity, afforded by its favorable Reception of exercising Your Clemency on this Occasion !

And Your Excellency's Memorialists will ever pray, &c., &c.

Cape Town, 4th February 1811.

(Signed)

JOHN MACKRILL, A. SINNET, ADAM THOMSON, T. O'BRIEN, W. M. HOPLEY, CHAS. MCKENZIE, W. BATTEN, JAMES HOWELL, HENRY BATT,

JAMES ROSS,

THOMAS LIDSTONE,
EDW. PARRY,
A. GRAY,

G. T. WILLIAMS,
JAMES DICK,
THOMAS MELVILL,
THOMAS ELMSLIE,
THOS. STACKHOUSE,
EDWD. GEORGE,
JAMES, WILLIAMS,

JNO. LANDON

M. MORRISON,

W. AUSTIN,
WM. THOMSON,

L. L. HAMMOND,

HAMILTON ROss, J. B. EBDEN, R. WRANKMORE, RICHD. HOWELL, GEO. BENNETT, JAS. KELLY, THOS. MACVITIE, JOHN S. VIRET, WM. FRS. VIRET, EVAN ROGERS, ROBT. STUART, GEO. LOCKWOOD, GEO. REYNOLDS, A. MCDONALD, RICHD. SHEPHERD, T. C. CADOGAN, G. F. GRAND, ALEXR. TENNANT, FRANCIS SHORTT, ALEXR. WATTS, CHAS. TAYLOR,

W. P. ROPER,

ALEXR. SCOTT, JNO. OSMOND.

[Enclosure 2 in the above.]

(CAPE TOWN, 3rd March 1811.

DEAR SIR,-We have been deputed by a Committee of the British Inhabitants of this place, deeply sensible of the important Benefits which themselves and their families have received from Your professional Services Since Your Residence among them, to request the favor of Your Acceptance of the enclosed Notes,'

* These notes were for 1200 Rix Dollars.

in testimony of their Gratitude and Esteem; And to express their sincere Hopes, "that you may obtain that Justice in England which has been refused to You here." We have etc.

(Signed)

ROBERT STUART,
HAMILTON Ross.

[Enclosure 3 in the above.]

See page 449 Vol. VI.

[Enclosure 4 in the above.]

The Copy of the preceding Memorial to the Governor having been presented to me by a Deputation from the British Inhabitants, I transmitted the following reply:

GENTLEMEN,-Your Interference in my favor with His Excellency the Governor claims my most grateful thanks. And I feel a conscious pride, in acknowledging my Sense of an interposition, in its Motives not less honorable to myself, than to the respectable friends by whom it has been offer'd. Whatever may be its result with His Excellency, your Memorial cannot fail to prove a most valuable Document in that ultimate Appeal which it is my determination to make to the British Government and Nation. In that Appeal shall be published a Development of the numerous Hardships to which British Settlers are subjected in this Colony, and of Abuses, which, however severely they may be felt, it is hazardous to complain of in a Hemisphere so remote from the Tribunals of impartial Justice!

I pledge Myself, most solemnly, to bring forward, before the Ministry, and Legislature of Great Britain, every Incident connected with the Cause for which I suffer; And it can Scarcely be doubted, "that upon an energetic representation of the Grievances to which British Inhabitants are peculiarly subjected in this Settlement, corroborated by the authentic Documents which I possess, and am authorised by you to produce, the Humanity and enlighten'd Policy of the British Government will apply a Remedy equally early, and efficacious!

Whatever may be my future Destination, the Memory of your kindness and Regard will be commensurate with my existence. I have etc. LAURENCE HALLORAN, D.D.

(Signed)

[Enclosure 5 in the above.]

The Governor's Reply.

SIR,-I am directed by His Excellency the Governor to acknowledge his Receipt of a Memorial Signed by you and many other Gentlemen, Inhabitants of Capetown,* recommending a Remission or Mitigation of the sentence passed in the case of the Revd. Doctor Halloran, And to acquaint you, for the Information of those Gentlemen who signed the above-mentioned Memorial:

That, His Excellency will take the same into Consideration, and act in it in such Manner as a due Regard to Public Justice, and the Nature of the Case, may appear to Him to require. I have etc. (Signed) C. BIRD, D.C.S.

Secretary's Office, 5th February 1811.

J. B. EBDEN, ESQRE.

[Enclosure 6 in the above.]

Case No. 1.

James Hooper was a Seaman of His Majesty's Ship Lion. He deserted from that Ship in Simon's Bay, and for the purpose of evading pursuit or Recapture, penetrated a considerable distance into the Interior of the Country. He there fell in with a Number of insurgent slaves and Hottentots, who compulsorily detained him among them for several days.

During this period they obliged him, watched and guarded by three of their Number, to go to a Boer's House and obtain from him, under false pretences, the Use of a Waggon. James Hooper shortly after escaping from among them, came to Cape town, and made public the Account of the Insurrection, when he was taken up and thrown into prison as a participator! He was accordingly brought to trial as an Accomplice, before the Dutch Court of Justice, where it having been proved that He had procured a

* The Gentlemen, who subscribed the Memorial, (of which no farther Notice was taken), did not presume to take upon themselves, the liberty of recommending! Their Expression is, "with their most respectful, but equally earnest Entreaty."

Waggon, as above stated, for the Insurgents, he was condemn'd to Death, and executed accordingly, in Company with five unfortunate Blacks, and he was afterwards hung in Chains !!!

It is an established Principle in the System of Criminal Jurisprudence which prevails at the Cape, that no person shall be capitally punished till he has subscribed a free Confession of his Guilt! This Confession was, under the Dutch Government, extorted by the torture, so that the Strength or Weakness of a Man's Nerves was thus made the Criterion of his Innocence or Guilt.

But as the Torture, under the British Government, is nominally tho' not actually abolished, (Proofs of which I pledge myself to produce) Confession is now generally elicited from the unhappy Prisoner by fair promises and delusive hopes of Pardon! Such was the Case with this unfortunate James Hooper. I annex the only Confession which he is alleg'd to have made, extracted from the official Records of the Court of Justice, from whom I procured it duly attested and authenticated! And on this alone, a British subject, amenable as a Seaman to a British tribunal, (a Court Martial) was in my Opinion unjustly immolated under the Mockery of a form of Law to which he was not Subject! I attended the unhappy Man in Prison, and at the place of Execution. He uniformly persisted in protesting his entire Innocence of all seditious Intentions, and of any design to promote or assist the Insurrection of the Slaves, tho' he acknowledged himself deserving of Punishment for his desertion from his Ship. He was an illiterate Man, apparently without Spirit or Energy to capacitate him for an active part in, and much less for conducting, such an Insurrection.

About half an Hour prior to His Execution he received the Sacrament from my Hands with much devotion, Protesting upon it both his total Ignorance of the Nature of the proceedings of the Court of Justice in his Regard, and equally his Innocence of the Crime laid to his Charge! He suffered with Calmness and Composure, and I repeat to my Country, and to the World, my Sacred Opinion that in his Person a British Subject has been unjustly Sacrificed by Laws to which he was not amenable!

LAURENCE HALLORAN, D.D., Chaplain.

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