Page:Trials of the Slave Traders Samo, Peters and Tufft (1813).pdf/9

 thousands will rest upon it. I know the prisoners are personally known to many of you; but I have tried your integrity, and am confident—Remember your oath, that you will diligently inquire, and true presentment make; calmly and dispassionately compare the statute and the indictment, and, if the proofs will warrant, the accusation, send it for investigation before the Court and a jury, by finding the bills.

The Grand Jury found true bills of indictment against Samuel Samo and Charles Hickson.

On Samo's being put to the bar, and the indictment being read, Mr. M******, as counsel for the prisoner, applied to the Court for leave to shew that the prisoners could not be tried, as indicted under the 51st of George the Third, chapter 23, that statute attaching only to British subjects, and that Mr. Samuel Samo was a Dutchman. He took strong ground, and was replied to by James Biggs, Esq., who was appointed to act as Attorney-general for the colony, and who proved that Samo had resided sixteen years in the Rio Pongas, considered himself as an Englishman, and claimed British protection; that he only claimed the privilege of a Dutchman when he dreaded the effects of the Abolition acts; and that the place of his birth was not proved, and only a short residence at Surinam established.

The Court over-ruled the objection, and the trial proceeded. The Petit Jury before whom this case was. tried consisted of the following gentlemen, who were accordingly sworn: