Reading Time: 3 minutes [354 words]

PEDEO GIBERT AND OTHERS. 769

tempted to be destroyed by fire. It was obvious that the in-
dividuals, whoever they were, after committing the robbery,
had resolved upon consummating their erime by the sacri-
fice of every one of the crew, by the murder of those against
whom they could have no angry feeling, and whom they had
never before seen, It was a horrible erime; but the horror
which it excited was not, at the present time, to weigh an
atom against these prisoners, in the minds of the jury. They
{the jury) were first to see if the prisoners were guilty.

Jupge Sroxy then proceeded to the consideration of the
remaining questions into which he had divided the case, viz.:
Whether the Panda was the vessel that robbed the Mexican,
and if she was, whether all the prisoners on board her were
equally guilty?

He went over the whole of the evidence hearing upon the
first point, and finally sammed up in a manner that could not
but have proved conclusive in the mind of every one as to
the guilt of the prisoners. Upon the last question, however,
he expressed himself decidely in their favor. Only those of
the erew, he said, could be convicted, who were proved to
have participated in the crime. The mere fact of their be-
ing on board the Panda was not sufficient to condemn them.

With reference to the good charactera given by some of
the witnesses of Capt. Gibert, the judge said that a good
character certainly availed much, but numerous instances
‘were on record of men, long held in high estimation, sud-
denly committing the greatest and most horrible crimes.
With regard to De Soto, the generous act performed by that
indvidoal was fully estimated by every person in the court.
I stand humbled before you, gentlemen, by « fact brought
out in the course of the testimony you heve heard; the fact
of an American ship passing by and leaving American citi-
zeus to perish in sight of their countrymen. We have had
from the counsel for the defense an eloquent allusion to the
parable of the priest and the Levite, and never from the days
of our Savior till now can that parable have been more fully
illustrated than by the fact to which I have alluded. The

Related Posts