THE SPECIFICATIONS MUST EMBRACE THE CHARGE AND SUSTAIN THE OFFENSE. [See text, p. 456.] "The fact or facts ought to be very distinctly specified or alleged, in such manner that neither the prisoner or court can have any difficulty in knowing what is the precise object of investigation. Facts distinct in their nature are not to be included in the same specifications. Every fact in the specification should be such as, if proved, would convict the prisoner of the charge, or at least might convict him of it. Any allegation in the specification which, if proved, could not convict the prisoner of any degree of the crime charged, is irrelevant and should be rejected. Its retention will not vitiate the charge, but it is surplusage, and no evidence should be received thereon. It is always better to reject such matter at first. This rule is applicable, though the facts irrelevant to the particular charge do themselves amount to a distinct crime. "If all the facts stated in the specification would not, if proved, amount to the crime stated in the charge, both charge and specification must be rejected; for the court is to pronounce only in the crime named in the charge, and no other. "From the preceding it results that the court-martial may and ought to refuse to try on accusations,-4th, when the specification alleges only certain acts, either not at all criminal, or not constituting any degree of the crime stated in the charge."—O'Brien on American Military Law, pp. 234, 235. THE WAR AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION. [See text, p. 518.] ARTICLE XIII. SEC. 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. SEC. 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. ARTICLE XIV. SEC. 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States, and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction, the equal protection of the laws. SEC. 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for choice of electors for president and vice-president of the United States, representatives in congress, the executive and judicial officers of a State, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State. SEC. 3. No person shall be a senator, or representative in congress, or elector of president and vice-president, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath as a member of congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid and comfort to the enemies thereof; but congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each house, remove such disability. SEC. 4 The validity of the public debt of the United States authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations, and claims, shall be held illegal and void. SEC 5. The congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legisation, the provisions of this article. ARTICLE XV. SEC. 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. SEC. 2. The congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. ODE AND VERSES REFERRED TO BY MR. MACKIN. TOSH IN HIS DEFENSE OF PELTIER. [See text, pp. 568, 591, 592.] That the reader may thoroughly comprehend the argument of Mr. Mackintosh, we present the portions of the first two publications set out in the pleadings, for the Crown, and the translation as they appear upon the record, in the language of the indictment. The allegation is that the de fendant, on the 16th of August, 1802, “within the liberty of Westminster, in the county of Middlesex, unlawfully and maliciously did print and publish, and cause and procure to be printed and published, a most slandalous and malicious libel, in the French language, of and concerning the said Napoleon Buonaparte, that is to say, one part thereof to the tenor following, to wit: "LE 18 BRUMAIRE AN VIII. "Ode attribuée à Chénier. "Quelles tempêtes effroyables Les fleuves n'ont plus de rivages "Ah plutôt pour se faire absoudre Les cieux peut-être avec la foudre Vont protéger la Liberté Dieux du peuple que l'on opprime De l'audacieux attentat Qu'aux jours malheureux de Brumaire Vu consommer par un soldat "Trop vain espoir de la vengeance! "Jouets des flots et des orages De leurs débris couvrir vos plages Ou s'abymer au fond des eaux "De la France, ô honte éternelle A contre lui dans sa querelle Et dans les plaines de Pharsale S'il te faut céder aux destins Pour te venger au moins il reste "Mais sous quelles viles entraves Quoi! l'univers nous voit esclaves Le pouvoir sans appui sans force Tombe à sa voix et c'est d'un Corse Que le Français reçoit des fers? "And in another part thereof to the tenor following, that is to say: "Déjà dans sa rage insolente Est-ce pour vous donner un maitre Saura qu'il n'est d'inviolable Que les droits du peuple et ses lois. And in another part thereof to the tenor following, that is to say: "Vœu d'un bon Patriote au 14 Juillet, 1802. "Quel fortune a fait le fils de Létitie! L'Orient, l'Occident témoins de ses exploits Que faut-il à ses vœux? un sceptre? une couronne? Peu soigneux d'être aimé la terreur fait ses droits! Il regne-il est despote on baise ses entraves Des rois sont à ses pieds, mendiant ses bienfaits? On lui porte les voeux! Les Français des rois même A le féliciter s'empressent humblement Et voudraient en sujets lui préter le serment . . . Il est proclamé chef et consul pour la vie.. Pour moi loin qu'à son sort je porte quelqu'envie Qu'il nomme j'y consens son digne successeur Sur le pavois porté qu'on l'élise empereur Enfin et Romulus nous rappelle la chose Je fais vœu . . . . dès demain qu'il ait l'apothéose! AMEN. "Which said scandalous and malicious words in the French language, first above-mentioned and set forth, being translated into the English language, were and are of the same signification and meaning as these English words following, that is to say: "What frightful tempests growl on the unchained waves? Gods, what dreadful torrents roll these uprooted rocks? The rivers have no longer any banks. The ocean, covered with foam and shipwrecks, bellows in the air. Shaken at its foundation, is the earth fallen-going to detach itself from the universe! Ah! rather to obtain their acquittal for too long impunity, the heavens, perhaps, are going to protect liberty with the thunder. Gods of an oppressed people! Avenge this august victim of the audacious attempt which on the unhappy days of Brumaire, the laws, in their sanctuary, saw completed by a soldier! (meaning the said Napoleon Buonaparté). Too vain hope of vengeance! Nations given up to oppressors, have you in your sufferings only your arms for deliverers? The heaven is blind or cruel, and when its thunder flies, carried by chance upon the winds, whether it lays waste the plains or strike the arid mountains, it respects tyrants. Behold those useful vessels, the sport of the waves an storms, cover your coasts with their wrecks or sink to the bottom of the waters, while the guilty ship that carries that rebel Corsican (meaning the said Napoleon Buonaparté) deserter of the plains of Africa, sails tranquilly on the wave, and announces to the world the fortune and the designs of Cæsar. Oh, eternal disgrace of France! Cæsar, on the bank of the Rubicon, has against him in his quarrel the senate, Pompey and Cato, and in the plains of Pharsalia, if fortune is unequal, if you must yield to the destinies of Rome, in this sad reverse, at least, there remains to avenge you, a poignard among the last Romans. But, under what vile fetters has our valour fallen! What! the universe beholds us slaves without our having combatted! In the bosom of a parricide senate black treason presides, |