THE JUDGE-ADVOCATE'S REPLY. 405 Campbell and his brother officers were with the practice 1789 there, they probably felt something more than surprise WAprfL when they saw the prosecutor actually installed as the judge ; and if his objection to take part in the proceedings Ground for of the Court had been grounded on a protest against the * ^ violation of principle involved in them, it would at least have been creditable to his sense of justice. But there is nothing to show that his conduct in the matter was in* fluenced by any such consideration. If the captain looked to his superior officer for support, Collins also had a powerful friend to whom he could appeal in time of trouble. The offensive language used by the former, coupled with his flat refusal to sit again in the Criminal Court, made such an impression on the judge that he wrote to Phillip on the day the hostile letter reached him. He thought it as well to lose no time in placing the Governor in possession of tiie facts from his own point of view — especially as he foresaw that CampbelFs intimation with coiiins to respect to his sitting m the Criminal Court would be certain to set his excellency in motion. Having this day received a message from Captain Campbell respecting Mary Turner, one of the evidences on the late trial of the soldiers for robbing the store-house, I beg leave to lay before your excellency the following particulars of that affair : — It appearing to the members of the Court, as well as to myself, on the examination of the said Mary Turner, that she had not sworn the truth in giving her testimony, on her being told to Perjury, withdraw, the Provost-Martial was ordered to detain and keep her apart from the other witnesses. The conviction and condemnation of the six prisoners very shortly followed, and the Court dissolved. On maturely weighing and considering the whole of Mary Turner's depositions, and comparing it with those of the other witnesses, since the trial, I was of opinion there was not sufficient No case, proof to affect her on an indictment for perjury ; and as I have always wished to avoid lightly grounding a prosecution against the convicts, from the bad effect it might have — in pointing out to them how far they might offend if they but withhold sufficient proof ftjoeecution ^I had dropped, for the present, any thoughts of calling on Mary Digitized by Google
