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64 SUSSEX SMUGGLERS.
to Rowland's Castle that Sunday about noon, where this cruel plot was first contrived, and in part carried into execution.
" The malice conceived by the prisoners against Chater appears not to have arisen from any injury, or suspicion of injury, done by the deceased to the prisoners. But because Chater dared to give information against a smuggler, and do his duty in assisting to bring a notorious offender to justice, he was to be treated with the utmost cruelty, his person was to be tortured, and his life to be destroyed. What avail the laws of society, where no man dares to carry them into execution ? Where is the protection of liberty and life, if criminals assume to themselves a power of restraining the one, and destroy -the other.
" Having mentioned the motive of the prisoners in this murder, I shall now open to you a scene of cruelty and barbarity, tending to the murder of Chater, begun at Rowland's Castle, by the two prisoners Jackson and Carter, in company with others, and from thence continued, until Chater was brought to the house of Richard Mills the elder, at Trotton, upon Monday morning the 15th of February, before it was light.
" And here you will observe how cruelly and wickedly, in general, the gang assembled at Rowland's Castle behaved; and in particular, how active Jackson and Carter appeared in every step of this fatal conspiracy.
" Soon after Chater and Galley, and the three others, had arrived at Rowland's Castle, the widow Payne suspected Chater and Galley intended some mischief against the smugglers ; and for that purpose enquired of George Austin who the two strangers were, and what their business was. He privately informed her they were going to Major Battine with a letter. She desired |
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