e interesting to
Englishmen.

_September 21st, 1827_.--On this day I attended the Court, to
hear the trial to which I have already alluded. It was a case of
adultery, and the parties were all free blacks. The action was brought
by a carpenter against the Rev. Samuel Thorpe, a preacher at one of
the Independent chapels, for criminal conversation with his wife; and,
as I have a copy from the records of the Court, I think it will be
much more satisfactory to insert the document in full, than to
supersede it by any desultory remarks of my own. It will give a clear
and characteristic idea of the state of society amongst these people.
The occurrence was so unusual, that it created no small astonishment,
that such a case should be brought into Court. The following is the
address of the plaintiff's counsel, and the verdict.

BERNARD _v_. THORPE.

"Gentlemen of the Jury,

"I bespeak your attention and indulgence. I am not only this day the
advocate of my client, but I am lending my humble efforts to defend,
perhaps I ought to say, assert, the divine right and sacredness of the
social compact of marriage, the palladium of every married man's
family, happiness and comfort. I will remind you, gentlemen of the
jury, that this is the first action of the kind that has been tried on
these boards since the colony has been ceded to the British
crown.--Among you, gentlemen of the jury, I see fathers, brothers, and
husbands, to all I appeal this day on behalf of my client, and of this
colony. Shew the world this day, by your verdict, that you will not
suffer with impunity the foul crime of adultery to be committed in the
face of a rising family; shew the value in which you hold the solemn
engagements of your female relatives; let your verdict warn the
seducer that he dare not trespass on any man's honour, or blight with
apathy, for one moment, any pleasure or gratification of his conjugal
tenderness.

"It has been too common in actions of this kind, for the defendant to
treat with contumely the humble situation of the injured prosecutor. I
do not apprehend much from any such attempt in this cause. I
acknowledge, gentlemen, that my client is a very humble individual,
but he is a respectable and an honest man, by trade a carpenter. I
see, gentlemen, on your countenances, that his humble lot shall not
deprive him from having his happiness considered as dear to him as to
any man, and e