Garrow's Law: Tales from the Old Bailey (2009) s02e03 Episode Script
Series 2, Episode 3
Mary! What are you about? To the mistress, Sir.
She wants her clothes.
You obey only my orders, do you understand? You cannot take this lightly.
They mean to ruin you! You many announce me to my husband.
Your business? I wish to see my son.
You may not.
You cast her out! I have lost my wife! To you! I think, sir, an opportunity now presents itself.
You are to testify in court that they did hotly embrace.
And now your husband's imaginings will be presumed as fact.
And we shall be ruined for it.
The Royal Hospital for Seamen, latterly known as the Greenwich Hospital, is, by your kind duty and patronage, a charity for our brave seamen and their families.
It is my privilege, as First Lord of the Admiralty, to preside over this most worthy institution.
We shall provide for the relief and support of those who, for reason of age, wounds or other disabilities, shall be incapable of further service at sea.
And, unable to maintain themselves, we shall provide accommodation and sustenance.
This is the promise of our charter, of your avowal to the great tradition of the British navy.
I drink to you.
Who began this? I make no complaint.
I did, sir.
This food belongs on the floor, for a dog to forage there.
Why so? We have eaten horse before, Captain Baillie, when we were desperate sailors at war and in need of provision.
We would not expect to do so in our sanctuary.
He promised me unearthly sexual pleasure and to get me with child.
Not personally? Through the advent of his 'celestial bed'.
I would be cured and no longer barren.
The 'celestial bed'.
He named it so? Mmm.
He prescribed 'daily electrifications'.
And while you and your husband lay on the bed, what was Dr Graham doing? In the next room, cranking up a machine.
LAUGHTER This machine to produce 'electrical or concocted fire', which he said would heighten and prolong venereal congress.
And did the apparatus have any immediate effect? It made my hair stand up.
Mr Garrow, your witness.
Your age, Madam? And you've been married how long? Five years.
And never with child? No.
And does your menstrual blood still flow? My lord, we are not here to examine the physiology of the prosecutrix.
My lord, I merely wish to ascertain the unlikelihood of any conception here.
The real offence of deception has been carried out by Mrs Cumberland herself, on herself.
My learned friend is very ungallant.
I wish to temper the jury's sympathy with some reality.
Perhaps my learned friend produces his own lightning bolt at the critical moment.
Mr Silvester, a warning.
As a way to explain his want of sympathy, my lord, and the enmity he does provoke elsewhere.
You will act for your client here, not a Drury Lane satire.
No more questions, Mr Garrow? They complain of a deficiency of sheets and shirts, and, as a consequence, some find they sleep on a bare mattress, and the nurses required to wash their remaining shirts threadbare.
There is a discrepancy of 95 yards of linen but it has not been embezzled.
I sought not to suggest It has been more as a saving to the hospital.
But is that not strange reasoning? By which you mean? The purse of the hospital should have no greater interest than that of the seamen, and these savings are being made through their regulated allowances.
There is more? If not, Captain, we have other business to attend to.
They say the beer is sour and mixed with water, unfit to drink.
I hope their appeals do not appear sour by being conveyed through this old Lieutenant Governor.
Also in need of rectification is the meat that has been served lately.
It is not to their liking? It is unfit.
It is of dubious provenance.
It is horse.
That would behighly irregular.
Indeed, Sir.
All of these complaints will be looked into.
I hope the council understand that I bring these informations in hope of reformation, and not reproach.
Then you will leave us with these informations.
You overstepped your mark.
The courtroom is an adversarial place.
You have seen to that, you did invent it.
Is the biter bit? You will use my situation outside this court to win a case? You really think you can keep your situation private? Garrow, by the time you come to trial, every print shop and newspaper will be full to the brim with its sensation.
And my insults will pale by comparison.
Mr Southouse? Do we have the fact of adultery? We have the evidence that will conclude it.
And an amount that will reflect the dishonour of it? A sum against Garrow that will humiliate him for it? He will never make good this debt.
Ten thousand pounds.
That is monstrous.
Damages are aptly named.
Or perhaps in your case you will not so much be damaged as decimated.
Is not now the time for reassurance? Yes.
Do you have any for yourself? You may not take my place from me! I have not the means to look after my family! I will see Captain Baillie! Smith! Captain Baillie! They say you've been a busy fellow.
Unruly.
Have disturbed the good peace and governance of the hospital.
They would not listen to you! The discipline of the house is presided over by the council.
They make all decisions, I can do nothing.
What is your duty here, Captain? To watch over the internal economy and see the revenues not perverted.
And to watch over us? Yes.
Yet you are ignored and supplanted.
So you fail in all this.
You do fail in your duty to all the men.
And now we are to wander the streets! He has agreed to see me.
You have hopes of your husband's mercy? I cannot think him altogether cruel.
I cannot.
He'll never allow you to be Samuel's mother.
If he will see me, then he may allow me to see my son.
I wish to express my concerns at the conduct of the hospital council.
Well? They areimproperly trusted with the care of the accounts.
They direct the offices of the hospital and by successive encroachments have taken upon themselves the governance of the house.
So why do you not petition them? I have made an appeal, but I fear they are deaf to every expostulation or complaint, however reasonable or regularly urged.
So they ignored your appeal? They do not yet respond to it.
Oh, do they not? Well, then is it not a little early for you to judge it? They have already thrown out a seaman who made complaint.
In the interests of discipline, no doubt.
Let me speak plainly, Sir.
How may I make a persuasive appeal when they are the subject of the appeals I make? They engage the contractors, and in any investigation they will report of themselves and to themselves.
They will? I do not think you should presume so.
I think you should wait, sir.
Does he make the Admiralty the subject of any complaint? If he comes to the Admiralty seeking redress, that is unlikely, I think.
Are you deprived of sleep? I'm out of sorts, I apologise.
I see you're installed with your new companion again.
At least you have the consolation of knowing that you are not bereft of company yourself.
Arthur I understand that any rights of visitation are purely at your discretion.
Then you will understand that also at the discretion of Sir Arthur is to educate the child or not, to remove it to the country with a wet nurse or not, to have an entire and untrammelled control over the child's fate.
Well, I hope that his fate will include a relationship with his mother.
Mr Farmer May we no longer speak to each other? I will go further than most men will allow a wife such as you.
You will? You may not see Samuel, but you may write to him.
Where you may express your sentiments to him.
It is more than I'm obliged to, Sarah.
You will not humiliate me! I am wronged, you cannot be! Farmer, why do I contest and protect so fiercely that which is not mine? Sir, in law and that which in my heart I do not care to keep?! Sir, you cannot entertain the thought of letting Lady Sarah have the child back.
She must be seen and punished as an adulteress.
Therefore, you cannot contemplate any act that would show her forgiveness or acceptance, that would make your dishonour appear less.
Because the jury in the trial against Garrow would then award you less.
Having examined these complaints, we find they appear generally malicious and void of foundation Gentlemen, I am no malicious informer .
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and tending to disturb the peace and good government of the hospital.
But, sirs, I only conceived of it as the duty of my office to disclose any fraud or abuse to you.
We have laid a copy of our findings before the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty.
At sea, I would always place the interests of my men above my own, and on land I merely do the same.
It is submitted to their lordships that it is expedient for the peace, quiet, and regular conducting of the business of the hospital that you be removed from your employment as Lieutenant Governor.
I will not prostrate myself before you to keep my position.
But I must inform you that I shall write to the General Court of Governors to make the facts known in print.
Gentleman, this is a libel, a libel on you all.
But further than that it criminates you, accuses you of fraud and pecuniary abuses.
My lord, will you also make an affidavit? Well, I am not named.
I am not criminated against.
But, my lord, every great and good Governor that lays eyes on this will be minded to ask a question or two of you.
Every political contemporary, friend or foe.
And that is why you must not allow this a moment's credit.
That is why you must prosecute for malicious libel.
I may write.
Do you think you have sacrificed your son for me? I have lost Samuel because of my husband.
I only hope he does not teach him to despise me.
Perhaps he will come to accept him as his true heir and at least have regard for him in that way.
And therefore you.
You think to console me, Will.
You see it is artificially beaten to defraud the men of their just allowance of broth and pease soup.
This is the plainest way to show the abuses I wrote of.
When you did petition the Admiralty, was it Sandwich himself you spoke with there? No, it was the Assistant Secretary, Sir Arthur Hill.
Sirs, I am a poor individual, no fortune and unconnected.
I am in an unequal contest between myself and those officers that govern.
Yes, yes, you are.
And your removal was agreed by the Admiralty? The whole weight of the Ministry thrown into the unequal balance against me.
This will be a high privilege.
To repel and expose so odious a prosecution.
In truth, I only wish the reinstatement of my position.
Beware.
Beware of what, Mr Southouse? What it is that draws you to this case.
Injustice always exerts its influence upon me.
I mean do not come upon this personally.
Come upon it as a man of the law! You wish to see me? We wish to visit you, sir.
I don't know you.
But are well acquainted with Captain Baillie.
He is known to every man here.
He recommended you as a good source of enquiry.
You are mistaken, sir, I am content.
Is it not true that you were turned out of your cabin accommodation to make room for the enlarging of officer's apartments? I make no complaint about that.
You can't deny it? Where do you reside now, sir? In In the infirmary.
But you are not sick? I have a bed there.
Are you content? I am fortunate! It should not be the fate of any man who has served his country so well as you.
25 year.
You served in the Seven Year War? And Valcour Island last.
The American War of Independence.
Sir? You recognise it? You think after 25 years' service this be your just reward? To be deprived of soup? To lose your shelter? How can the Officers of this House behave so to their own fellow seamen? They are not seamen, sir.
They are land men.
Land men are simply those who have never been at sea in the service of the Navy.
These Officers of the Hospital, these land men, they were appointed by the Admiralty? Indeed, sir.
Do you know why? I've never been a man to question the Admiralty.
Until now? I shall make enquiry.
Jailer? If I am found guilty, I face imprisonment or fine.
That will not happen, Captain Baillie.
Even if I am found not guilty, I do not think they will return me to my post at the hospital.
No.
Then I will gladly take a commission to captain a ship again.
I do not think they will be that forgiving.
Then they shall complete my ruin whatever will happen? We shall win.
And we shall shame them.
I know it is not easy to languish here the while.
Mr Garrow I would rather any cannon ball come upon me than this.
It is good fortune to have a healthy child when so many succumb at such an early age.
We must pray for the welfare of our children.
Lest they die.
It is your own son you talk of, sir? You're confounded? As if I wish its death or think to commission its murder.
I merely wish it not, is all.
I merely wish it with its wretched mother! And as I have explained, for our case, that would be an outcome worse than any murder.
And so Garrow's offspring will inherit my estate, my title! Why should I go to court for my honour when I shall be dishonoured within a generation?! The Hospital being administered as a charity, its officers a matter of public record.
And? Mr Cooke, Secretary, resident of Huntingdon.
Mr Ibbotson, Steward, native of the same.
Reverend Lee, Chaplain, again of Huntingdon.
Mr Critchely, Auditor Of Huntingdon? Every man in office at the Greenwich Hospital is from the very same town.
What sense is there in this when Greenwich is such a very long way from there? And such a very long way from here.
You will identify yourself, sir! John Southouse, London Attorney.
And should I identify you as a gamekeeper, sir? I am land steward here and attorney in Huntingdon.
That is a novel way to go about the law.
Do your clients give you some difficulty? Your business here? I merely seek to understand why Huntingdon men seem to be universally employed at the Greenwich Hospital? You trespass here, sir.
This is the hospital's land? No longer.
It has been sold? To who, sir? It has not been sold.
Then whose gift? I think an answer may do you no good at all.
Very well.
You have no need of your gun, unless you mistake me for partridge.
In previous years the hospital's landed estates furnished the hospital with one third of its revenue.
£21,000, enough to keep the seamen in complete comfort.
Then why are they not? Because the land has been given away.
And the revenue no longer flows in such amounts to the hospital.
You think the owners of the hospital to be the beneficiaries? I know it to be so! I have seen the records.
How does ownership of the land benefit them? It has enabled the officers of Greenwich to become freeholders in Huntingdon.
And freeholders may vote.
The paternity of Samuel is a lie.
You find it hard to endure, but it is presumed in law.
Unless you were away at sea or can prove impotency.
Neither apply.
No.
But there is another way To establish that Garrow bastardised your issue.
Well? A signed affidavit from Lady Sarah, attesting to that fact.
She'd never agree.
A mother who can be reunited with her child, despite her adultery? That may not present such a great difficulty to her.
Samuel the prize for her confession? And as a result, the jury minded to award the maximum penalty - against Garrow.
Well, draft it! Will any of the seaman speak in my defence? Many may wish to but none will dare to.
Can we not persuade these men, so fearful of keeping their meagre settlement to speak out? Some of these men have lost their wits and limbs on bloody decks when their country required it of them.
But now they are seamen on dry land and they are vulnerable.
Beholden to their country's charity, not to me.
Charles Smith, he was dismissed from this place.
He would therefore have more cause than most to speak out.
If I take you to him, I will be regarded as his accomplice! Mr Boycott! You may still hide behind your silence.
You have business with me here? Is it not your business to hide around a corner and watch me? This business is somewhat more formal, Lady Sarah.
This is drawn up for your signature, it is also a document that demonstrates Sir Arthur's generous and liberal outlook.
Custody of Samuel shall reside with yourself if you shall admit his illegitimacy and that the child imposed upon your husband is the child of Mr Garrow.
We are to be returned, Robert? I'm afraid not.
Then what useful purpose brings you here? You have some remedy for my poor daughter? Captain Baillie is in Newgate for what he has spoke on behalf of you all.
If you will bear witness for him, it may be hoped that only injustice is banished from the Hospital Gate.
Your courage is required once more.
Mr Farmer, you have played a very good game.
It was required of him, Lord Melville.
When I instructed him I am certain he did not think me to become quite so troublesome.
I must admit I had hoped that Lady Sarah's signature had been immediately forthcoming.
She will need to seek Garrow's permission.
And that I suspect is where their difficulties will really begin.
As Garrow defends Captain Baillie tomorrow, we must look forward to his distraction.
His distraction tomorrow, his reputation very soon.
We shall have some peace in our society when we have brought about his silence.
I think it may be Lady Sarah first to strike him dumb! When you learned of my pregnancy, you did offer to bring the child up as your own.
There is no similarity here.
But if you can own the child as your own It is a fiction! It is a lie! I know! But for the sake of my son I would bear any lie! And you think I can bear it as easily? Will? Yes, Mr Southouse? We have business at Newgate.
Why don't you attend it? It is the trial of Captain Baillie tomorrow.
Well, then I will attend it tomorrow.
I understand what this reunion would mean to you.
But I would deprive myself of the means to defend the suit against me.
If you sign this affidavit, it becomes evidence in court of my treachery.
That is why the child is being offered to you! You take Samuel and I am damned and ruined.
How else would you wish it? That I lose my son forever? So that you may confound my husband I will not submit to those who will conspire against me.
And if I submit for the sake of my son, you will never forgive me? I would be broken because you had struck such a bargain.
I do not think I could live peacefully with you after that.
So I must lose you? If you will have your son at any price, yes! If you will allow your husband still to manipulate and abuse you, then yes, it must be so.
I am deprived of my child, so I have no pride in this.
I am allowed none.
You have too much, Will! Is it pride to wish to be true to myself? Or to wish that you would be true to me? Very well.
Sign the affidavit.
I will resign myself to my fate, with you and at my trial.
It seems you did not fail in your duty to us after all and I commend you, Captain Baillie sir.
Myself, I do not wish to be thrown out, but nor can I keep quiet.
And if it were possible all the men would assemble at the Old Bailey for you.
Then I may face the jury proudly.
To paternity.
Really, Hill? Most certainly.
To paternity, I say.
To paternity.
To paternity.
Enter.
If you'll excuse me.
Hill? I must a I must take my leave of you.
Argh! Sir? This humour will burst through your veins, if you persist in it.
I have been wronged.
But the wrong was to have been undone.
Lady Sarah - she's thwarted you? It seems to be the Seems to be the role of all women to thwart and betray me! Or am I just so so poor in judgement of the company I keep? The company you keep? Do you understand the responsibility that I bear to my name? The duty that is expected of me? And if my wife did fail me, then I should still prevail.
But it seems not.
I am this time cuckolded by fate, by the sick joke that nature did create.
This time! Sir, it appears you have not been honest with me in how you have spent your time.
I no longer drink to paternity.
Garrow will mitigate your claim to nothing.
You must speak very frankly with me now or Garrow will win .
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and you will face the ruin of your own reputation.
Even now, she may be arrived in the nursery, throwing kisses upon her son.
Even now, Hill may be smiling at her signature on the affidavit, glad at the bargain he has struck that will expose my iniquity.
You know that my loyalty has always been to you and not to Lady Sarah.
Therefore Therefore .
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you must separate yourself from her.
Make a public disavowal.
Abandon her? The trial will go better for you.
If the jury think she be of less value, for being thrown aside? You will not escape unpunished for this, but I do not just speak to how you may mitigate that.
I speak that you do not incur further punishment.
You attend to my heart? If you will not.
Look what you have come to.
When I was down in my cups, you did not entertain it, but kindly so.
I only wish to repay that.
Will.
What? She will choose her son over you.
Hmm.
You are unhappy and she has made you so.
She asks more of you than you ever ask of her.
She gave up her reputation.
For me.
But you must do justice to your own - in court! You are not even mindful of the duty you owe Captain Baillie this night.
Captain Thomas Baillie, you are indicted with maliciously intending to deprive the plaintiffs of their good name You may not wish to sit so conspicuously alongside me.
By which you mean, Buller? You may have no business with the case today, but I'm afraid the case may have business with you.
.
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concerning the government of the Greenwich Hospital and abuses in the administration of the charity there.
You look unwell, Garrow.
Pale.
Are you fit for this trial? I worry that you may not be able to perform your duty here today.
I shall do my duty at your expense.
I express concern for your welfare, yet you insult me.
But, if I were having to lavish a bounteous award of £10,000 on my lover's husband, that would not sit well with me, either.
Did you sleep? Not a wink.
Why did you recommend Captain Baillie be removed from office? He undermined the governance of the hospital, thought his own authority diminished by it.
And upon his removal, did then furnish the governors with his complaints and allegations? He did.
A man who so disturbed the peace that his removal be warranted.
Upon that removal, compounds his malice with the circulation of his grievances? Exactly so.
Since when was vengeance a virtue? It confirmed our previous judgement of him.
A man whose only real cause was not the seamen, but his own removal from office? Tell me, how much is good ox beef? 34 shillings.
And the flesh of rams? 12 shillings.
And mutton? 30 shillings.
And was complaint ever made that the butcher you contracted with was supplying horse, instead of good ox beef? The complaint was investigated.
Are the seaman still eating it? Wehave spoken to the butcher.
Answer the question.
Are the men still being cheated of their meat allowance? We merely thought to make a saving.
For whose benefit? Did the butcher supply horse and charge 34 shillings for the price of good ox beef? I am not the auditor.
The butcher that you contracted with - from which town? Huntingdon.
And the supplier of deficient linen? The same.
By which, I mean Huntingdon, but admit to no deficiency.
And the sour beer conveyed in rotten pipes and mixed with water? My lord Simply tell the court who is the brewer.
My lord, it is not unnatural to wish to do business with men one is previously acquainted with.
It is a very convenient arrangement.
But I shall not be criminated by it.
You deny the facts, as written by Captain Baillie? When he seeks to divine the facts as criminal, yes.
So you do not deny the facts? Or perhaps you think that the fact of the neglect of duty not criminal? Or that if you do not actively promote abuses, the winking at them is not criminal? I put it to you that you and all your countrymen of Huntingdon are acquainted with unblushing opportunities for self-enrichment.
And yet you have the effrontery to come here as a prosecutor, to turn the table on the defendant and stifle the necessary enquiry into the subject of his complaints! My lord, my learned friend seeks to bully the witness into confession of conspiracy.
I will have this conspiracy out.
I will not allow a man's life to be destroyed by a witch hunt! My lord, I fear my learned friend speaks of his own misfortunes outside of this court.
Does Mr Garrow defend Captain Baillie or himself? You have another witness, Mr Silvester? My lord, I call on Sir Arthur Hill, Assistant Secretary to the Admiralty.
Sir Arthur Hill.
You believe he had, before the results of any investigation, decided in advance to calumniate and decry the hospital council and those officers within it? He did calumniate and decry those officers in conversations with myself, as enquiries were being made by them.
And had begun to demonstrate his malice? Yes.
And once removed from office, circulates his thoughts in a book.
It's another demonstration of his vice.
LOUD MURMURING Sir Arthur, why do you think Captain Baillie came to the Admiralty? To petition the Earl of Sandwich.
And finding him unavailable, did petition you? I am Assistant Secretary.
Having appealed to the Council, without effect, and having been equally unsuccessful with yourself, do you think it unreasonable for the prisoner to attract the attention of the general governors? Well, if you publish malicious falsehoods, then that is unreasonable.
And subject to the laws of libel.
Do not tell me of the law.
Why should I not? I understand what it is to seek redress for grievous assaults and injury upon one's character and reputation! And I understand the distress caused by charges brought without foundation.
Hear, hear.
This book, it was not published, it was not printed for sale, but for the commodious distribution among the persons who are called upon upon, in duty, to examine its contents - the governors.
Mr Garrow, a question to the witness, not a point of law.
Very well, may I quote the charter of the hospital to you? "No officer shall be employed in this hospital but seafaring men, or such as have lost their limbs "or been otherwise disabled in the sea service.
" Is Captain Cooke a seafaring man? No.
No, he's a land man, he has never been in the sea service, yet he is in office, like yourself.
He does not know one end of a ship from the other, like yourself.
Mr Garrow! My lord, if Mr Garrow insists that all those who hold office at the Greenwich Hospital be seamen, then perhaps all the managers of Bedlam be lunatics? It appears this hospital charter has been infringed, does it not? Changed, in fact.
Who changed it? I I cannot say.
"Cannot say"? You are, by your own admission, Assistant Secretary.
Are you not about your duty there? My lord, you're a General Governor of this esteemed charity, are you not? Did you know the charter of the hospital had been altered, to allow land men from the town of Huntingdon to be appointed to office? No.
No, I did not.
Sir Arthur, do you know the Land Steward who runs the hospital's Huntingdon Estate? Of course not.
But you are acquainted with his master, of course, the Earl of Sandwich.
He is also your master, is he not? He is the First Lord of the Admiralty.
Indeed.
The Land Steward is a very busy man.
He creates 40 shilling freeholds on the hospital estate and hands them over freely to those who his master calculates as being most useful.
Do you actually have any more questions for me? Yes, Mr Garrow! Most certainly.
What does a freehold bestow, Sir Arthur? The right to vote.
And which borough does the Earl represent in parliament? Cambridgeshire.
Yes, Cambridgeshire.
Containing within it the town of Huntingdon.
I put it to you the charter of the hospital was changed .
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to make him the sole and uncontrolled ruler of this charity.
This hospital, his own private fiefdom and a treasury to plunder.
I put it to you that this allows the Earl to place his voters and partisans there.
My lord, we are here to determine the conduct of Captain Baillie.
Mr Garrow I put it to you that the governors of Greenwich Hospital have been given free rein to enrich themselves for the political services they have provided for the Earl of Sandwich - namely, by voting for him, namely, by being given portions of the hospital's land in order to vote for him! Mr Garrow! The Earl of Sandwich is not before the court.
No, my lord.
He has sent this pale subordinate here.
He has placed Sir Arthur and the prosecutors in front of battle and hopes to escape under their mercy, under their shelter.
Yet I will drag him to light who is the dark mover behind this scene of iniquity.
I assert that the Earl of Sandwich has but one route to escape out of this business without pollution and disgrace.
And that is by publicly disavowing the acts of the prosecutors and the restoration of Captain Baillie to his command, if he is found innocent here.
I did warn you.
My lord, my learned friend seeks to prescribe the moral requirements of others when his own morality is far from settled.
Withdraw.
I merely make the point that your business here is the law and dangerous for one, such as you, to speak of pollution and disgrace.
Are you finished, Mr Garrow? Yes, my lord.
Thank you, Sir Arthur.
You may step down.
I am not yet finished with you.
Mr Boycott? What did you think Captain Baillie's duties were as Lieutenant Governor? To see that our settling days were spent in comfort and peace.
And how did he perform this duty, in your estimation? A captain to his men.
He only wished, as on board a ship, that our provision be ample.
And took pain to make sure those provisions were not misapplied or perverted? You cannot countenance further on the Captain? There was a warning to me, that if I should keep company with Captain Baillie, or correspond with him, that would be an end to my preferment.
A warning? A warning to you by whom? Very well.
Your preferment, Mr Boycott, by which you mean your shelter at the hospital, asylum for your infirmity, taken away? I have never before made complaint.
Of course not.
Complaints are not allowed to drown out the riot and mirth of luxurious land men, who have only ever fought in the battles of the borough of Huntingdon.
You are not here to address your own grievances and denounce your enemies! Your cause is Baillie himself.
I did warn you of this.
But do I not excite distrust of the prosecution case? Make hollow their evidence? This trial is about the character and motivation of Captain Baillie and the seamen suffering at the hospital.
Very well.
You must find a theme to stir the hearts of the jury - all English hearts.
It is not enough just to curdle blood, you must make it quicken.
Very well.
But confess at least you did enjoy my going to war.
Sir Arthur, holed beneath the water line.
But, all the more determined to repay you doubly.
He has removed me from Sarah.
I am already repaid.
But the fate of this case still hangs in the balance.
Mmm.
There is no signature.
I will not sign what isn't true.
Then you, for ever, forfeit Samuel.
A man such as you will not speak so familiar of my son's name to me.
A man who talks of forfeit, as if this were a game of cards.
Lady Sarah, should I apologise that I do not attend you .
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more delicately? Or do you object that it is a mere lawyer who will speak the truth to you? I understand the truth very well .
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and I am reconciled to what I must leave behind.
Youplan someescape, someelopement with Garrow? Mr Garrow has yet a trial to face.
But at least it will not be prejudiced by concocted evidence that Samuel is illegitimate.
You will not be able to load the suit with that grievance.
I find the wife of every plaintiff thinks me venal and corrupt, but it is their own corruption that I investigate.
Or perhaps, it is BECAUSE I investigate it.
I have never laid with Mr Garrow.
And I will gladly sign THAT affidavit.
I would not eat the horse.
I wished to shame the kitchen with it.
By refusing to be cheated, you had simply shown the ardour of a British sailor? And for that, you and your family were despatched without ceremony, into the street? Into a workhouse? I wasdismissed.
My lord, what has any of this to do with the character of the prisoner? My lord, a moment.
Mr Smith, did Captain Baillie witness the manner of your turning out? Most guiltily.
Guilty and aggrieved that a man such as you, who had fought in the naval battles of Frederica, Grenada, Cape St.
Vincent, even the war of the Austrian succession, I would be obliged if you would fetch a coach to Dover.
How do you find the prisoner charged with this indictment? Guilty or not guilty? Not guilty.
Release the prisoner.
Captain Baillie, you may step down.
Court shall rise.
I have always found you more convincing as a gentleman than a barrister.
Today, I find you neither.
Captain Baillie.
Then my career is not ended, Sandwich cannot refuse me! I'm sure you will not remain without employment.
But you yourself asked for my restoration.
Is it not now proved here that I am worthy of whatever duty they will bestow on me? Yes, yes, it is proven.
Some rum with your witnesses, I think, to savour the judgement! Your oratory has the Old Bailey enthralled, Mr Garrow.
That you must be silent at your own trial is a sadness.
What business do you have with me? I may be against you, but I do admire you.
Like you, I am .
.
in this world, but not of it.
And soon, you may not even be in it .
.
and far more alone than you did think.
Why do you affect pity for my sake? I do not affect it.
Lady Sarah leaves for France .
.
and I think to show you pity for that.
Pardon me.
Pardon me! Who is it? Sarah, you have signed the affidavit to be reunited with Samuel? No, I would not.
Then why do you go? Why would you flee into exile and not tell me? For fear that you would care too much, or too little.
"Too little"? Too little and I would not have come immediately.
You wished to say goodbye.
I know what I wished for.
I would not betray you, even in the cause of my son.
But neither can I come to you and be happy, because I have lost him, in your cause.
Therefore, I leave for Calais.
You betray me more if you run.
It is hardly a place to go willingly.
But I may live economically there, anonymously.
And as I am in law, no-one now and do not exist, that suits me well! If you go you, will be simply be owning your disgrace.
But if you stay .
.
you will own your love.
And Sarah, some loves must have a defence.
If there be evidence for such love.
You shall not be deprived of either of the loves you have.
We shall ensure it.
She wants her clothes.
You obey only my orders, do you understand? You cannot take this lightly.
They mean to ruin you! You many announce me to my husband.
Your business? I wish to see my son.
You may not.
You cast her out! I have lost my wife! To you! I think, sir, an opportunity now presents itself.
You are to testify in court that they did hotly embrace.
And now your husband's imaginings will be presumed as fact.
And we shall be ruined for it.
The Royal Hospital for Seamen, latterly known as the Greenwich Hospital, is, by your kind duty and patronage, a charity for our brave seamen and their families.
It is my privilege, as First Lord of the Admiralty, to preside over this most worthy institution.
We shall provide for the relief and support of those who, for reason of age, wounds or other disabilities, shall be incapable of further service at sea.
And, unable to maintain themselves, we shall provide accommodation and sustenance.
This is the promise of our charter, of your avowal to the great tradition of the British navy.
I drink to you.
Who began this? I make no complaint.
I did, sir.
This food belongs on the floor, for a dog to forage there.
Why so? We have eaten horse before, Captain Baillie, when we were desperate sailors at war and in need of provision.
We would not expect to do so in our sanctuary.
He promised me unearthly sexual pleasure and to get me with child.
Not personally? Through the advent of his 'celestial bed'.
I would be cured and no longer barren.
The 'celestial bed'.
He named it so? Mmm.
He prescribed 'daily electrifications'.
And while you and your husband lay on the bed, what was Dr Graham doing? In the next room, cranking up a machine.
LAUGHTER This machine to produce 'electrical or concocted fire', which he said would heighten and prolong venereal congress.
And did the apparatus have any immediate effect? It made my hair stand up.
Mr Garrow, your witness.
Your age, Madam? And you've been married how long? Five years.
And never with child? No.
And does your menstrual blood still flow? My lord, we are not here to examine the physiology of the prosecutrix.
My lord, I merely wish to ascertain the unlikelihood of any conception here.
The real offence of deception has been carried out by Mrs Cumberland herself, on herself.
My learned friend is very ungallant.
I wish to temper the jury's sympathy with some reality.
Perhaps my learned friend produces his own lightning bolt at the critical moment.
Mr Silvester, a warning.
As a way to explain his want of sympathy, my lord, and the enmity he does provoke elsewhere.
You will act for your client here, not a Drury Lane satire.
No more questions, Mr Garrow? They complain of a deficiency of sheets and shirts, and, as a consequence, some find they sleep on a bare mattress, and the nurses required to wash their remaining shirts threadbare.
There is a discrepancy of 95 yards of linen but it has not been embezzled.
I sought not to suggest It has been more as a saving to the hospital.
But is that not strange reasoning? By which you mean? The purse of the hospital should have no greater interest than that of the seamen, and these savings are being made through their regulated allowances.
There is more? If not, Captain, we have other business to attend to.
They say the beer is sour and mixed with water, unfit to drink.
I hope their appeals do not appear sour by being conveyed through this old Lieutenant Governor.
Also in need of rectification is the meat that has been served lately.
It is not to their liking? It is unfit.
It is of dubious provenance.
It is horse.
That would behighly irregular.
Indeed, Sir.
All of these complaints will be looked into.
I hope the council understand that I bring these informations in hope of reformation, and not reproach.
Then you will leave us with these informations.
You overstepped your mark.
The courtroom is an adversarial place.
You have seen to that, you did invent it.
Is the biter bit? You will use my situation outside this court to win a case? You really think you can keep your situation private? Garrow, by the time you come to trial, every print shop and newspaper will be full to the brim with its sensation.
And my insults will pale by comparison.
Mr Southouse? Do we have the fact of adultery? We have the evidence that will conclude it.
And an amount that will reflect the dishonour of it? A sum against Garrow that will humiliate him for it? He will never make good this debt.
Ten thousand pounds.
That is monstrous.
Damages are aptly named.
Or perhaps in your case you will not so much be damaged as decimated.
Is not now the time for reassurance? Yes.
Do you have any for yourself? You may not take my place from me! I have not the means to look after my family! I will see Captain Baillie! Smith! Captain Baillie! They say you've been a busy fellow.
Unruly.
Have disturbed the good peace and governance of the hospital.
They would not listen to you! The discipline of the house is presided over by the council.
They make all decisions, I can do nothing.
What is your duty here, Captain? To watch over the internal economy and see the revenues not perverted.
And to watch over us? Yes.
Yet you are ignored and supplanted.
So you fail in all this.
You do fail in your duty to all the men.
And now we are to wander the streets! He has agreed to see me.
You have hopes of your husband's mercy? I cannot think him altogether cruel.
I cannot.
He'll never allow you to be Samuel's mother.
If he will see me, then he may allow me to see my son.
I wish to express my concerns at the conduct of the hospital council.
Well? They areimproperly trusted with the care of the accounts.
They direct the offices of the hospital and by successive encroachments have taken upon themselves the governance of the house.
So why do you not petition them? I have made an appeal, but I fear they are deaf to every expostulation or complaint, however reasonable or regularly urged.
So they ignored your appeal? They do not yet respond to it.
Oh, do they not? Well, then is it not a little early for you to judge it? They have already thrown out a seaman who made complaint.
In the interests of discipline, no doubt.
Let me speak plainly, Sir.
How may I make a persuasive appeal when they are the subject of the appeals I make? They engage the contractors, and in any investigation they will report of themselves and to themselves.
They will? I do not think you should presume so.
I think you should wait, sir.
Does he make the Admiralty the subject of any complaint? If he comes to the Admiralty seeking redress, that is unlikely, I think.
Are you deprived of sleep? I'm out of sorts, I apologise.
I see you're installed with your new companion again.
At least you have the consolation of knowing that you are not bereft of company yourself.
Arthur I understand that any rights of visitation are purely at your discretion.
Then you will understand that also at the discretion of Sir Arthur is to educate the child or not, to remove it to the country with a wet nurse or not, to have an entire and untrammelled control over the child's fate.
Well, I hope that his fate will include a relationship with his mother.
Mr Farmer May we no longer speak to each other? I will go further than most men will allow a wife such as you.
You will? You may not see Samuel, but you may write to him.
Where you may express your sentiments to him.
It is more than I'm obliged to, Sarah.
You will not humiliate me! I am wronged, you cannot be! Farmer, why do I contest and protect so fiercely that which is not mine? Sir, in law and that which in my heart I do not care to keep?! Sir, you cannot entertain the thought of letting Lady Sarah have the child back.
She must be seen and punished as an adulteress.
Therefore, you cannot contemplate any act that would show her forgiveness or acceptance, that would make your dishonour appear less.
Because the jury in the trial against Garrow would then award you less.
Having examined these complaints, we find they appear generally malicious and void of foundation Gentlemen, I am no malicious informer .
.
and tending to disturb the peace and good government of the hospital.
But, sirs, I only conceived of it as the duty of my office to disclose any fraud or abuse to you.
We have laid a copy of our findings before the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty.
At sea, I would always place the interests of my men above my own, and on land I merely do the same.
It is submitted to their lordships that it is expedient for the peace, quiet, and regular conducting of the business of the hospital that you be removed from your employment as Lieutenant Governor.
I will not prostrate myself before you to keep my position.
But I must inform you that I shall write to the General Court of Governors to make the facts known in print.
Gentleman, this is a libel, a libel on you all.
But further than that it criminates you, accuses you of fraud and pecuniary abuses.
My lord, will you also make an affidavit? Well, I am not named.
I am not criminated against.
But, my lord, every great and good Governor that lays eyes on this will be minded to ask a question or two of you.
Every political contemporary, friend or foe.
And that is why you must not allow this a moment's credit.
That is why you must prosecute for malicious libel.
I may write.
Do you think you have sacrificed your son for me? I have lost Samuel because of my husband.
I only hope he does not teach him to despise me.
Perhaps he will come to accept him as his true heir and at least have regard for him in that way.
And therefore you.
You think to console me, Will.
You see it is artificially beaten to defraud the men of their just allowance of broth and pease soup.
This is the plainest way to show the abuses I wrote of.
When you did petition the Admiralty, was it Sandwich himself you spoke with there? No, it was the Assistant Secretary, Sir Arthur Hill.
Sirs, I am a poor individual, no fortune and unconnected.
I am in an unequal contest between myself and those officers that govern.
Yes, yes, you are.
And your removal was agreed by the Admiralty? The whole weight of the Ministry thrown into the unequal balance against me.
This will be a high privilege.
To repel and expose so odious a prosecution.
In truth, I only wish the reinstatement of my position.
Beware.
Beware of what, Mr Southouse? What it is that draws you to this case.
Injustice always exerts its influence upon me.
I mean do not come upon this personally.
Come upon it as a man of the law! You wish to see me? We wish to visit you, sir.
I don't know you.
But are well acquainted with Captain Baillie.
He is known to every man here.
He recommended you as a good source of enquiry.
You are mistaken, sir, I am content.
Is it not true that you were turned out of your cabin accommodation to make room for the enlarging of officer's apartments? I make no complaint about that.
You can't deny it? Where do you reside now, sir? In In the infirmary.
But you are not sick? I have a bed there.
Are you content? I am fortunate! It should not be the fate of any man who has served his country so well as you.
25 year.
You served in the Seven Year War? And Valcour Island last.
The American War of Independence.
Sir? You recognise it? You think after 25 years' service this be your just reward? To be deprived of soup? To lose your shelter? How can the Officers of this House behave so to their own fellow seamen? They are not seamen, sir.
They are land men.
Land men are simply those who have never been at sea in the service of the Navy.
These Officers of the Hospital, these land men, they were appointed by the Admiralty? Indeed, sir.
Do you know why? I've never been a man to question the Admiralty.
Until now? I shall make enquiry.
Jailer? If I am found guilty, I face imprisonment or fine.
That will not happen, Captain Baillie.
Even if I am found not guilty, I do not think they will return me to my post at the hospital.
No.
Then I will gladly take a commission to captain a ship again.
I do not think they will be that forgiving.
Then they shall complete my ruin whatever will happen? We shall win.
And we shall shame them.
I know it is not easy to languish here the while.
Mr Garrow I would rather any cannon ball come upon me than this.
It is good fortune to have a healthy child when so many succumb at such an early age.
We must pray for the welfare of our children.
Lest they die.
It is your own son you talk of, sir? You're confounded? As if I wish its death or think to commission its murder.
I merely wish it not, is all.
I merely wish it with its wretched mother! And as I have explained, for our case, that would be an outcome worse than any murder.
And so Garrow's offspring will inherit my estate, my title! Why should I go to court for my honour when I shall be dishonoured within a generation?! The Hospital being administered as a charity, its officers a matter of public record.
And? Mr Cooke, Secretary, resident of Huntingdon.
Mr Ibbotson, Steward, native of the same.
Reverend Lee, Chaplain, again of Huntingdon.
Mr Critchely, Auditor Of Huntingdon? Every man in office at the Greenwich Hospital is from the very same town.
What sense is there in this when Greenwich is such a very long way from there? And such a very long way from here.
You will identify yourself, sir! John Southouse, London Attorney.
And should I identify you as a gamekeeper, sir? I am land steward here and attorney in Huntingdon.
That is a novel way to go about the law.
Do your clients give you some difficulty? Your business here? I merely seek to understand why Huntingdon men seem to be universally employed at the Greenwich Hospital? You trespass here, sir.
This is the hospital's land? No longer.
It has been sold? To who, sir? It has not been sold.
Then whose gift? I think an answer may do you no good at all.
Very well.
You have no need of your gun, unless you mistake me for partridge.
In previous years the hospital's landed estates furnished the hospital with one third of its revenue.
£21,000, enough to keep the seamen in complete comfort.
Then why are they not? Because the land has been given away.
And the revenue no longer flows in such amounts to the hospital.
You think the owners of the hospital to be the beneficiaries? I know it to be so! I have seen the records.
How does ownership of the land benefit them? It has enabled the officers of Greenwich to become freeholders in Huntingdon.
And freeholders may vote.
The paternity of Samuel is a lie.
You find it hard to endure, but it is presumed in law.
Unless you were away at sea or can prove impotency.
Neither apply.
No.
But there is another way To establish that Garrow bastardised your issue.
Well? A signed affidavit from Lady Sarah, attesting to that fact.
She'd never agree.
A mother who can be reunited with her child, despite her adultery? That may not present such a great difficulty to her.
Samuel the prize for her confession? And as a result, the jury minded to award the maximum penalty - against Garrow.
Well, draft it! Will any of the seaman speak in my defence? Many may wish to but none will dare to.
Can we not persuade these men, so fearful of keeping their meagre settlement to speak out? Some of these men have lost their wits and limbs on bloody decks when their country required it of them.
But now they are seamen on dry land and they are vulnerable.
Beholden to their country's charity, not to me.
Charles Smith, he was dismissed from this place.
He would therefore have more cause than most to speak out.
If I take you to him, I will be regarded as his accomplice! Mr Boycott! You may still hide behind your silence.
You have business with me here? Is it not your business to hide around a corner and watch me? This business is somewhat more formal, Lady Sarah.
This is drawn up for your signature, it is also a document that demonstrates Sir Arthur's generous and liberal outlook.
Custody of Samuel shall reside with yourself if you shall admit his illegitimacy and that the child imposed upon your husband is the child of Mr Garrow.
We are to be returned, Robert? I'm afraid not.
Then what useful purpose brings you here? You have some remedy for my poor daughter? Captain Baillie is in Newgate for what he has spoke on behalf of you all.
If you will bear witness for him, it may be hoped that only injustice is banished from the Hospital Gate.
Your courage is required once more.
Mr Farmer, you have played a very good game.
It was required of him, Lord Melville.
When I instructed him I am certain he did not think me to become quite so troublesome.
I must admit I had hoped that Lady Sarah's signature had been immediately forthcoming.
She will need to seek Garrow's permission.
And that I suspect is where their difficulties will really begin.
As Garrow defends Captain Baillie tomorrow, we must look forward to his distraction.
His distraction tomorrow, his reputation very soon.
We shall have some peace in our society when we have brought about his silence.
I think it may be Lady Sarah first to strike him dumb! When you learned of my pregnancy, you did offer to bring the child up as your own.
There is no similarity here.
But if you can own the child as your own It is a fiction! It is a lie! I know! But for the sake of my son I would bear any lie! And you think I can bear it as easily? Will? Yes, Mr Southouse? We have business at Newgate.
Why don't you attend it? It is the trial of Captain Baillie tomorrow.
Well, then I will attend it tomorrow.
I understand what this reunion would mean to you.
But I would deprive myself of the means to defend the suit against me.
If you sign this affidavit, it becomes evidence in court of my treachery.
That is why the child is being offered to you! You take Samuel and I am damned and ruined.
How else would you wish it? That I lose my son forever? So that you may confound my husband I will not submit to those who will conspire against me.
And if I submit for the sake of my son, you will never forgive me? I would be broken because you had struck such a bargain.
I do not think I could live peacefully with you after that.
So I must lose you? If you will have your son at any price, yes! If you will allow your husband still to manipulate and abuse you, then yes, it must be so.
I am deprived of my child, so I have no pride in this.
I am allowed none.
You have too much, Will! Is it pride to wish to be true to myself? Or to wish that you would be true to me? Very well.
Sign the affidavit.
I will resign myself to my fate, with you and at my trial.
It seems you did not fail in your duty to us after all and I commend you, Captain Baillie sir.
Myself, I do not wish to be thrown out, but nor can I keep quiet.
And if it were possible all the men would assemble at the Old Bailey for you.
Then I may face the jury proudly.
To paternity.
Really, Hill? Most certainly.
To paternity, I say.
To paternity.
To paternity.
Enter.
If you'll excuse me.
Hill? I must a I must take my leave of you.
Argh! Sir? This humour will burst through your veins, if you persist in it.
I have been wronged.
But the wrong was to have been undone.
Lady Sarah - she's thwarted you? It seems to be the Seems to be the role of all women to thwart and betray me! Or am I just so so poor in judgement of the company I keep? The company you keep? Do you understand the responsibility that I bear to my name? The duty that is expected of me? And if my wife did fail me, then I should still prevail.
But it seems not.
I am this time cuckolded by fate, by the sick joke that nature did create.
This time! Sir, it appears you have not been honest with me in how you have spent your time.
I no longer drink to paternity.
Garrow will mitigate your claim to nothing.
You must speak very frankly with me now or Garrow will win .
.
and you will face the ruin of your own reputation.
Even now, she may be arrived in the nursery, throwing kisses upon her son.
Even now, Hill may be smiling at her signature on the affidavit, glad at the bargain he has struck that will expose my iniquity.
You know that my loyalty has always been to you and not to Lady Sarah.
Therefore Therefore .
.
you must separate yourself from her.
Make a public disavowal.
Abandon her? The trial will go better for you.
If the jury think she be of less value, for being thrown aside? You will not escape unpunished for this, but I do not just speak to how you may mitigate that.
I speak that you do not incur further punishment.
You attend to my heart? If you will not.
Look what you have come to.
When I was down in my cups, you did not entertain it, but kindly so.
I only wish to repay that.
Will.
What? She will choose her son over you.
Hmm.
You are unhappy and she has made you so.
She asks more of you than you ever ask of her.
She gave up her reputation.
For me.
But you must do justice to your own - in court! You are not even mindful of the duty you owe Captain Baillie this night.
Captain Thomas Baillie, you are indicted with maliciously intending to deprive the plaintiffs of their good name You may not wish to sit so conspicuously alongside me.
By which you mean, Buller? You may have no business with the case today, but I'm afraid the case may have business with you.
.
.
concerning the government of the Greenwich Hospital and abuses in the administration of the charity there.
You look unwell, Garrow.
Pale.
Are you fit for this trial? I worry that you may not be able to perform your duty here today.
I shall do my duty at your expense.
I express concern for your welfare, yet you insult me.
But, if I were having to lavish a bounteous award of £10,000 on my lover's husband, that would not sit well with me, either.
Did you sleep? Not a wink.
Why did you recommend Captain Baillie be removed from office? He undermined the governance of the hospital, thought his own authority diminished by it.
And upon his removal, did then furnish the governors with his complaints and allegations? He did.
A man who so disturbed the peace that his removal be warranted.
Upon that removal, compounds his malice with the circulation of his grievances? Exactly so.
Since when was vengeance a virtue? It confirmed our previous judgement of him.
A man whose only real cause was not the seamen, but his own removal from office? Tell me, how much is good ox beef? 34 shillings.
And the flesh of rams? 12 shillings.
And mutton? 30 shillings.
And was complaint ever made that the butcher you contracted with was supplying horse, instead of good ox beef? The complaint was investigated.
Are the seaman still eating it? Wehave spoken to the butcher.
Answer the question.
Are the men still being cheated of their meat allowance? We merely thought to make a saving.
For whose benefit? Did the butcher supply horse and charge 34 shillings for the price of good ox beef? I am not the auditor.
The butcher that you contracted with - from which town? Huntingdon.
And the supplier of deficient linen? The same.
By which, I mean Huntingdon, but admit to no deficiency.
And the sour beer conveyed in rotten pipes and mixed with water? My lord Simply tell the court who is the brewer.
My lord, it is not unnatural to wish to do business with men one is previously acquainted with.
It is a very convenient arrangement.
But I shall not be criminated by it.
You deny the facts, as written by Captain Baillie? When he seeks to divine the facts as criminal, yes.
So you do not deny the facts? Or perhaps you think that the fact of the neglect of duty not criminal? Or that if you do not actively promote abuses, the winking at them is not criminal? I put it to you that you and all your countrymen of Huntingdon are acquainted with unblushing opportunities for self-enrichment.
And yet you have the effrontery to come here as a prosecutor, to turn the table on the defendant and stifle the necessary enquiry into the subject of his complaints! My lord, my learned friend seeks to bully the witness into confession of conspiracy.
I will have this conspiracy out.
I will not allow a man's life to be destroyed by a witch hunt! My lord, I fear my learned friend speaks of his own misfortunes outside of this court.
Does Mr Garrow defend Captain Baillie or himself? You have another witness, Mr Silvester? My lord, I call on Sir Arthur Hill, Assistant Secretary to the Admiralty.
Sir Arthur Hill.
You believe he had, before the results of any investigation, decided in advance to calumniate and decry the hospital council and those officers within it? He did calumniate and decry those officers in conversations with myself, as enquiries were being made by them.
And had begun to demonstrate his malice? Yes.
And once removed from office, circulates his thoughts in a book.
It's another demonstration of his vice.
LOUD MURMURING Sir Arthur, why do you think Captain Baillie came to the Admiralty? To petition the Earl of Sandwich.
And finding him unavailable, did petition you? I am Assistant Secretary.
Having appealed to the Council, without effect, and having been equally unsuccessful with yourself, do you think it unreasonable for the prisoner to attract the attention of the general governors? Well, if you publish malicious falsehoods, then that is unreasonable.
And subject to the laws of libel.
Do not tell me of the law.
Why should I not? I understand what it is to seek redress for grievous assaults and injury upon one's character and reputation! And I understand the distress caused by charges brought without foundation.
Hear, hear.
This book, it was not published, it was not printed for sale, but for the commodious distribution among the persons who are called upon upon, in duty, to examine its contents - the governors.
Mr Garrow, a question to the witness, not a point of law.
Very well, may I quote the charter of the hospital to you? "No officer shall be employed in this hospital but seafaring men, or such as have lost their limbs "or been otherwise disabled in the sea service.
" Is Captain Cooke a seafaring man? No.
No, he's a land man, he has never been in the sea service, yet he is in office, like yourself.
He does not know one end of a ship from the other, like yourself.
Mr Garrow! My lord, if Mr Garrow insists that all those who hold office at the Greenwich Hospital be seamen, then perhaps all the managers of Bedlam be lunatics? It appears this hospital charter has been infringed, does it not? Changed, in fact.
Who changed it? I I cannot say.
"Cannot say"? You are, by your own admission, Assistant Secretary.
Are you not about your duty there? My lord, you're a General Governor of this esteemed charity, are you not? Did you know the charter of the hospital had been altered, to allow land men from the town of Huntingdon to be appointed to office? No.
No, I did not.
Sir Arthur, do you know the Land Steward who runs the hospital's Huntingdon Estate? Of course not.
But you are acquainted with his master, of course, the Earl of Sandwich.
He is also your master, is he not? He is the First Lord of the Admiralty.
Indeed.
The Land Steward is a very busy man.
He creates 40 shilling freeholds on the hospital estate and hands them over freely to those who his master calculates as being most useful.
Do you actually have any more questions for me? Yes, Mr Garrow! Most certainly.
What does a freehold bestow, Sir Arthur? The right to vote.
And which borough does the Earl represent in parliament? Cambridgeshire.
Yes, Cambridgeshire.
Containing within it the town of Huntingdon.
I put it to you the charter of the hospital was changed .
.
to make him the sole and uncontrolled ruler of this charity.
This hospital, his own private fiefdom and a treasury to plunder.
I put it to you that this allows the Earl to place his voters and partisans there.
My lord, we are here to determine the conduct of Captain Baillie.
Mr Garrow I put it to you that the governors of Greenwich Hospital have been given free rein to enrich themselves for the political services they have provided for the Earl of Sandwich - namely, by voting for him, namely, by being given portions of the hospital's land in order to vote for him! Mr Garrow! The Earl of Sandwich is not before the court.
No, my lord.
He has sent this pale subordinate here.
He has placed Sir Arthur and the prosecutors in front of battle and hopes to escape under their mercy, under their shelter.
Yet I will drag him to light who is the dark mover behind this scene of iniquity.
I assert that the Earl of Sandwich has but one route to escape out of this business without pollution and disgrace.
And that is by publicly disavowing the acts of the prosecutors and the restoration of Captain Baillie to his command, if he is found innocent here.
I did warn you.
My lord, my learned friend seeks to prescribe the moral requirements of others when his own morality is far from settled.
Withdraw.
I merely make the point that your business here is the law and dangerous for one, such as you, to speak of pollution and disgrace.
Are you finished, Mr Garrow? Yes, my lord.
Thank you, Sir Arthur.
You may step down.
I am not yet finished with you.
Mr Boycott? What did you think Captain Baillie's duties were as Lieutenant Governor? To see that our settling days were spent in comfort and peace.
And how did he perform this duty, in your estimation? A captain to his men.
He only wished, as on board a ship, that our provision be ample.
And took pain to make sure those provisions were not misapplied or perverted? You cannot countenance further on the Captain? There was a warning to me, that if I should keep company with Captain Baillie, or correspond with him, that would be an end to my preferment.
A warning? A warning to you by whom? Very well.
Your preferment, Mr Boycott, by which you mean your shelter at the hospital, asylum for your infirmity, taken away? I have never before made complaint.
Of course not.
Complaints are not allowed to drown out the riot and mirth of luxurious land men, who have only ever fought in the battles of the borough of Huntingdon.
You are not here to address your own grievances and denounce your enemies! Your cause is Baillie himself.
I did warn you of this.
But do I not excite distrust of the prosecution case? Make hollow their evidence? This trial is about the character and motivation of Captain Baillie and the seamen suffering at the hospital.
Very well.
You must find a theme to stir the hearts of the jury - all English hearts.
It is not enough just to curdle blood, you must make it quicken.
Very well.
But confess at least you did enjoy my going to war.
Sir Arthur, holed beneath the water line.
But, all the more determined to repay you doubly.
He has removed me from Sarah.
I am already repaid.
But the fate of this case still hangs in the balance.
Mmm.
There is no signature.
I will not sign what isn't true.
Then you, for ever, forfeit Samuel.
A man such as you will not speak so familiar of my son's name to me.
A man who talks of forfeit, as if this were a game of cards.
Lady Sarah, should I apologise that I do not attend you .
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more delicately? Or do you object that it is a mere lawyer who will speak the truth to you? I understand the truth very well .
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and I am reconciled to what I must leave behind.
Youplan someescape, someelopement with Garrow? Mr Garrow has yet a trial to face.
But at least it will not be prejudiced by concocted evidence that Samuel is illegitimate.
You will not be able to load the suit with that grievance.
I find the wife of every plaintiff thinks me venal and corrupt, but it is their own corruption that I investigate.
Or perhaps, it is BECAUSE I investigate it.
I have never laid with Mr Garrow.
And I will gladly sign THAT affidavit.
I would not eat the horse.
I wished to shame the kitchen with it.
By refusing to be cheated, you had simply shown the ardour of a British sailor? And for that, you and your family were despatched without ceremony, into the street? Into a workhouse? I wasdismissed.
My lord, what has any of this to do with the character of the prisoner? My lord, a moment.
Mr Smith, did Captain Baillie witness the manner of your turning out? Most guiltily.
Guilty and aggrieved that a man such as you, who had fought in the naval battles of Frederica, Grenada, Cape St.
Vincent, even the war of the Austrian succession, I would be obliged if you would fetch a coach to Dover.
How do you find the prisoner charged with this indictment? Guilty or not guilty? Not guilty.
Release the prisoner.
Captain Baillie, you may step down.
Court shall rise.
I have always found you more convincing as a gentleman than a barrister.
Today, I find you neither.
Captain Baillie.
Then my career is not ended, Sandwich cannot refuse me! I'm sure you will not remain without employment.
But you yourself asked for my restoration.
Is it not now proved here that I am worthy of whatever duty they will bestow on me? Yes, yes, it is proven.
Some rum with your witnesses, I think, to savour the judgement! Your oratory has the Old Bailey enthralled, Mr Garrow.
That you must be silent at your own trial is a sadness.
What business do you have with me? I may be against you, but I do admire you.
Like you, I am .
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in this world, but not of it.
And soon, you may not even be in it .
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and far more alone than you did think.
Why do you affect pity for my sake? I do not affect it.
Lady Sarah leaves for France .
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and I think to show you pity for that.
Pardon me.
Pardon me! Who is it? Sarah, you have signed the affidavit to be reunited with Samuel? No, I would not.
Then why do you go? Why would you flee into exile and not tell me? For fear that you would care too much, or too little.
"Too little"? Too little and I would not have come immediately.
You wished to say goodbye.
I know what I wished for.
I would not betray you, even in the cause of my son.
But neither can I come to you and be happy, because I have lost him, in your cause.
Therefore, I leave for Calais.
You betray me more if you run.
It is hardly a place to go willingly.
But I may live economically there, anonymously.
And as I am in law, no-one now and do not exist, that suits me well! If you go you, will be simply be owning your disgrace.
But if you stay .
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you will own your love.
And Sarah, some loves must have a defence.
If there be evidence for such love.
You shall not be deprived of either of the loves you have.
We shall ensure it.