Garrow's Law (2009–…): Season 2, Episode 1 - Garrow's Law - full transcript

WAVES CRASH

Mr Southouse!

HE CHUCKLES

I had reckoned your absence
longer than two months.

It burdens me to see you looking so.

If I could have come back from
the northern circuit sooner

to keep company with you...
I'm sure of it.

The life of a widower is not easy.

The loss of her...is hard to take.

Mr Southouse, we can remedy this.

Firstly, we will improve
your appearance by some shaving
to your face.



And I will send out for some coffee,
and thus enlivened,
you will venture into the world,

converse with the merchants and
anybody else in need of an attorney.

HE CHUCKLES

You did not send word
of your return to London.

I did not expect my confinement
to last six months.

Bramber is hardly a confinement.

Bramber is not my home,

it is your borough and, my dear
Arthur, you are never there.

And so, when we are united,
it is a happy occasion.

And when we are not,
it is a less than happy separation.

Now I'm come home. To you.

But I'm engaged in parliament.
And at the Admiralty.

You're Second Assistant Secretary
there. How engaged can you be?

I must take my leave of you.



You go where? I have urgent business
I must attend to.

BABY CRIES

HE CLEARS HIS THROAT

I insisted on knowing
what she had in her apron.

There I found two gowns,
a scarlet cloak and a sheet.

Were there any other
things found but these?

This key I found on her,
which opens the prosecutor's door.

No more questions, my lord.

Do you have anything
to say in your defence?

I buy and sell old clothes.

I bought these clothes off a woman.

And as for the key,
it is the key of my door.

My lord, as this
poor woman has no counsel,

will you permit me as amicus curiae
to ask Mr Yardley a thing or two?

Very well.

Did you ever try this key you
say opens the prosecutor's door?

No. Then how do you attempt
to identify it as such?

Because the prosecutor tells me
that her key was eat up with rust.

CROWD MURMURS

Is it by a key being worn with rust
that you affect to identify it
in a court of justice?

It's a very unusual key.

Not because it has been
"eat up with rust", my lord.
We still have no reliable evidence

of who it belonged to.

I have the key to my chambers.
It too has been "eat up with rust"!
LAUGHTER

Have you finished, Mr Garrow?

My lord.

Do you have any witnesses
to speak on your behalf?

I have no friend in the world
but God and you gentlemen.

LAUGHTER

And I beg for mercy.

Members of the jury, consider
your verdict. I will speak for her.

Lady Sarah?

I do not normally take kindly to
being interrupted in my own court,

but your appearance gives me
an altogether different humour.

I think you are not alone, my lord.

Swear her ladyship.

She was formerly housemaid to me,
and I still employ her sister, Mary,

as my personal maid.

Lady Sarah,

I do not represent the prisoner,

but I ask questions on her behalf as
amicus curiae, a friend of the court.

Then she is truly befriended.
By you too, I think.

Mr Garrow?

Do you have any questions
for the witness?

You are well,

I hope?

INAUDIBLE

I hope my appearance
did not cause you any discomfort.

It was only your
previous disappearance

that caused me any difficulty.

I will not pity you,

especially when I suspect that you
have lately met several young women

who do walk chaperoned beside you.

And not because good manners
demand it, but lest they swoon

and are in want of someone
to lean on.

Alas, I am only in demand at the bar.

I have been in the country.

I have a son now, Samuel.

I wish you well in your happiness.

Coincidental, Mr Southouse.

Not serendipitous, then?

The only good fortune in this
is the outcome of the trial.

Do not enquire after my heart.

A lady bears witness at the Old
Bailey to a former scullery maid?

That does not happen.

You should know of me,
I care not for convention.

I do hope you make an exception for
the conventions in your marriage.

Who did defend her?
It was Mr Garrow.

Garrow?

I had no more expectation of
seeing him than he had of seeing me.

A ship called the Zong.

The owners claimed for
the value of their cargo.

133 slaves thrown overboard
on the grounds of necessity.

The captain deemed they were running
out of water supplies,

the action purportedly
taken to save the ship.

Purportedly. We honoured the loss.

And now you dispute the claim?

We do more than that.
We challenge fraud.

This is a diary written by the only
passenger on board the ship,

Robert Stubbs.

It contradicts
the captain's account.

Well, gentlemen,
I am very happy to accept the case.

Your engagement is conditional
on you instructing Mr Garrow.

Goodbye.

Excuse me sir. Excuse me. Excuse me.

The insurance claim declared
the ship was rendered

"foul and leaky, having been
retarded by perils of the sea,

"contrary winds and currents
and other mistakes".

Affecting the safe passage
of its cargo.

440 Africans on board from
West Africa to Jamaica.

133 thrown into the sea,
60 dead from fever.

Now, Liverpool Assurance
covered the loss of

?30 per Negro, because although
Captain Collingwood may have been

in want of common care,
he was not negligent.

However, Robert Stubbs' diary

suggests very strongly that the loss
arose not from perils of the sea,

but from Collingwood's
poor judgement.

How so?

On the voyage,
he mistook Jamaica for Hispaniola.

The journey took 112 days

instead of the 60 days
of most middle-passage journeys.

As a consequence of which,
they ran out of water.

And the slaves jettisoned.

There is an appalling
loss of life in this.

54 women and children thrown
singly through the cabin windows,

one after the other.

The rest from the quarterdeck,
shackled together two by two

and weighed down with iron.

11 jumped into the water
voluntarily.

Death becomes the best friend
you have on such a voyage.

You wish its relief.

You should know that I am
already requested in this cause.

Liverpool Assurance wish to
prosecute the owners of the Zong

for insurance fraud.

You are wrong if you think
that is the same cause.

That is a mercenary business about
the pecuniary value of Negroes,
not their right to live.

And in being deprived
of their right to live,

I intend to prosecute for murder.

Forgive me, Mr Vassa,
you were not aboard this ship,

you lost no relative on it.

I mean to say that no crime
has been committed against you.

Because I was not murdered myself?

Because I survived my own passage,

must I stand aside
and venture only my good fortune?

I am them, Mr Garrow. I am them.

But a prosecution for murder cannot
succeed either at the Old Bailey

or the Admiralty Court.

Its success will depend upon a jury.

I mean it cannot even be begun,
because cargo cannot be murdered.
Africans are viewed

as no different from other forms
of property like horses and cattle.

If you're an attorney,
you should know your law.

The Somerset ruling gave it out
that property CAN have rights.

For a freed slave in England
like yourself, perhaps,
but not maritime cargo.

It is inanimate.
I think we can proceed

in a way that will satisfy us all.

If Mr Southouse is to be
satisfied, then you will prosecute
an insurance fraud.

It will help you in your cause.
Lose a prosecution for murder,

and a definitive precedent is set
that slaves can be killed at will.

But if I can prove the claim to be
fraudulent, if I can prove

the plea of necessity
for those deaths to be false...

Then the insurers' interests
will be served.

Yes, but more than that. In future,
because of this case, they may find

a better way to see those
interests served by providing

the least possible indemnity
for slaves murdered in passage.

Instead of ?30 pounds for a Negro's
head, they will only pay out ?20?

That is your idea of progress,
Mr Garrow?

If it will inhibit the murder
of slaves, then yes.

So you will inch towards justice
and not demand it?

If we go in its direction, then yes.

I cannot allow myself your patience.

I will begin preparation of
the case by visiting Liverpool.

I only wish that it were not
such a long way to venture.

BABY CRIES

I enquire after James Kelsall,
first mate on the Zong.

I understand he lodges here.

You have found him.

And who enquires after him?

John Southouse. Attorney.

Your business, sir?
I act for Liverpool Assurance.

Then you have no business with me.

You will be called by the defence,
and then you shall do business
with the prosecution's counsel.

So it may be as well for you
to hear what may be put to you.

I have already sworn

that there was only enough water
for four days, but ten to 13 days

would be required to regain Jamaica.

Which knowledge caused
Captain Collingwood

to call his crew about him

to begin the throwing over
of the slaves?

Women and children first?

29th November.
Eight o'clock in the evening,

coinciding with the changing
of the watch,

when the maximum number of crew
members were available...
for the task.

And how did it feel
to perform such an act?

I will not reproach myself
for my obedience.

And does your conscience
reproach you?

Well, if the charge were murder,
it might be so,

but as it is fraud,
it does not figure.

Robert Stubbs wrote a journal of his
time on the ship. You know of it?

The man was in a fever.

And his view of Captain Collingwood?

Did his agitation only come from the
typhoid, or from what he had seen?

You will not make a case with me.

I must make my living.

From the pushing of slaves
into the sea?

I have already
obtained the muster roll.

There were two Kelsalls on board,
yourself and...

It does not signify!

Besides, I know what I must answer.

What you must, not what you ought.

But then, you are first mate,

and practised in doing the bidding
of Captain Collingwood.

I was not so easily bidden.
I stood by my opinions.

Then you did have disputes with him?

Concerning?

I admire the way you
seek to gain, sir,

but you will not profit from me.

As you profit from your silence.

Show as much resolve
at the Old Bailey,

and you will find
no quarrel with me.

Thank you, Captain Collingwood.

Still at your service.

WAVES CRASH

THUD!

THEY SCREAM

MUFFLED SCREAMING

Mr Stubbs!

I'm indebted that you journey here
despite your health.

I think the cause worth
any discomfort.

And so in support of your journal,
you will testify, Mr Stubbs?

As Liverpool Assurance prosecute
this case largely on my account,

I shall answer to it in court.

God wish you strength.

Do you have a drop of wine, sir?

It will indeed fortify me.

He would go no further but that
there had been some disagreement.

If the blood was bad between Kelsall
and Collingwood, we shall have it out
in court. And Stubbs?

Determined to convince a jury.

With yourself to take him
through his evidence, certainly.

Lady Sarah.

Mr Southouse.

I have my son, Samuel, to introduce.

Ah! A healthy boy!

A cement to conjugal affection.

I mean, further cement.

Mr Garrow,
you are mute as a mackerel.

You're not taken with this infant?

I stand back merely in order
not to...distress it.

Or "it" to distress you.

It is your child, Lady Sarah,
how could that ever be?

You think I would engineer
an assignation

involving an attorney,
a nursemaid and a baby?

I said nothing!
I have long since relinquished
all such feelings on the matter.

Lord Melville...
You wish me to intervene?

I merely ask you to persuade
Liverpool Assurance to withdraw.

Unless you wish abolitionists to
gain encouragement from this trial?

The commander of
a British slave ship hanged?

And the economies of the
French and Dutch much improved.

It is paramount that everybody
involved in the slave trade

can make assurances that conditions
aboard the ships are acceptable.

Who acts for Liverpool Assurance
in this prosecution?

Mr Garrow. Garrow!

In every case, he smells out
a cause and a challenge to our laws.

He is as malignant as any spy
that moves in our society.

You wish to have hold of him, sir?
No, no, no, no. Just...

look upon him.

What do you think of his appearance?

Very handsome, sir.

And very much in
the way of his father.

Your valet?

Hm.

He had occasion to be
there in the park...

..and did report...

A meeting?

I came upon the man.

Then was it hoped for?

Did you wish to reunite Garrow
with what is his?

With Samuel?

I have been faithful to you!

I cannot believe it to be so.

I have given my thoughts
over to this CONSTANTLY.

I shall not condemn you for my...

spurious offspring.

I will accept the child as my own.

He will inherit my entire estate,

my title and my property.

At least I shall keep my dignity
in society, with you alongside me.

So you will arrange our marriage
according to your own delusion?

You will allow me
to have deceived you
when I have never been anything but

constant to you? And all this
in the cause of your dignity?

You cannot be glad that I forgive
you? I cannot be glad...
that you believe it so.

And you think to tolerate
your son as a bastard.

The unsavoury aspect of this case

may well lead to pressure
in Parliament

to regulate slave insurance.

How so?

By specifying along the lines that
no loss will be recoverable against

the throwing-over of living slaves
on any account whatsoever.

So underwriters like yourselves
will lose business.

We do not intend to sustain
or accept any loss in this case
by abandoning it.

You deal in risk?
How will you underwrite
the end of your own business?

You are of this trade.
You cannot undermine it.

We do not predict history,
we follow policy.

And we are ?4,000 out of pocket
because of a fraudulent claim.

And slaves overboard
or not, Sir Arthur,

I'm afraid that is our most
grievous discovery.

Good day.

Naturally, we resisted Sir Arthur's

wish for us to take
a... political view.

What view do you take?

We wish our money back, and
by proving the claim falsely made,

you will obtain it.

If Captain Collingwood was not
a true commander of his ship,

Mr Garrow will have it out,
for he can steer
the Old Bailey to his will.

"For he can steer the Old Bailey
to his will."

I thought it was...
suitably maritime.

I shall not tell you
what I thought it.

They are clients to us both.

Cargo, Negro, our fellow creatures,
it is mere noise to them.

Profit is their trumpet blast
and I am to blow it for them.

Will? Does not the meddling
of the Admiralty suggest

this is about
more than mere insurance?

I should make it so.

Look, all I ask of you,
all I ask is some gesture to me,

some thought or word or deed
that means that you reciprocate

the feeling I have for you.

What can I ever do...

in such a way that
will convince you of my constancy?

Mr Garrow.

I am in need of some information
about a trial he is prosecuting.

I see.

I am your husband, you can
convince me you are really my wife.

If I am truly your wife...

..then you will believe that
Samuel is truly your son.

It is my most fervent wish, Sarah.

It would...

It would break the spell
that I've fallen into.

I had not thought that we would come
to be in each other's company again.

Or that you might wish it
and request it.

You object to the cause
of friendship?

I cannot object. It is a favour you
bestow on me and I'm truly grateful.

And that you find time to
indulge me, I am also thankful.

You are the scourge of
venal prosecutors still?

And soon to be their advocate also.

I cannot imagine it.

An insurance fraud...

Not heard at the King's Bench?
It's a criminal trial.

A slave ship threw
its captives overboard.

They claim out of necessity.
I must prove negligence.

But there is evidence?

Southouse is assiduous.

But enough to prove the claim false?

You are curious.

Forgive me, we shall not talk of it.

I've been too long out of society
and stilted in conversation.

The case presses me, I must go.

I wish you well.

133 souls should be in this case.

Massacre is not anywhere in the
indictment or in Stubbs' journal,

but it may come to find itself
in the evidence I shall present.

How so?
If YOU will appear as a witness.

This is why you have sent for me?
Yes.

But I was not there.

Not on the Zong. But...

you and those 133 souls

may be concealed
in another vessel altogether.

Trojan Horse.

HE MUMBLES

I will not do it.

I cannot. "Cannot"?

It would be unjust.

A betrayal.

But your loyalty is to me!

I must be true to myself.

And true to him,
because you love him.

You accused me before of delusion,

but now, it's proven.

It's all proven!

Your judgement is all wrong.

I see you make your decision.

'Sharks would always
accompany the ship,'

in expectation of the dead bodies
being thrown over.

They were never disappointed.

And you would wish
to be thrown over yourself?

If I could have gotten
over the nettings.

Nettings?

The assembly of ropes placed
along the sides of the ship to
prevent that particular redemption.

And then,
we were truly delivered, Mr Garrow.

In Barbados?

The merchants and planters
came on board

and examined us most attentively,
and then...

they made us jump.

Jump?

Those who could jump the highest
fetched the best price.

A sign of strength and health.

Like this.

< Like this.

You see, Mr Garrow, how high?

Mr Vassa...

Like this.

Like this.

Like this... Gustavus, please.

You will take your place
in the witness box, Gustavus.

You will take your place.

You will initiate proceedings.

At least I shall be master
of my fate in that.

A parliamentary divorce
would amicably allow
both sides to remarry.

No, I cannot think that
you could contemplate Garrow
as Sarah's new husband.

I cannot think that you
would wish it to be amicable.

Well, then, what is there
for me to do, Lord Melville?

I think you are in want of the
services of a particular attorney.

Mr John Farmer.

Separation from bed and board,

as a legal dissolution
of the marriage,

forbids either party
from remarrying.

It is not my desire to exclude
myself from future happiness.

But it may be that your most express
wish is to prevent such happiness

coming the way of your wife.

Elaborate.

If you seek the greater scope
for punishment,

then your wife will find herself

in a ruinous state of limbo, where
she is neither respectably married

nor free to remarry
and salvage her reputation.

Disgraced,
she would have to rely on the...

charity of the third party -
Mr Garrow.

Thank you, Mr Farmer. I shall, er...

I am at your service.

Lady Sarah Hill?

You have identified me,
may I ask the same of you?

You are served with a citation
from the Court of Doctors' Commons.

Negligence.
Collingwood was negligent.

Not evil, not a murderer, not cruel,
and if you can prise Kelsall apart

on the cause of the dispute,
that may answer to it.

I wish to introduce another
stratagem. You will enlighten me?

Gustavus Vassa.
What evidence can HE provide?

You did say yourself, this case
was about more than insurance.

There may be consequences,
is what I meant.

But I will not have this prosecution
sabotaged by...

pamphleteering and agitation.

And I will not have
this prosecution ignore murder!

KNOCK AT DOOR

Sarah.

I apologise for any intrusion.

I did not have the wits to consider
where else I may seek help.

Help?

Mr Southouse.

If he means to dissolve
the marriage, I cannot say
I am surprised by it, but...

I must confess myself ignorant
of the nature of it.

This means of action,

it is a sad thing.

I do not wish delicacy,
Mr Southouse. Enlighten me.

He means to cut you off financially.

What has provoked him in this way?

The session begins early.

So?

You'll tell me why your husband
seeks to disown you?

He is in the grip of an idea
that Samuel is not his,

that I am not faithful,

but most of all...

..he insists that I love you.

Despite how you must have...

refuted every accusation?

His fancies have pushed me here.

But from such fancies,
a truth comes, Will.

I asked you once
in vain to leave him.

Your refusal exhausted
every hope I ever had of you.

Now, you declare your love for me
as Hill seeks to banish you.

I do not come to you seeking refuge,

to hide from the disgrace
he is determined to put upon me.

In fact, I have come to say...

I will own it.

You must not.

I hope you've made arrangements
to live elsewhere.

I attend the Old Bailey today
and I think upon my return...

it is as well
you were no longer here.

Why does your instigation
of the end of our marriage

require only my punishment?

Well, if I'm amicable,
I collude in my own dishonour.

Gustavus.

What do you think induced
Captain Collingwood to mistake
Jamaica for Hispaniola?

He identified it
at nine leagues out.

Nine leagues? 27 miles.

27 miles!
CROWD MURMURS

Captain Collingwood
made a wrong identification
from a distance of 27 miles.

No more questions, My Lord.

Mr Stubbs, why is your account
of the journey incomplete?

I was taken ill.

Ah. Were you ill while you
were writing your journal?

I had a fever. Would that explain
why your handwriting deteriorates

page by page while your sentences
cease to hold together in any way

that is sensible?

The pen shook in my hand, is all.

And your judgement, Mr Stubbs?

Was that very shaken also?

CROWD LAUGHS

Mr Stubbs,

why were you
a passenger on the Zong?

I was in need of passage. Why?

I had been appointed Governor of
the Annamboe by the African Company,

but I had left there.

Why?

Well, um...

You are under oath, Mr Stubbs.

I was suspended.

CROWD MURMURS

Why?

Abusing my position.
Abusing your position?!

In what way?

Seeking to make private profit.

CROWD LAUGHS
So you found yourself dumped
on the coast of Guinea,

until you were picked up
by the Zong,

and then picked up once more by
the insurance company as a witness!

Thank you.

Ma'am!

We shall be reunited yet.

My Lord, I call Gustavus Vassa.

HUBBUB

CHAINS RATTLE

Do not be dissuaded by the hostility
of their reaction. Now is your time.

The whole ship's cargo is confined
together in the hold.

So many that there is no room
even to move your head.

You cannot breathe.

You would not wish to.

The smell of perspiration
is only outdone by the stench
of the latrines.

It is unforgettable.

Children fall into the tubs of
excrement. They suffocate in it.

In this pestilential stew,

if you are fortunate, you succumb
to smallpox or gaol fever. My Lord!

Why is this testimony relevant in
a prosecution for insurance fraud?

This fraud involves a journey across
the Middle Passage. You would not
wish a narrative upon it?

Only if it relate directly
to the indictment.

Slaves thrown overboard,
necessity or not?

It is never a necessity
to murder us!

Mr Vassa! You will curb your temper!

If I am angry, I am a savage.

If I am sanguine, I am not a man.

Yes.

Quite possibly.

Mr Vassa, will you please give us...

some idea of your experience at sea?

I served in the British Navy
for seven years with my master.

I've worked on merchant ships
on voyages to North America,

the West Indies and the North Pole.

And as such a veteran of the seas,
you are familiar with the notion of
a ship rendered "foul and leaky"?

Zong itself described and claimed so.

"By perils of the sea and contrary
currents, the ship was rendered

"foul and leaky, and therefore
retarded in her voyage."

Captain Collingwood and the ship's
owners claim this was because
there was crippling worm damage

to the bottom of the boat.
Can you comment?

Shipworm. Teredo worms.

In fact, saltwater clams.

They bore into the submerged timber.

And if I tell you that
the Zong was copper-bottomed,

what say you then?

Any ship that is lined with copper
plating on the underside of its hull

is impervious to Teredo worms.

So the claims, by Captain Collingwood
and the ship's owners, that the ship
was rendered foul and leaky...?

Impossible.

CROWD MURMURS LOUDLY

Thank you, Mr Vassa.

No more questions, My Lord.

Garrow excels himself
with the negro.

Captain Collingwood, I am sure
that you are as distressed as I am

that this case has been represented
in some quarters as murder.

A policy no doubt
intended to inflame a jury.

But let us be clear,
so that emotions

do not undermine deliberation.

Let us part company with any claim

that actual persons
were thrown overboard.

This is a case of chattels and
goods. Blacks be goods and property.

This case is the same as if...

horses had been thrown overboard.

My Lord, my learned friend is not
allowing the prisoner to speak,

but addressing the jury
in how they should feel!

Mr Silvester, refrain.

Captain Collingwood, if you will.

It is not the case that the slaves
were thrown overboard

in order to throw the loss
onto the underwriters.

Do you not think the apprehension
of necessity justified

when my crew themselves
suffered such severity?

Seven out of 17 died
on their way to Jamaica,
or after their arrival there.

The ship's cargo and the crew
died from want of sustenance.

They did not die
from want of a commander.

< Hear, hear.

Mr Garrow?

Captain Collingwood, you were,
until you took this command,

a slave ship surgeon.

11 voyages as doctor.

But none of them
as captain of a slaver? No.

Your inexperience
did not trouble you?

Nor the owners of the ship.
In fact, they were reassured

that the welfare of those
on board ship would be safeguarded

by my previous experience.

"The welfare of all those on ship."

After your wrong identification
of Jamaica for Hispaniola

and the necessity of sailing back
300 miles to the windward,
what did you do?

I chose to hold a consultation
with the crew subsequently.

And what decision taken?
To destroy part of the slaves

and put the rest and the crew
to short allowance.

That was how you rectified
your mistake? To save the ship!

Because the situation
had become catastrophic.

Yes! The ship retarded
by perils of the sea.

The strong current hindering your
already belated journey to Jamaica.

A state of emergency, no less?

Sufficient for the throwing over
to be a necessity.

So, presumably, you seized
the goods nearest to hand?

I beg your pardon? In the dire
circumstances in which you found
yourself, you jettisoned at random?

No. Then who did you choose first?

The women and children? The sick?
Those who would sell for least money?

We were in want of water! The
healthiest would need least, would
survive best, on short allowance.

The healthiest also fetching the best
price at market, was that not
the only real necessity?

Not that you were in want
of water, but that you were
in want of the market!

You decided, as the fastidious
servant of your shareholders,

to get rid of any slaves you deemed
to fetch a price of less
than the cost of insuring them.

I am a fastidious servant, sir,
of my ship.

If you are so fastidious, then
what became of the ship's log?

Left with the agent in Jamaica,
now lost.

CROWD EXCLAIMS ANGRILY

How convenient.

Anything else, Mr Garrow?

No, My Lord.

Good, then we shall adjourn
until tomorrow.

Court shall rise.

It may be possible
that you have it in your power

to ruin the preening Garrow
entirely.

I may employ a pistol.
Oh, you do not need to challenge him
a duel to seek your satisfaction.

Aim at him in another way.

Undo Garrow the man

and we shall see
the noisome barrister removed
from the Old Bailey.

THUNDER ROLLS

Mr Farmer.

The writ is already drawn.

On your behalf, I took that liberty.

And so it merely needs serving?

Oh, foul weather.

I could not hope for better.

Who is the man with
Hill and Melville?

It is of no matter.

You know you are not bound
to be character witness
for Captain Collingwood.

I know, I choose it.

Oh, come, be honest.

The owners of the Zong choose it.

The muster roll of the ship.

It was your late nephew's name
alongside you.

Daniel, was his name?

I had made assurances
to my sister of his welfare.

And hard to bear knowing
he may still be alive,

but for Collingwood's command.

Was that the cause of your dispute?
No.

No?

Daniel's unnecessary death
did not distress and vex you?

Or was it that there had already
been so many unnecessary deaths?

I cannot answer you.

I was not in attendance
when my wife died.

I should have been at her bed,

but she left this place alone.

But, Mr Kelsall,

you have an opportunity
to attend to your nephew again,

if you think the truth to suffice.

Kelsall is in some difficulty.

And are you, Mr Southouse?

The court session is resumed! >

Come.

I have served with Mr Collingwood >

when he was ship's surgeon and
under him when he was Captain. >

And your opinion of him, Mr Kelsall?

Captain Collingwood is an able man
and a good commander.

And an honest one?

I'm sure of it.

My Lord, if I may?

An honest man?

As you are, Mr Kelsall?

I should like to think so.

Did you have cause to dispute with
Captain Collingwood on any occasion?

There was none.

I remind you, you are under oath,
Mr Kelsall.

Did you think Captain Collingwood's
misidentification

of Jamaica for Hispaniola a mere
mistake, an unavoidable accident?

My Lord...

Mr Kelsall is here to bear witness
to Captain Collingwood's character!

This is pertinent, My Lord.

Allowed. Answer the question.

The mistake having been made,
Captain Collingwood
took measures as Commander.

There were only five-and-a-half
Dutch butts,

three full of sweet water,
enough for four days.

Hence the jettisoning and
everyone put on short allowance.

And for some sickly members of the
crew, like your nephew, that proved
a fatal development...?

My Lord, what is this to do with
the character of Captain
Collingwood?

I'm trying to get at Mr Kelsall's
proper estimation of the man!

Then ask a question which
demonstrates it! Did you feel...

that Captain Collingwood's actions
were ultimately responsible for
the death of your nephew?

Was that the reason for the dispute
that you will not own to,

and why you were suspended
as first mate?

It was none of that! Then what
was it you found so hard to take,

that you could not contemplate?!

Sir... Some change, Mr Kelsall, some
change that made all the difference.

It rained, sir.

CROWD MURMURS

< It rained.

A heavy downfall on 30th November.

We collected hundreds
of gallons of rainwater.

HE BREATHES HEAVILY

CROWD REACTS ANGRILY

But despite this, on 1st December,
more slaves were thrown overboard.

That was why Captain Collingwood
suspended me as First Mate.

Because I would not
go along with it.

There was no need to throw over
any more blacks.

There was no want of water.

My Lord,

I wish the jury and the Court
to note that the witness may have

perjured himself,
and therefore any evidence...

How so, Mr Silvester?

He describes Captain Collingwood
as an able commander,
then condemns him.

My Lord, I would submit that
Mr Kelsall does not perjure himself.

Captain Collingwood IS...
an able commander.

If, as captain of a slaver,
his duty is to make a profit...

..he did so,

by ridding himself of slaves
that were unlikely to fetch
what they were insured for.

In that, he has been most able.

It is certainly worthy of
observation that our legislator

can, every ,session find time
to enquire into and regulate

the manner of killing a partridge,

that no abuse be committed,

that he be shot...fairly...

Well...we shall let that be. >

I am not required to direct you
on slaves as goods, >

but merely whether these goods
were jettisoned voluntarily
or in necessity.

The claim of necessity
was false and fraudulent

if they were thrown over
after the rain,

about which you now must decide.

HUBBUB

You have reached a verdict? >

We have. How do you find the prisoner
charged with this indictment? >

Guilty or not guilty? >

Guilty. >

HUBBUB

But we humbly...
make recommendations...

for mercy.

MEMBER OF CROWD:
Whoa-ho!

My Lord! >

We also wish to make
a recommendation to mercy.

Liverpool Assurance do not
wish to take a... >

moral position in this action.

Very well. >

Captain Collingwood, I sentence
you to two years' imprisonment.

You will be put on a hulk ship.

Court shall rise!

Do you mock me, Buller?

The law will not do your bidding,

nor confound Mr Garrow for you.

I do not need the law when I have
the consent of decent Englishmen.

A man who showed no mercy

receives the mercy
of his English peers?

There were but 12 men there,

not a country,

and I hope the country will make
its own verdict.

Very satisfactory, Mr Garrow,
very satisfactory.

You are very easily satisfied,
I think.

Is not fraud discouraged here?

And murder also, I would venture.

You are no longer mindful of
your opportunities in the North?

I am too mindful of
how I have scraped, bowed
and pleased these last few weeks.

It is even less pretty
than when you are curmudgeonly.
Well, I know nothing of that.

William Garrow?

You have business with me, sir?

You are served with a writ
from the Court of King's Bench,

in the name of an action for damages
by Sir Arthur Hill.

For the act of Criminal Conversation
with the plaintiff's wife.

You spin gold from nothing,
Mr Jasker.

I do?

My reputation in society
will be entirely done away with
if this accusation prevails.

You must take great pains
not to be identified together.

You can contrive to have them
so identified?

You are intent on avenging a fiction!

A dumb show that you have put on!

No! No!

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