I have some doubts about the need for the continuation of the old custom. It is, and always was, a time strong in anti-Catholic sentiment and I am not convinced that, in a Colony devoted to religious tolerance, such a celebration of anti-Popery is either welcome or necessary.
A number of bonfires burnt brightly earlier this evening and I am informed that there were a number of guys burnt about the town. One, I was told, was Fisher in effigy. I am relieved to say that none of the guys looked in any way like me.
Sadly, though unsurprisingly, there were no fireworks available, but the children soon learned that hitting the fires with sticks sent a shower of sparks high into the air and this seems to have satisfied them as a substitute,
I have recorded before in these pages that our local natives have a positive mania for setting things alight and the sight of the bonfires attracted them in quite large numbers. They most certainly knew nothing of Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot, but, after some apprehension from our own people, they joined in the celebrations, taking turns to sing their own songs around the fires with our settlers and their children playing with our own children. A splendid time.
Not such a splendid time in the courts of late. It has become apparent that there was rather more to Stephens being removed from the Company by McLaren than just Sammy's ribald taste in humour. Sam Stephens is currently under arrest for attempted murder.
The facts of the case are easy to understand. It is the subsequent circumstances that are difficult to credit.
When Stephens was last at Encounter Bay he decided to muck in with the whalers and help out as best he could.
Now there are two whaling stations at Encounter Bay - the Company's station, with Captain Hart in charge and another run by Captain Blenkinsop for Robert Campbell, a merchant in Sydney. Naturally the sight of a whale causes a degree of excitement amongst the whalers and a degree of competition between the whalers from the two stations.
On the day when Stephens was there a whale was sighted and a boat from each of the stations set out to chase it down. It seems that at first there were yells and calls from one boat to another but soon one thing led to another ( as things are wont to do when Stephens is involved) and tempers frayed to the point when a pistol was fired from the Company boat into the other, the ball narrowly missing the head of a whaler named Mead. What happened next is not entirely clear, but it seems that Wright, the master of the Company boat fired a pistol at Captain Blenkinsop and all that allayed any damage was the wetness of the powder and the subsequent misfiring of the pistol.
It is hardly surprising that Wright and Stephens are now on a charge of attempted murder and regularly appearing in court.
And this is where the story becomes difficult to believe.
To begin with Stephens has retained for his defense that latter day Demosthenes, J H Fisher and Wright is being represented in court by Charles Mann. The propriety of two Government Officials defending in a murder case has not been unremarked by the many in the colony. Also commented upon has been the matter of the Advocate General, a man who might normally be expected to be seen prosecuting Crown cases, defending a murder trial. But these irregularities are trifles compared to what has been raised in the case itself.
The great advocate, this Solon, this Julius Paulus Prudentissimus, James Hurtle Fisher has appeared before the court arguing (it seems hoping to be taken seriously) that Stephens is entirely innocent of any crime simply because he was never arrested.
"How can this be?" you ask. "How can a man in the dock at a murder trial never have been arrested?"
Follow Mr Fisher's argument closely.
It seems that the original Warrant for the arrest was authorised by none other than Thomas Bewes Strangways. Unfortunately, in his haste, my prospective son-in-law mis-spelled his own name and wrote "The Honourable Thomas Bewes STANGWAYS". As a result, Fisher argued before the Judge that since no man called "Stangways" exists in the colony then the warrant was never properly signed and hence Stephens was never properly arrested.
"I call for the case to be dismissed, my Lord!"
Be buggered!
Jeffcott, to his eternal credit, dismissed this argument almost at once, saying that the intention of the thing was clear and that no matter how the name was spelled, Strangways was still Strangways.
But Fisher had more. Oh yes!
Since the term "The Honourable" is not in use in South Australia then it was clear that there could be no such person as "The Honourable Thomas Bewes Strangways." (or even Stangways) and it followed as night follows day that Stephens must therefore have no case to answer.
Well, if Jeffcott dismissed his first argument almost at once then his second argument was dismissed almost before he finished stating it. The damned fool!
Surely by this point even Fisher could see that this was not going well. But even then he had more! Fisher had found an old law dating from who knows when that stated that no prosecution could take place unless the offence had been committed less than three calendar months before.
It took Jeffcott moments to point out that this law only applied to certain petty offences and certainly did not apply to offences such as attempted murder.
And so even Fisher had to admit defeat and as a result Stephens will be forced to to trial.
Unless of course Mr Fisher invents yet more damn fool ideas.
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