“This was an action of assumpsit brought in the Circuit Court of Massachusetts, against the defendant, as the maker of two promissory notes, both dated at New York, on the 22nd of March, 1811, for the sum of 771 dollars and 86 cents each, and payable to the plaintiff one on the 1st of August, and the other on the 15th of August, 1811. The defendant pleaed his discharge under ‘An act for the benefit of insolvent debtors and their creditors,’ passed by the legislature of New York, the 3d day of April, 1811.

“The question, which comes before us upon a certificate of a division of opinion of the judges of the Circuit Court of Massachusetts, is this, whether two or more persons, jointly charged in the same indictment with a capital offence, have a right, by the laws of the country, to be tried severally, separately, and apart, the counsel for the United States objecting thereto, or whether it is a matter to be allowed in the discretion of the Court.