The Express.
London, England, 1862-08-18 00:00:00

MOH RAMIS 49"_1011D00. BRIM,.

Ting 7h. 45m.
TO-YOZZOW—Mornias, attarsogio, 8h 6681.

LONDON, MONDAY, AUGUST 18.

THE decision the HOME SmarrAwe has arrived
st, in the case of the young soldier Jonx noon,
who was tried and condemned at the recent Lewes
Assizes for the murder of a comrade at Brighton,
will be received with universal satisfaction. After
conferring with the military authoritiea, Sir GEORGE
GREY has advised her MAJESTY to exercise her
prerogative of mercy, and the extreme sentence of
the law pronounced on the unhappy man is com-
muted into penal servitude for life. His punish-
ment is still one of exemplary severity, but every-
one will be thankful to learn that the supreme au-
thority has mercifully interposed to prevent the
law from taking its course. No other conclusion
could, indeed, have been arrived at consistently
with a due regard to those exceptional

circumstances which under the beat and
most perfect administration of the law
must occasionally temper justice with mercy.
There can be no doubt of the prisoner's guilt, or
that the crime he committed was, as the jury de-
cided, murder. But it was committed under ex-
tenuating circumstances of the most powerful and
affecting kind. In the first place, it was proved on
the trial that the unhappy, culprit so far from being
quarrelsome or vicious, or belonging in any sense to
the criminal clam, was uniformly well-disposed and
well-behaved. He was described by those who knew
him well not only as remarkably quiet and inoffen-
sive, but as one of the best tempered men in the
regiment. The troop sergeant-major bore testi-
mony to these qualities, while the adjutant of the
regiment, who was examined on the trial, gave the
prisoner a remarkably good character. He was
punctual and efficient in the discharge of his mili-
tary duties, and had in consequence received a
good-conduct stripe. But for some reason or
other, possibly on account of these very virtues,
he was singled out by a bullying clique amongst
his comrades, of which the murdered man O'Day
appears to have been the ringleader, as the victim
of malignant torture and systematic persecution.
These men evidently belonged to the class, speci-
mens of which are unhappily to be found in all
ranks, though most frequently no doubt in the
lowest, who delight in the sufferings of others.
They selected FLOOD as the object of attack, sub-
jected him to a series of petty an-
noyances, wanton provocations, brutal insults,
and malicious ill-usage, amounting at times to
physical torture. The system of mock court-
martial, which prevailed in the regiment enabled
these tormentors to gratify their brutal propensities
in the most open and systematic manner. It ap-
pears that, unknown to the officers, these mock
tribunals were established amongst the men nom-
nally for the trial and punishment of petty offences,
but in reality as an instrument of tyranny and op-
pression recklessly used for their own purposes
by the worst men in the regiment. This system
of torture was especially directed against FLOOD,
who had suffered under its mocksentences, havingon
more than one occasion been actually stripped, and
received twelve lashes with a belt. The murdered
man, JOHN O'Des, appears to have taken the
moat active part in these brutal proceedings.
He was described on the trial as a quarrelsome,
violent man, given to bullying, and ambitious of
being considered a "fighting man." He seems
to have organized the persecutions against FLOOD,
to have devised the accusations which brought him
before the mock tribunal, and to have taken •
peculiar pleasure in witatesing the torture of his
victim.

The unhappy man had suffered so much in this
way that life became utterly miserable, and in the
end almost intolerable. He had been heard to
say "he would rather be dead than suffer such
"constant ill-usage." He had no means either of
redress or escape, or at least felt that he had none,
and was thus driven at last to desperation. On
the day of the murder ho was on duty morning and
afternoon. While on duty early in the afternoon
O'DEA, who had been told off to do
stable duty, came to him, and threatened
him with the mock court-martial and flogging
when he came off duty, on the trivial pre-
text that FLOOD had left him a dirty saddle to
clean. FLOOD quietly replied, "My saddle was as
" clean ss any man's when I left it." The sum-
mons to the mock court wav, however, read to him,
and he was told he would be flogged when he
left guard, O'Dxa in particular bidding him " to
" look out for himself when he came off
" duty." He replied, "If you have
" anything to say to me, say it when
" I come off guard. Don't insult me now."
At 7 o'clock he left duty, and went into the
guard-room, where he remained for two hours—
in fact, until the crime was committed, at a
quarter past nine. His cup of misery and despair'
seemed full, and during that terrible interval his
thoughts were evidently wild and desperate. He
drank more heavily than usual, first beer and then
rum, until, under the double excitement of
drink and despair, he was almost beside himself.
At length on O'Dzx's entering the guard-room,
having satisfied himself as to the man, ho raised
his carbine and shot him dead. It was murder, no
doubt ; but the crime was committed under cir-
cumstances of extreme provocation, such as the
law is wont to recognise, and which if the law
cannot formally recognise, the fountain of justice
may righteously consider. Allowance is made in
all tribunals for the excitement of passion and cir-