Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-09-19 00:00:00

THE WENLOOH MURDER.

The final exvnination of TV lliam Davies, charged with
the murder of an old woman, named Ann Morgan, took
place on Thursday. Witnseses deposed to having heard
quarrelling between the prisoner and the deceased. Ann
Rowlands stated that on going into the house on Saturday
her little boy told her that Billy (meaning the prisoner) had
murdered her aunt, the deceased. The deceased was found
quite dead and her face covered with blood. John Row-
lands, the boy in question, stated that he heard the pri-
soner and the deceased quarrelling, and saw the prisoner go
oat of the house with his smock, face, and hands covered
with blood. Ellen Frampton stated that she found a large
pocket-knife on the dresser in the kitchen ; the blade was
open and smeared with blood. On the Friday the prisoner
had shown the knife to witness and Mr. and Mrs. Rowlands.
Mr. W. P. Brookes, surgeon, said that when he was called
in, about a quarter past 6, he found the body of deceased
warm He found several wounds about the face and neck,
and also a wound on the left wrist above the thumb, about
half an inch in length The place was covered with blood.
Witness and Mr. James made a post mortem on the Mon-
day, which satisfied them that death had been caused by
the wounds described, which might have been caused by
the knife produced. Alfred Stinker, waggoner, said, that
on the afternoon of Saturday, about two o'clock, he asked
the prisoner where he had besn working since he last saw
him, and the prisoner replied, "At home, at the top of
the hill." Witness rejoined, " You have no home as I
know of ;" to which the prisoner replied, he had a very
good one ; and added that, when the old woman (meaning
the deceased) died, he should have from £6OO to £7OO.
After some other evidence, the prisoner was committed
for trial oa the charge of wilful murder. Since his appre-
hension the prisoner has attempted suicide, but was pre-
vente from carrying his intention into effect.

TEIE MURDER IN HORSEMONGER-LANE

GAOL.

James Preston was indicted at the Central Criminal
Court, on Thursday, for the wi ful murder of John Hodges.
The facts of this case have •b:en given very fully within
the last few days. The pr.soner and the deceased were
bath inmates of Horsemoneer-lane Gaol, the former having
been committed for debt, and the latter being in custody
upon a charge of felony ; and they were both placed in
what was called the infirmary ward, two other prisoners
being confined in the same ward. The deceased, it appeared,
was suffering from fits, and in consequence of the surgeon
of the prison entertaining an opinion that he was in
an unsound state of mind and required to be watched,
he gave directi ms that he should be also placed in the in-
firmary where he might be watched. On the night of Sunday
the 61 of Eeptember, the prisoner and the deceased, and
the other two inmates of the ward went to bed, and about 4
o'clock in the evening the prisoner was seen to to to a
cupboard. and take out a pail, and he immediately proceeded
to the bed occupied by the deceased, and struck him three
or four violent blows upon the head with the pen, and he
died of the injuries so received almost immediately. The
prisoner made use of some exclamation at the time, to the
eff.ct that deceased had seduced his wife, and he was very
violent ; and he afterwards said, alluding to the deceased,
"He is a wooden dolly—he has seduced my wife, and it
served him right." The prisoner subsequently became
more composed, and he then said he could not tell what
had made him do it, as the deceased had always been very
kind to him. Mr. Keen, the governor of the prisoner, and
the surgeon also, both exp essed their (pinion that the
prisoner was in a stave of insanity at the time the act was
committed, and that he was not at all aware of what he
was doing, or the consequences that were likely to result
The prisoner was acquitted on the ground of insanity, and
he was ordered to be detained in safe custody during her
Majesty's pleasure.

CAPTAIN ROGERS.

T 3 THE .EDITOR OF THE NORTHERN TIMES.

Sir,—ln Wednesday's Daily Post I see a letter
signed by "A Lawyer," in which he is not pleased
that capital punishment was inflicted upon Captain
Rogers. He s?ys I, as a lawyer, think him a
victim ;" but ho does not give us his reason for
coming to that conclusion. Now, though lam not
a lawyer, still common sense tells me that the ver-
dict was a mast righte:us one, and Government
acted j ustly—most j ustly—towards the public, and
to poor Rose's memory, in punishing such a capital
offence with a capital punishment.
I will try to prove that the offince was capital.
The lawyer will ±,urely know that the law knows two
species of murder--one being malice aforethought,
and the other implied malice. In looking at the
" Cabinet Lawyer," I see implied malice there
dt fined.

Implied malice is that interference which arises
from the nature of the act, though no direct malice
can bo proved : as, when a man deliberately poisons
another, the law presumes malice, though no parti-
cular enmity can be established. So, too, if a master
refuses his apprentice necessary food, or treat him
with such continued harshness and severity that
his death is occasioned thereby, the law will imply
malice, and the offence will be murder.—Leach,
127.

If a man kill another suddenly, without a
considerable provocation, the law implies malice.
But if the person provoked had unfortunately
killed the other, by beating him in such a way, as
shewed only an intent to chastise and not to kill
him, the law so far considered the provocation of
contumelious behaviour, as to adjudge it only
manslaughter, and not murder.

Now, Captain Rogers' offence comes clearly
under the head of murder; his atrocitiea on that
poor man could never have been intended as a
chastisement, and the machinery ho used, partic-
ularly hanging by the neck, was in the highest
degree dangerous to life, and no doubt rests on any
man's mind that it did acelerate death, and that in
law -is murder. Can it be wondered that the
nation was indignant when such terrible cruelties
were published, and that a universal cry of satis-
faction was raised ; but to infer that the nation
was glad that such cruelties occurred, is an infer-
ence against which I protest. God forbid, that I
for one, should rejoice that Rogers placed himself
in such an awful position, and brought such grief
on his wife and family; but the law justly does not
consider that, and if the punishment of murder is
death, Rogers, as ringleader, could not escape, or
any subsequent execution would be nothing short
of legal murder.—Yours 3. COMMON SENSE.
Liverpool, September 18th, 1857.
P.S.—I sent the above letter to the Daily Post,
but as the views of the editor, I think, differ from
mine on the subject, you need not be surprised
that that " liberal" journal declined it, but 1 trust
you will give this reply a corner in your valuable
gaper to-morrow.

for CLOTHING BOYSPAN frcm Six to Tweztty Teem
,_LEWIS COMY, Itanelagh-street.
ExclolivelY