Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-09-12 00:00:00

PUBLIC ()PINION.

Although the cheering was suppressed in the interior of
the court, the result was no sooner made known to the vast
multitude who had assembled in St. George's-hall, and who
were prevented from gainin; admission, from the want of
apace, thanithe cheering became general ; and, however
horrible it may appear, cheers succeeded cheers, until the
whole building re-echoed. But it was not alone confined'
to those in the-interior of this spacious building, for, as
his lordship entered the carriage to convey him to his
lodgings, the crowd followed the carriage for some cons i-
aerable distance.. cheering with the greatest enthusiasm.
However painful it may be to record such a circum-
stance—such was the fact.

While public opinion was thee demonstrated in the town,
as-to the justice of the verdict, the trial was held of such
vital importance that it was commented upon by the
press, and a London, cotemporary, the Daily News, thus
coMmsnted upon it :--" The horrible charge of murder on
the; high seas, just tried at Liverpool, has resulted in a
verdict of guilty against Heni y Rogers, the captain, and
William Miles and Chas. Edward Seymour, the first and
second inafes of the vessel. This verdict the jury thought
fit to couple with a recommendation to mercy. To this
recommendation, for which no ground whatever is laid in
the evidence, we trust that the authorities of the Home-
office, as far as Henry Rogers, the principal culprit, is con-
cerned, will show the most absolute disregard. A more
atrocious and appalling case of infernal barbarity it is
utterly impossible for the human imagination to conceive.
It is a case for justice and not for mercy ; or rather it is
a case inewhich clemency to•. the individual, would be
cruelty to a: class—an unprotected and suffering class,
over whose: welfare the executive government of this
country is especially bound to watch. There is no body
of men more liable to gross tyranny and brutal violende
than the mariners in our merchant service ; there is
none whose safety and comfort ought to be an object of
such paramount care to the government of the greatest
maritime and mercantile community in the world. Unless
a signal and terrible example be made of such monsters
as this Henry Rogers, the annals of our mercantile
marine will continue to teem with instances of oppression
and crime that may make the blood curdle, and the
heart stand still in an icy trance of disgust and horror.
And this miscreant a jery of Englishmen have recom-
mended to mercy. Mercy why it makes one's very
blood boil to hear the word profaned in connection with
atrocities so merciless. Mercy t yes, the same mercy
that he meted to his victim is all that onght to be to this
abominable culprit. That instinct of wild justice which
all the conventions of civilisation cannot utterly nut down,
irresistibly , impels every honest hearer of this vile
story to regret that the law, even if carried, out to the
very uttermost, can only punish, and not retaliate.
Rapid extinction at the hands of Celcraft is but a poor
requital for the protracted tortures under which this
mignreant. wnrriorl fhe nnt of hie rloConnal..oe w;r1,1,;-
But mercy—the remission of the death sentence—would in
this case be an unpardonable weakness. An example—a
terror-s•riking example—must be made of this fiend in
human form, if there is to be hereafter any security for
life and limb for our mariners amid the, silence and
solitude of the seas. The brutality of mestere and mates,
both in the Mash merchant service and that of the
States, has lone been tending to a climax. The climax is
reached. It is tines for justice to interfere with all her
salutary terrors. In certain classes of crime we have no
great faith in the efficacy of deterrents. Where the man
lives by crime as. a profession, he will not be frightened
out of its pursuits by penal awards; but such crimes as
those of Henry Rogers are precisely of the class in which
deterreeet punishments are most efficacious. As the law
stands, this brute's life has beon most justly forfeited.
In mercy to an oppressed class of meritorious and
defenceless men, we demand that the law should take its