Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-08-21 00:00:00

ea imltrriat Vaits.—Ebft Dap.

•t twelve o'clock, at the brokers' Oleo, 30, Exchange-alley North,
a quantity of Jute, Cotton, and Cotton Pickings.--bhand, Hipon,
and Co.

At twelve o'c'ock, at the broker's oTce, Royal Bank-buildings, 5,100

bags Rice.—Thornewill and Broom.
♦t the Pablo Saleroam, 4 tons Camwood.—Alex. S. Macrae.
At twe've o'clock, 1,770 bales Jute.—Cox Brothers.

♦t twelve o'clock, at the broker's office, Victoria-buildings, Hackin':-
hey, 33 tierces Coffae.—T. W. and J. C. Harrop and C 3.
At twelve o'clock, at the broker's offic e 30, Exchange-street Fast,
a clan ity of Jute, Palm 0,1, Cam% cod, and Ginger.—Percival,
Campbell and Co.

I twelve o'clock, at the broker's office, I, Royal Bank-buildings'
about lo tons Hemp.—J. A. Banc's&

At twelve o'c'oe.k, at the brokers' office, Chapel-street, a q•iantity of
C..ffee.—Griffith, Sons, and Palethorpe, Brokers.

At eleven o'clock, on the quay, east site of Brunswick Dock, a
quantity of timb r; aqd at twelve o'clock, west 3i.* aho a quantify
of timber.—Edward Challonar.

ipir For particulars see advertisement,.

airing in the parks, and frisk and fool in the
ball-room, can gratify their desires for a pecu-
niary consideration; whilst the daring and
faithful soldiers, who threw burning shells out of
the trenches, and hazarded their lives at the
breach, can barely obtain a month's furlough.
Truly, the talismanic influence of gold works
wonders in the army ; but with these wonders
there is the baneful consequence of discouraging
the man of sterling merit, and gratifying the
ambitious designs and voluptuous desires of the
youthful aristocrat and millionaire.

To illustrate the baneful effects of the present
system of purchasing commissions, and to show
that one man possessing money may step over
the head of another, who is destined to a perpe-
tual obscurity, terminating his military career
with a half-pay captaincy, we need only take
a single example out of an ordinary Regiment.
The Colonel wishes to sell out, but is determined
to make the most he can of his commission.
Accordingly, he quietly hints his intentions to
the senior Major, and states that he must have
3,000/. over the regulation price. Numerous
cases are cited to prove that this is moderate, as
Friend This or Friend That obtained 4,0001.
and should obstacles present themselves to his
design, he threatens to resign and arrange terms
with a more accommodating party.
.This has
the desired effect. A subscription is entered
into; Major This gives 2001., and Cap'ain That
1001., some half-dozen Lieutenants put down
their names for 50/., and the beardless junior
Ensign sends a pathetic appeal to his
‘, grandma" for a 51., in order that he may not
be odd on such an important occasion.

These are matters of fact. And how does the
Army Commission propose to reform abuses so
glaring, extensive and destructive in their effects
The Commissioners give it as their opinion that
the principle of selection should be applied to
the highest rank in the service, and that the
purchase of Lieutenant's Commissions. should be
abolished. We believe the Commander-in-Chief
is opposed to this recommendation. He should
he satisfied, for it leaves all the grades up to that
of Major untouched, and sanctions the present
system, whereby every British officer,. until he
has reached his majority, may deal, if he• is
possessed of a well-filled purse, in Army Com-
missions, as he would in railway scrip, and carry
on tricks and intrigues, which no one but monied
men can afford to play. Is not such a system
merely converting the Horse Guards into a kind
of military mart, disreputable and dangerous.
We are aware that a variety of plausible argu-
ments are urged for the continuance of the
system we are now condemning. Some of these
have their weight, but we put the evils of
" purchase" against its advantages, as they effect
the whole army, and are satisfied that the force
of truth and reason lies in favour of the abolition
of the syEtem. We shall recur again to this
important topic.

, THE readers of yesterday's NORTHERN TIMES
will have perused our lengthened report of the
trial of Captain ROGERS, WILLIAM MILES, first
mate, and CHARLES EDWARD SEYMOUR, second
mate, for the murder of one ANDREW ROSE, a
seaman on board the ship Martha Jane,
when on the voyage from Demerara to Liverpool.
The details of this horrible case are without a
parallel in the annals of crime. They evince,
on the part of all the prisoners, a cruelty, dis-
gusting brutality, and fiendish ferocity, which,
thank GOD, heretofore, it has never been our lot
to record. In all cases, where the charge pre-
ferred against a prisoner involves the forfeiture
of his life, it is the bounden duty of both judge
and jury to exercise extreme caution, and to
elicit all the facts of the case, so that nothing
shall escape which can in any degree tend to
demonstrate the innocence of the accused. If
ever there was a case which loudly called for the
exercise of caution and cool deliberation, it was
the one to which we have just referred. What
are the undisputed facts brought forward on the
part of the prosecution ? The prisoners were
the captain, mate, and second mate, and the
deceased, RosE, one of the seamen on board the
ship Martha Jane. She sailed from Demerara
for Liverpool on the 11th of May. Rose shipped
on board the Martha Jane on the 29th of
April, on which day he, signed articles. It appears
that, on going on board, the second mate put
him to do some duty or other, and feeling
dissatisfied with the manner in which RosE per-
formed the work, he beat, and otherwise so
ill-used him that, on the recommendation of the
crew, he left the ship and ran away. Subse-
quently he was captured, and brought back to
the ship by the police, and then placed in irons.
When the ship sailed he was released from con-
finement, but the day after his tortures com-
menced, and were never ended until his life fell
a prey to the unrelenting cruelties practised by
the prisoners, On the 11th of May, the captain.
mate, and second mate beat him in turns.
These beatings were described by the witness
FIAYs in the following significant terms They
laid it on as hard as they could." The same
witness says—" He saw him flogged every day
by the three:pris.oners; never a day passed that
they did not flog him."
But this was only one kind of the brutality
exercised upon the unfortunate man. A large
mastiff clog was put on him, which tore the flesh.
off his legs in mouthfuls, causing the bloo,d to
flow in streams, and inflicting wounds upon
several parts of his person ! An iron bolt was
put across his mouth, and bou.'ad with spun yarn
round his head, whilst his hands were chained to

THE NORTHERN TIMES.-LIVERPOOL, FRIDAY, AUGUST 21. 1857,

a ring bolt in the deck behind his back ! ! Another
species of torture inflicted was to put him into
an empty cask and " head it up." It was then
rolled along the deck and lashed in its place ! ! !
He was kept in this novel but murderous prison
for twelve hours, without any other means of
ventilation than the bunghole. When taken
out, at twelve o'clock at night, he was all over
sweat and full of sores. After this his own
excrement was forced down his throat. He was
sent aloft naked to furl sails, and, before
ascending, beat with a rope's end by the mate.

Failing to put an end to ROSE'S existence by
the foregoing cruelties, the captain determined
to have an experimental hanging match. He
accordingly made a " hitch" on a rope, placed
it round the neck of the deceased, and with the
assistance of his companions in guilt, hoisted
him off the deck to the height of three feet,
where he was suspended for nearly three minutes.
When lowered, he fell on his back altogether like
a dead man. That appears to have been the
climax of Captain ROGERS' and Ms mates' cruel-
ties. What were the results ? In the first
place, ROSE died; and, when relieved of all his
earthly sufferings, his body was full of sores and
corruption. It was marked red all over with the
impressions of the whip and rope's-end ; and
these sores, we are told, were- full of maggots.
literally eating into the vitals of the brutally per-
secuted man. We omitted to mention that
although ROSE, by the articles of agreement
which he had signed. was to get a certain allow-
ance' of provisions, he was fed, for the most part,
on bread and water, whilst all the other seamen
had meat and tea served out to them. The cap:
tain, too, it appears, was in the habit of giving the
deceased large quantities of rum, which, to a man
in Rose's condition, was nothing less than mad-
dening poison.
Such is a brief recapitulation of the brutaliti-s
and cruelties practised upon the unfortunate
seaman ROSE. We have heard:and read much of
the tortures of the Inquisition ; but nothing ever
laid to the charge of that ecclesiastical tribunal,
nor the atrocious cruelties of the Austrian and
Italian dungeons can surpass, if equal, the doings
on, board the-Martha Jane; and when we reflect
that all this occurred on board a British ship,
and that the perpetrators- were men belonging
to a land which, prides itself as being the pioneer
of civilisation and Christianity, we cannot help
being appalled at the mere mention of such
unheard-of cruelties, and ashamed that there
belongs to the British Crown three subjects whose
principles, dispositions, and every-day practices
stamp- them as fiends in human form. Their
answer to the charge preferred against them, as
given by their able and zealous counsel, only
aggravates their crime. The captain contends
that what he did was for the sake of discipline,.
and to guard against incompetent men undertak-
ing the duties of able seamen when unfitted to
perform the task. As far as ROSE IS concerned',
the witnesses proved that thpy—never observed`
him disobeying orders, or 'acting in a mannei-
..l
which manifested incompetency. The counsel
for the other prisoners adopted an extraordinary
course by attempting to exonerate them on the
ground that the part which they had taken in
the nefarious transactions arose from the position
in which they were placed as officers bound to
carry out the captain's orders ; and although not
compelled to do any illegal act in fulfilling
these orders, it was difficult to discriminate as to
the exact amount of punishment which a disobe-
dient or negligent seaman should receive. This
was paltry pleading. The facts of the case
belied the supposition that ROSE was either diso-
bedient or negligent.

The defence put forward by the counsel for
the two mates raises a most important question
—the right and power of any captain or officers
of a ship to inflict corporeal punishment on sail-
ors for alleged offences at sea. We hold that
such a principle is unconstitutional. Every man
accused of crime, or any deriliction of duty, is
entitled to a fair hearing in defence of his con-
duct before any punishment is awarded. To
allow captains and their mates at sea to become
accusers, judge, and the executioners of their
own sentences, is fraught with the most danger-
ous consequences both at sea and on land.
No class of society should command from the
laws and constituted authorities of the country
greater security for life and property than the
hardy and weather-beaten mariner, he who
ventures forth upon the watere, of the mighty and
the trackless deep, encountering many and severe
privations, yea, even risking life itself, to brim.;
to England the luxuries and the riches of foreign
climes. At present, the necessary safeguards
are not accorded to seamen, else Mr. ASPINALL
would not have talked of the exact amount of
punishment which may be legally inflicted upon
a disobedient and negligent seaman! Nor
would Mr. MONCK, have justified in the eyes of
the Court and jury, Captain ROGERS, for treating
It)sE as he would "a filthy dog or cat." Cases
of a similar character, but devoid of many of the
disgusting brutalities, as that which took place
on board] the Martha Jane, have come
before our criminal courts during the last year.
Not long since., the perpetrators of a murder at sea
were executed at 'Winchester ; and the criminals
connected with the outrages on board the James
1. Bogart, tried at Chester, are now undergoing the
punishment due to miscreants of such magnitude.
But these cases, bad although they were, when
compared with that of Captain ROGIIRS, and his
guilty companion, possess some redeeming
qualities. When PALMER and Do rs were con-
victed of their systematic poisonings—when