The Sun.
London, England, 1862-08-21 00:00:00

BRUTAL TREATMENT OF A BLACK ON

SHIPBOARD.

At the South Lancashire assizes yesterday, James
Taylor, late mate of the British ship, Sailors'
Home, was indicted for having assaulted a man of
colour on board that vessel at Havannah on the
26th of December last. It appeared during the
investigation of the case that on the 26th of De-
cember a number of the sailors on board the ship
got drunk, and in consequence of this Taylor was
very much annoyed, and beat a sailor named
Thomas. All the men came on deck, and were
standing together, when the mate ordered them to
go below. They refused to do so, however, until
they had seen the captain, who they wished to con-
sult on the subject of Thomas's beating, and ask if
they might go on shore. The mate beeame very
much enraged at the men refusing to go below, and
he seized hold of an iron bolt and threw it at a
negro named Barber, who was one of the sailors on
board. The bolt unfortunately struck Barber on
the head, and he was knocked insensible to the
deck. Upon being picked up Barber's skull was
found to be much injured, and he remained in a
very critical state for some time. Ultimately, on
the arrival at the Sailors' Home at Liverpool, Bar-
ber was taken to the hospital, and was there at-
tended to. It was said that his left side had become
completely paralysed, and that he would be unable
to resume work, and in all probability suffer much
from his injuries during the remainder of his life.
The prisoner was found guilty of unlawfully
wounding, and sentenced to 15 months' imprison-
ment, with hard labour.

CONVICTION UNDER THE NEW
POACHING ACT.
he first conviction unaer
the New Game Act, which came into operation a
few days ago, has just been obtained here, the
offender being a painter of this town, who was de-
tected amusing himself with a bit of sport on Sun-
day morning, on the third day after the new law
had come into operation. The magistrates before
whom the case was heard were Sir Henry Lambert,
Captain Candler, C. M. Berrington, Esq., and J.
V. Hornyold, Esq. Thomas Freeman was charged
by Police-Inspector Turner with having in his pos-
session game unlawfully captured, and also having
in his possession a gun which he had used for the
purpose of destroying game unlawfully. To prove
the charge a policeman was called. He deposed
that on Sunday morning, the 10th inst., having
been on duty near the spot from one o'clock to six,
he met at the latter hour the defendant in a public
footpath carrying a gun. He had seen him shoot
shortly before, and asked him what he was about.
The defendant said he had no right to search him,
but the officer told him that he had, and proceeded
forthwith to execute the right, and found in the
defendant's pocket a dead rabbit, warm and bleed-
ing. He took the rabbit and gun from him, and
sold the rabbit by order of the magistrate (Sir H.
Lambert). Defendant by his attorney, Mr. Caw-
ley, denied that he had shot the rabbit, and brought
a witness to swear that he had been talking to him
in a different direction to that where the policeman
said he saw the defendant shoot at something. The
magistrates decided that the charge was proved, but
as it was the first case that had been brought be-
fore them under the new act, they fined the defen-
dant in the mitigated penalty of £l, ordering the
forfeiture of the rabbit and the destruction of the
gun. It was represented to the bench that the gun
had been placed in the defendant's hands to clean,
and the magistrates were asked to order it to be
sold, as they had the option of doing, instead of de-
stroying it, so that the right owner might have a
chance of buying it. This, however, the magis-
trates refused to do, and ordered it to be destroyed.