The Sun.
London, England, 1856-08-20 00:00:00

ANOTHER CAPITA r, CONVICTION.

DISTRESSING SCENE IN A COURT OF
JUSTICE.

LIVERPOOL, Tuesday.—At the South Lancashire As-
sizes, holding at Liverpool, before Mr. Justice Willis,
yesterday,
James Bracken (24), labourer, and Andrew Bracken
(21), labourer—two br,4liers—were indicted for having,
at Manchester, on the 28th June, 1856, wilfully killed
and murdered William Bates. They had also been
committed on the ccroner's inquisition for the murder
of Bates. The prosecution was conducted by Mr. Hig-
gins, and the defence by Mr. Tindal Atkinson and Mr.
M`Donnell.
It appeared from the statement of the learned counsel
for the prosecution, and from the evidence for the pro-
secution, that on the night of the 28th of June a person
named Taylor and the deceased were coming down
George-street, Hulme, about nine o'clock in the even-
ing, and, having spent the day together in public-houses,
they were not quite sober. In George-street is a beer-
house called the Brown Cow, and when they got to that
place they saw the two prisoners fighting a man, whom
they chased into a beer-house. Immediately Taylor
and Bates got near to where the fight had taken place
one of the prisoners made a blow at Taylor, who went
away for a policeman, leaving the deceased there, and
when he came back Bates had been removed. Both
the prisoners struck the deceased, who was knocked
down more than once, and while down the prisoner
Andrew came up and kicked him on the bead several
times. He was found in the street in an insensible state
and taken to the infirmary, where he was attended by a
surgeon, who found him bruised in several places ; there
was a very extensive fracture of the skull, and the cause of
Bates's death was an effusion of blood on the brain.
Having had his wounds dressed he was removed to the
police-station next door, but he died during the course of
that evening, and was insensible from the time of his re-
ceiving the kicks on the head until the time of his death.
Both the prisoners, it appeared had been drinking from
noon till 9 o'clock at night. As the deceased and Taylor
approached the beer-house, where the prisoners were
fighting with a man, one of the prisoners was heard to cry
out—" Here are two brothers, who will face us men ?"
After the deceased had been struck and knocked down,
the prisoner, Andrew Bracken, knocked him down again
on the flags, and kicked him on his head more than once.
A. witness, named Mrs. Ann Smith, who was passing
down the street, raised the deceased up, but he was
knocked down again and kicked in the middle of his back
and on the top of his head. Mrs. Smith shouted
"Murder !" and told the prisoner, Andrew Bracken,
that he would kill the man. Andrew replied, " We'll
kill the —I" and again kicked him. The affray lasted
about a quarter of an hour, and there had been a ring
formed, in which the parties were fighting. James
Bracken was seen to strike the deceased a heavy blow
on the bridge of the nose, which knocked him down, and
Andrew then said he would break his head and let his
brains out, after saying which he ran up to Rates, who
was lying on the flags, and kicked him several times on
the head. The people round about called out " Murder,
murder ! The man is killed, the man is killed !" The
deceased was then taken insensible to the police-station,
where he died. About two hours afterwards Mr. Foster,
house-surgeon to the Salford Dispensary, made a post
rnorteas examination of the deceased, and found the skull
fractured and a considerable effusion of blood on the
brain, which had caused death.

For the defenee of the prisoners their respective coun-
sel contended that the row was a drunken brawl and a
fight, in the course of which the deceased had received
the injurieP, and that at most the killing of the deceased
was not murder but manslaughter.
His Lordship then proceeded to sum up, observing that
drunkenness was no excuse or palliation for crime. That
which was done by a drunken man was as much murder
as that act could be by a sober man. If anybody inten-
tionally did an act which he meant to cause death, and

it did cause death, that was murder. Further, the law
applicable to this case was, that if anybody did inten-
tionally that, the probable and natural result of which
was to cause death, he was guilty of murder. If a man
were to call on the prisoner to prove the intention which
existed in his mind, the answer would be that the act he
had done, being one naturally tending to death, involved
intention, and was murder. But the law, making al-
lowances for the infirmities to which human nature was
subjected, provided for them by making a distinction,
constituting one degree of crime murder, and another,
with extenuating circumstances, manslaughter. Thus, if
two rnen fought, while quarrelling, and one of them
killed the other, it would be manslaughter ; but if they
fought with deadly weapons, it would be murder. There
was, according to the evidence, a great difference be•
tween the cases of the two prisoners, and probably the
jury might think that while James was guilty of man•
slaughter, Andrew was guilty of the murder, if he knew
when he was striking the man that the injuries he was in-
flicting were likely to cause death. Hislerdship then pro-
ceeded to read over and comment upon the evidence.
The jury retired to consider their verdict at 25minutes
to 7, and at 25 minutes to 3 they returned into court,
when a d-ath-like stillness prevailed.
The Clerk of the Crown then asked the foreman if the
jury had agreed upon their verdict /
The Foreman—We have. We find James Bracken
guilty of manslaughter, and Andrew Bracken we find
guilty of wilful murder, but with a strong recommenda-
tion to mercy.
The scene that now ensued can scarcely be described.
A kied of groan, as it were of pity, was raised in the
densely crowded court, while three women in the gal-
lery, at the back of the court, shrieked in a dreadful
manner, and one of them was seized with a fainting fit.
They were all taken outside the court, and it was stated
that they were theaged mother of the prisoners and their
two sisters. The prisoserJames fell back into the dock
and fain red, but in two minutes again revived, when kneel-
ire; at the bar, he raised his hands to heaven, and with a
look at the judge, cried, "00, my Lord, have mercy
on my brother." The prisoner Andrew literally tore
his hair, and, first kneeling and then standing, piteously
cried, " Oh, my Lord, I beg mercy." his Lordship
sobbed audibly, and appeared to be quite overpowered
by the scene. Having put ou the black cap,
His Lordship then proceeded to pass sentence on the
prisoners He said—Andrew Bracken, prisoner at the
bar, you have been convicted of the crime of wilful mur-
der, and you, James Bracken, of the crime of inan4au ;li-
ter. A peaceable subject of her Niel-sty, passing along
the streets of the city of Manchester, is brutally attacked
by you both. You were, no doubt, engaged in a com-
mon design of attacking any person who came along that
way, and of beating him in a cruel and violent wanner.
You, James Bracken, have been co .eicted of man-
slaughter, and you, too, were engaged in the unlawful
design which I have described, but you were no party
to the last violent and cruel attack by which that un-
happy man was sent to an untimely grave. You, An-
drew Bracken, were guilty of that ; you attacked h m
with your feet, armed, no doubt, with clogs; you kicked
him about the, head ; you fractured his skull, and yen
sent him to a premature grave. You did an act, the
natural and ordinary consequences of which must have
been to kill the man. It was a cruel and a brutal act,
and you did it wholly reckless of the consequences which
it might produce. You have, therefore, bee❑ very Pro-
perly convicted of the wilful murder of that man. The
Jury, however, have accompanied their verdict by a re-
commendation to mercy ; I presuele that was on account
of the drunken state in which you were. That, in point
if law, is no palliation of your crime. I have it not in
my power, Andrew Bracken, to attend to that recom-
mendation. The prerogative of mercy rests with her
Majesty alone, and I cannot encourage you in any hope
whatever that that recommendation will be acted upon.
I shall, however, forward it to the Secretary of State,
to be laid before her Majesty, that you may be placed
at her mercy. Again I say, that I cannot hold out to yen
any hope that that recommendation will be concurred
in ; but I now most earnestly recommend you, with
the assistance of your clergyman, to seek that mercy
from the Almighty which you had not for William
Bates. With regard to you, James Bracken, you were
guilty of manslaughter of the most aggravated sharer•
ter, and for that offence the sentence of the Court is
that you be transported for life. Upon you, Andrew
Bracken, the sentence of the Court is, that you be re-
moved hence to the place from whence you came, and
thence to a place of public execution, and that there
you be hanged by the neck until your body be dead,
and that it be then buried within the precincts of the
gaol in which you shall hare been last confined ; and
may God, in the plenitude of His goodue,el, have mercy
upon your soul.
The prisoner Andrew fell down agai❑ in the dock and
begged for mercy ; but being raised by the turnkey, was
escorted from the dock, ej iculating, with fearful in•
tensity of earnestness, " Oh, mother, mother, that I
should be hung." For a few minutes the court seemed
paralysed by the shocking scene which it had witneqs-
ed ; and his Lordship having raised his head from his
hands, slowly rose and left the court amid solemn
silence.

Sevaral women were carried out fainting, and it was
rumoured about that the prisoner James Bracken, if
acquitted, was engaged to be married next morning.
The Court adjourned at 8 o'clock.

DEATH OP A CENTENARIAN.—Yesterday afternoon
information was received at the police stations contain.
ing the description of an aged female who was taken sud-
denly ill in Blackman-street, Borough. The poor crea-
ture was taken to St. George's Workhouse. She had
sufficient strength left to say that her name was Mar-
garet Crawley, and that she was upwards of 104 years
of age. Her consciousness then left her, and !She almost
immediately expired.
Her Majesty's ship Malacca lost nearly all her crew
at Port 'loyal, in Jamaica, from yellow fever. It was
necessary to press blacks to work her to Bermuda. The
crews of the Hermes and Termagant, in the West Indies,
have suffered severely from fever,