The Sun.
London, England, 1867-07-08 00:00:00

THE CHARGE AGAINST CAPT. SI3IPSON.

On Saturday, at the Portsmouth Quarter t
Sessions, Captain James Simpson, of her Majesty's
ship Megmra, now at Spithead, was charged with
cruelly assaulting a boy named Charles Wallis, the 1
son of a labouring man, residing in Devonport.
The first count charged him with maliciously inflict-
ing grievous bodily harm ; the second was for false '
imprisonment on the ship ; the third that he
occasioned actual bodily harm ; and the fourth a
common assault.
The case excited a considerable amount of public
interest, as was manifested by the crowded state of
the court.
Mr. Besley, specially retained, and Mr. Bullen,
instructed by Mr. Cousins, on behalf of the
Society for the Protection of Women and Children,
appeared for the prosecution ; and Mr. Gunner, in-
structed by Mr. Swainson, appeared for the
defendant.
On the defendant surrendering, he was about to
be ordered into the dock, when Mr. Gunner
applied that he might sit at the table with him,
instead of standing at the bar. He thought that
the case might be long, and the defendant might
aid him in the defence.
The Recorder acceded to the request, and there-
upon the defendant took his seat beside counsel.
In opening the case for the prosecution, Mr.
Besley, after some preliminary remarks, said the
case was one of immense importance to Captain
Simpson, because their knowledge of the pro-
fession told them that, generally speaking, humanity
was an indication of bravery, while cruelty was the
usual accompaniment of cowardice. He (Mr.
Besley) therefore bespoke on behalf of Captain
Simpson a fair, calm, and dispassionate hear-
ing. The prosecution was, of course, not
instituted by the lad himself. The lad, Charles
Wallis, was 14 years of age, was the son of a pavior
earning 2s. or 3s. a day, who had been living for
some time at Plymouth, but his mother was dead.
Up to the 10th of April, the lad, who was of dimi-
nutive size, had been assisting his father in his main-
tenance. On the 10th April the Megmra, of which
Captain Simpson is the captain, was lying in the
Sound at Plymouth, and on that day this lad ac-
companied a boatman who was carrying some boxes
to the ship from the shore, and he did this under
the firm belief that the ship would not sail until
the following day, the 11th. He arrived on board
somewhere between two and three o'clock, and hav-

ing assisted the waterman to take the boxes on
board, the cook's mate asked him to peel some pota-
toes. This occupied him about half-an-hour, and
when he bad finished he found that the ship was
steaming out of the Sound. He reported himself,
though whether she was withinthe breakwater or not
was immaterial, because it was not to be expected
that a captain in the navy was to stop his ship to
put a boy on shore. Without any inquiry the lad
was ordered to be placed under the ladder on the
upper deck aft, and he was accordingly placed there.
A sentry was placed over him, and he was kept there
till between eleven and twelve o'clock at night, when
he was allowed to go to the second deck and lie
down, a sentry still being placed over him. At four
o'clock the lad was again removed to the upper deck
and placed under the ladder with a sentry over him,
although not a single inquiry had been made as to
the manner in which the lad had come on board.
The Megvera came on to Portsmouth Harbour ; and
on the Thursday morning Captain Simpson went on
shore. He returned about ten o'clock in the morn-
ing, when there was a conversation between Capt.
Simpson and the lad. The substance was this :
Captain Simpson asked the boy for an explanation,
and promised if he told the truth he should not be
punished, adding if he did not he should be
flogged. He (Mr. Besley) believed there would
not be a scintilla of evidence to show that he was a
" stow-away," and that he fraudulently attempted
to obtain a passage to Portsmouth. But if there
were, that was no justification for such cruel treat-
ment. He might have been handed over to the civil
court, and a captain in the navy ought to be the last
person to take the law into his own hands. After
the conversation to which he (Mr. Besley) had re-
ferred, Captain Simpson called to a corporal, and
gave an order that the boy should be flogged. Of
course there was no prosecution against the men,
because they were merely the hands of Captain
Simpson, and if they had not obeyed his orders they
would have been subjected to very serious conse-
quences. The corporal having received the order,
took a three-inch rope in his hand—a rope three
inches in circumference and one inch across. A
number of strokes were inflicted on the boy, who
screamed loudly and struggled violently. The
master-at-arms was then ordered to hold him, and
he accordingly held the boy with his right hand
while the corporal held him and beat him with his
other hand. About two dozen blows were given,
during which time Captain Simpson was standing
within a yard, hearing the screams, laughing at the
blows, and directing the corporal to " give it him."
The boy having received this flogging was put over
the side of the ship, and found his way to a boat in
charge of two watermen. He was then crying, was
very white, weak, and exhausted, and these were
indications of the violence of the blows inflicted.
He was then taken to the shore without any food
and money, and there left to the mercy of circum-
stances. Fortunately, he found his way to the re-
lieving officer, and for a considerable time after his
admission to the workhouse he was unable to sit
down, and suffered great pain. The learned counsel
then briefly commented on the various counts of the
indictment.
At the conclusion of Mr. Besley's address,
The Recorder suggested that the justice of the case
would be met by Captain Simpson making the lad
some proper and substantial compensation for the
injury he had sustained. If the prosecution proved
the case as opened by the learned counsel there could
be no question that a common assault, at all events,
had been committed ; but in the event of further
proceedings, in the form of an action against the
captain, a jury would be very unlikely to give heavy
damages if they knew the defendant had already
been severely punished.
Mr. Besley thought the jury were the best judges
of the facts, and ought to say what offences the de-
fendant had committed.
Mr. Gunner stated that Captain Simpson was
quite willing to give the boy fair and reasonable
compensation for the injuries inflicted.
After some further conversation on the point, dur-
ing which Mr. Besley said he must press for the
opinion of the jury, and the Recorder having stated
that he had merely done what he believed to be his
duty, the case proceeded.
Witnesses were then called. They were—The
boy himself ; Henry Board, ,an outdoor officer of
Customs at Portsmouth ; James Meckiff, examining
officer of Customs ; John Mortimore, a waterman ;
and others.
Mr. Henry Bloxam, a surgeon, living on the
Parade, gave the following evidence--I saw the boy
Wallis on Saturday, the 13th of April, at my own
house, in the middle of the day. He was brought
there by the witness Board. I examined the boy,
and for that purpose stripped him. I found a slight
bruise on the forefinger, which had the appearance
of a burn, and had evidently been blistered. The
left wrist was slightly swollen and tender. The back
part of the left thigh was very black, extending
from an inch or two above the bend of the knee to
the upper part of the breech, measuring 10} inches
in length and in width rather more than 5 inches.
There were six or eight black spots about the
region of the kidneys, varying in size from a shil-
ling to half-a-crown. The right thigh was not so
black, nor were the bruises so extensive as those
on the left, the bruises on the former measuring 5
inches in length and 51 inches in width. Both
thighs were swollen, and were very tender. On
the 17th I saw him again in the court, and the
black marks on the thighs were still very evident,
but very much gone off. The size I have given
does not include the detached spots. By the length
of the bruises I mean up and down. The mark on
the left wrist would be produced by holding, and
the mark on the finger might be produced by a
blow. The appearance I saw certainly indicated the
violence of the blows he received. The child is of a
most delicate nature, and a punishment inflicted on
such a boy must be Ter/ prejudicial. I could not