The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-06-12 00:00:00

MURDER OF INSPECTOR ROSS.

Last week we detailed the circumstances attending a pugilistic
recontre, which took place on the evening of Monday week, in
the vicinity of Windsor, Upper Parliament-street. The police,
it appears, had some intimation conveyed •to them of the event
before its occurrence, and it is to be regretted that a stronger
force was not in attendance to prevent it, for the result .has been
',the death of one. of the most active and intelligent.officers be-
longing to the corps-,Williatu Horner Ross, inspectors whO
saciiliced his life in a vain effort to disperse the brutal :Own-
lilage The deceased was a most valuable and efficient officer-
-4 man whose steadiness was always,to be uepeuded upon,• and
Who, in several cases of emergency had shown the-. most un-
daunted braver•. - H►s courage on the occasion to which we al-
lude, so far outstripped his di.,cretion, as to induce him, assisted
only by two oleo, to attempt the dispersion of the infuriated
rabble. The cousequence might have been. anticipated—the
crowd turned upon the officers, beat them most unmercifully',
dull before further assistance could be procured, pour RosS.was
covered with wounds and gore. When the police reeeived a
redifereement, a desperate light took place between therruand
tiie mob, which terminated in the captureot the principals, twho
were brought before Ur. Hall, as we stated last week,. fined in
the peualty of £5, and in default of.payrnent, committed to the
House of Correction for two months.

It was not anticipatedi at the lime to which we allude, that
Inspector Ross's wounds, though set ions, would have terminated
fataliy. After the affray, he was removed to the infirmary,
When every attention was paid to his case. On his head were
four contused wottuds of a dangerous character, and several
others ou various parts of his body, where he had been kicked
and bruised. Until Sunday week, there were no untoward
symptoms, but on that day erysipelas showed itself, and oft the
following morning an inflammation of the brain succeeded, of
which he diedon Wednesday.

HIS FUNCHAL..
• After death,. Mr. Nottingham, house-surgeon of the infirmary,
subjected the body to a postmortem examination, and on Friday,
it was interred at the Cemeter), Duke-street. A public pioces-
sion of the police force accompanied the unfortunate deceased
to his grave. The-procession was fronted in. Brownlow-street.
-Preceding the hearse Were 52 of the fire police, four abreast, in
their costume. the first 8 wearing belts, which inclosed their
hatchets of office, suspended from their necks by a chain: the
others, in lieu of the hatchet, carried in their be-lts a polished
piece of steel of an angular shape, called a key. Following the
hearse were three friends or relatives of the deceased, whO acted
as chief mourners, to whom succeeded about 300 of-the: police
force, the rear being closed by 36 inspectors and the Superin-
teudents, including Mr. Whittv, the head constable. The pro-
cession passed through Pembroke-place. London -road, Shaw's-
brow, Daie-street, Castle-street, Lord-street, Church-street,
Bold-street, Rodney-street, to the Cemetery at the Mount; where
the body was received in the chapel, and the burial service read,
after which it'was carried to its last resting place at the extreme
end of the • Cemetery, near Upper Parliament-street—not far
removed frum.the scene of the fatal affray.

INQUEST OE Tag BODY.

On Friday, at two o'clock, an inquest was held'( the jury
haYing.preViously inspected the body) at the Sessions-house,
before P. F. Curry, Esq., touching the means by which the de-
ceased carne by his death. The first witness was. George
Wharton, a police-officer, residing in Blair-street. Ou Monday,
the 28th ultimo, „bout seven in the evening, witness .received
information of a light about to take place in Parliament-street.
\Vent there, but contd riot discover any appearance'of it. Ott
making inquiry, witness ascertained that a Emily. of Men had
collected flea: the tannery. Went there and saw two men
stripped to the waist. Was accompanied by two officers named
Fish and Ritchie. Told the crowd to go away, and the t wa.men
who were stripped commenced running. Witness took one of
the men titocustody, and was leading him across, the aeld%
followed by a part of the crowd, when,sorne,one Cried. out ",Oh,-
they.itee =filtering Witness had' not seen deceased
previously- On turning round, saw a crowd collected a little
to the left. Witness requested other two officers to go and
assist. deceased, which they did. At this time another officer,
Charters, cause up.- There was a cry " Now lads," and Charters
was knocked doWn, by at stick about eighteen inches long. Wit-
ness Was struck by the prisoner Connolly, and the prisoner
whom witness first took was rescued front him. Warless was
so kicked and abused while down es to be insensible for some
minutes. On recovering, saw a- crowd about a hundred yards
off, and-Connolly approaching. The latter was eyentually.cap-
lured, and taken into custody. Afterwards ascertained that the
deceased had been taken to Che Infirmary.

James M'Whan, a police-offices, wag on duty in Park-road
on the night in question. About six o'clock the deceased, who
was witness's inspector, was there, and another officer named
COMM. The three proceeded to a field at the top of 11111-
street, in consequence of information received. A large crowd
of people had asiembleff. Saw the prisonets Patrick Cum-
ming„ Edward Connolly, George M'Carty, James Doming.,
and Martin Murphy among the crowd. The deceased, as also
witness and the other officer, were uressed in the police uniform.
Deceased requested the crowd to disperse, adding that if they
did not do so, he would bring a sufficient force to make them.
The crowd went further into the field, and Cowan, the other
officer, went for further assistance. While he was away. the
crowd had made a ring, and two men stripped for the purpose
of fighting. Cowan came back with some more police-officers.
The men who had stripped commenced fighting. Deceased,
witness, and the other two -officers then made one of the men
who bad stripped a prisoner. The men had fought two or three
rounds. Witness identified the five prisoners named as pro-
moting and backing the light. Cumming, the prisoner, bad a
stick eighteen inches long—a rough, prepared stick. Saw
Cumming strike the deceased with the stick on the head twice.
Almost immediately, the prisoners Edward Connolly; James
Dousing, and Martin Murphy repeatedly struck and kicked the
deceased wisile he was on the ground. Deceased never got
properly up. Saw Cumming strike and kick the deceased once
or twice. Witness endeavoured to rescue deceased, and was
kicked and struck by several persons in the crowd. • Witness
and the other officers were beaten off, and obliged to run away
for assistance, and left deceased among the crowd Assistance
was procured, when deceased was found lying speechless. The
crowd was still around, and the officers commenced taking
prisoners. Witness did not see teceased afterwards. On his
cross-examination by Mr. Davenport, the witness stated that he
did not see the prisoneris Alacklin and Rutledge amongst the
crowd.

Thomas Threlfall, another police-officer, corroborated the
testimony of the preceeding witnesses. The bludgeon with which
the prisoner Doming struck the deceased two or three times
appeared to be a piece of timber about 14 or IG inches in length,
square and thick. Saw the prisoner•Connolly, with a bfick in
his hand, kick the deceased whilst he was on . the ground.
111•Carthy was amongst the crowd, and cried "Go on," while
the prisoner Cumming gave witness "the leg" twice. When
witness recovered 'from being tripped, saw deceased lying on
the ground in a helpless condition. Many persons in the-crowd
bad bludgeons. Could not swear that the prisoners Macklin,
Moriand, and Rutledge were amongst the crowd. •
Robert Ritchie, policeman, deposed to accompaning the de-
ceased and ,Fish, a police-officer, on the evening of the..2Bt.h
to. the 'fanneries; near Windsor, where a crowd was cellected,-
and two melt lighting. On taking one of theni into custody,•
they were followed by a crowd, and a great mitober of bricks
and stones
.were thrown—by whom witness could not say. Cum
mine, Connolly' Diming, Murphy, James Macklin, and Pat-,
rick7Mnrland. all appeared to be taking, part in the
.proceedings
of the. molt, Witness reeeived a severe blow-on the head'with
.a brick. Deceased and Witness were standing together about
five minutes, when twenty or thirty of the mob took sticks out.
of their. pockets. Several in the crowd_ cried, "Go it, geit,!".
The prisoner Macklin laid hold of the deceased across the breast,'
and kicked b'.s feet from under him, when he tell.. Witness, at
the sante moment was pinioned, and knocked down
.by a:blow•
on the bead. When on ithe ground, several called out "Kill
them, murder !" There were .tvirrior three lying on the top of
witness who drew up' his hands and knees, when he saw the de-'
ceased lying 'on his hack bleeding. At that time sic or seven
sticks were cutting at hint on ail parts of his body.- Saw.Mack-
lin, Cumming, Connolly, Murphy, & Moreland amongst. the
crowd.—This witness was cross .examined at some length by Mr.
Davenport on the part of Macklin, but he was positive as to the
fact of the latter being amongst the crowd.
Mr. Nottingham, the house-surgeon of the Infirmary, deposed
to receiving the-deceased into that institution. on the evening of
May 28. He was treated in every way' likely to conduce, to his
recovery. His death was caused in the opinion of witness
the injuries he had sustained.
There appearing 'no evidence to criminate Rutledge, be was

. _
discharged. . •
The Cottosan then addressed the jury with much clearness,
pointing out to them the demarcation between murdet and man-
slaughter, After reading the evidence carefully over, and com-
menting on it as he proceeded, the Coroner read some extracts
bearing upon ttu case from a work which Judge Pattison at the
last assizes had highly eulogised—Russell on Crime. It was
there laid clovin.:that a. party killing an officer in the discharge
of his public duty, knowing him to be an officer, was guilt v.of
murder. The evidence proved that the deceased wore the police
uniform, and 'was recognised as a police-officer,—and no doubt
could exist as to the cause of his death been produced by the

blows he had received. The jury retired, and in a short time
returned with .a.- verdict,. of "Wilful Murder, " against James
Macklin, Patrick Cumming, Edward Connolly, James Doming,
and Martin 11lurphy, as,principals; and against George M'Carty
and Patrick Morland as aiders and abettors. .
s The- prisoners, we believe, are ail Irishmen, in the humblest
class of life. There is nothing indicative of ferocity or brutality
in their appearance.. They all behaved.with remarkable com-
posure, with the exception of Murphy, who shed tears in allud-
ing to his wife and four children. .

MECHANICS' AND APPRENTICES LIBRART,--We learn that
it is the intention of the :committee of the Mechanics' and Ap-
prentices' Library to issue a, circular, requesting donations of
books from gentlemen whe4 in! looking over then libraries, May
find duplicate works, or old editions, this is. a necessary step,
as the valuable works presenteito this useful and central library
•at its foundation are ,bv,thiS trine worn out and uStless._')i-d,,-.
nation of valuable AO. ug.gful•;yrorks from 3,11%* Jethei Lein
was laid before the last committee-

.... .9,. - ~

CORRESPONDENCE..

To THE TOWN-DUES COMMITTEE OF THE
COUNCIL OF THE BOROUGH: OF •LIVERPOOL

GENTLKAIEN,—We presume each member of your body, as an
individual, to be possessed of inflexible integrity, a scrupulous
sense of honour; and, in your representative•capacity we would
hope to find you earnestly anxious to render justice where jus-
tice is due. Should anyone openly assail your character and
impute to you dishonor or dishonesty we doubt not each would
be zealous to relieve himself from so wrongful a suspicion, hut
should a cowardly malice prompt any one, covertly and under
protection, to seek the injury of your fair fame, we presume to
think it would bedifficult to assign bounds for the feelings of
indignation each would naturally ascertain. We, gentlemen.
occupy the unpleasant position of having bad our characters
assailed, our honesty impeached ; we have been slandered co-
vertly and under the protection of your body, we have used
every proper exertion to induce you to deliver up tons the name
of our assailant, that exertion has failed, and it is with unfeigned
regret we find ourselves compelled to lay a case betore the pub-
lic, with the two-fold object of vindicating our characters, and
claiming from you that measure of justice which we do feel you
withhold front us.
We preface by stating that we are steam-boat agents, having
vessels plying between this port and Cork and OTHER PLACES.
As such agents we have hitherto paid thetown-dues on all goods
imported and exported in our vessels, and charged the same to
the 'ownets or consignees.
it would appear that, some two or three months since, Mr.
Corrie, the receiver of the town-dues at this port, had his atten-
tion called to the Cork trade list, by an "ind;ridual interested
as the agent of others in the e'osnmeree of the port;" and by that
individual he must have been informed, that certain discrepan-
cies existed between the atimunt of town-dues paid by us on
cargoes in our steamers to and 'row Cork, and the quantity of
'cargo (import and export) reported in such Cork list. Mr.
Corrie, in performance of his duty as a public officer of the cor-
poration, very properly reported the matter to your body. From
You he received instructions to ascertain the defalcation alleged
against us, and ,•eport to you thereon. Mr. Corrie proceeds in
the execution of his commands, and by what means ? Does he
call upon us. and represent that such stateitients had been made,
so-vitally affecting our characters as men of business and men
of honesty ? Does he seek to become acquainted with our ma-
nifests and our mercantile 'hooks and papers, from which he
could have obtained all the information besought ? No ! be
travels from counting-house to counting-house, enquiring from
the respectable merchants with whom we are in the habit of as-
sociating., the quantity of goods they have exported or imported
in our vessels to and from Cork, (and here we beg to observe to
and from CORK ALONE,) in order to compare such with the
quantity of goods upon which we had paid the town—dues; and
in no case, we will venture to affirin,did Mr. Corrie depart from
the office of any such merchant alter making his enquiries,
without leaving behind him an impression that we were sus-
pected of defrauding the corporate estate. This delicate inves-
tigation proceeds during, a space of nearly two months, and
, whPn, think you, we hear of it for the first. time ? Not until
several days after Air. Currie had transmitted to you his report;
and how`AO we hear it? We are sent. for by one of the met-
chants from whom inquiry had been made, he expressed to us
his regret that we should 'have been placed in so unpleasant a
situation, and, not believing us capable of acting; thus disho-
nestly; he deeMed itbut his deity to acquaint us with what had
occurred. 'l'o that gentleman we felt, we acknowledged, our
obligation, and half an hour diil not elapse ere we waited upon
Mr. Corrie, to express our surprise at the suspicion raised
against us, our deep annoyance that the investigation bad been
carried on without our knowledge, and our earnest desire to
answer satisfactorily every inquiry he might, in the performance
Of his duty, have been called upon to make. Mr. Corie as-
sured us; he considered we had been suffering under a very
serious imputation, but that he hail pleasure in announcing
that, so far as we were concerned, the result of his inquiries had
proved satisfactory to himself, and without dishonor to us; that
he had been enabled (and diligently and vigorously must be
h'ave laboured for the purpose) to account for every package of
goods imported and exported in our vessels, except 26 firkins of
butter, and that he had so reported to your committee; and
what think you he added? That the amount of town-dues upon
these 26 tirkins was so small, (Sd.) he did not think it WORTHY
AN INDICTMENT. _ .

Gentlernen,—We Will not attesupt to describe our feelings
upon this announcement, we leave them to you, to any honour-
able mind to imagine. We felt a confidence, however, that
even with regard to these 26 firkins of butter, some error must
exist. which it would be in our power to rectify. We returned
to our offioe, we ascertained the fact from the boOks and then
discovered, that 174, not 200 firkins as represented to Mr.
Corrie, had been received on h•taid our vessel—and thus the
26 firkins were accounted for. We returned to Mr. Corrie with
our papers, and satisfactorily explained to hint the mistake, he
prothised to amend his report in that respect, and we suppose
did so. We demanded from Mr. Corrie the name of his in-
former, we represented to him the injurious effect on our chit-.
racter and credit the investigation must necessarily have pro-
duced; he refused to furnished the name of the individual, but
volunteered, as the only reparation iu his power, to write to, or
personally wait upon all the parties and acquaint them with the
result of his inquiries. We declined that offer, we felt such a
mode was net calculated to remedy the evil which had ensued,
and we placed ourselves in the hands of our solicitors, between
whom and other parties the annexed correspondence has taken
place.
We have been engaged as agents for steam boats to other
places than Cork for upwards of three years. In October last,
we commenced sailing our steam vessels' between this port and
Cork, and in January, in consequence of her success, another
was added; these two boati were the John M'Adam, and the
Margaret. It is never pretended that inquiry has been made
by you respecting our transactions connected with any other
place than Cork. Ou the Cork station there is opposition—on
the other station no opposition. No inquiry was made by Mr.
Corrie respecting either the transactions of ourselves or bother
parties trading to and from Cork, until his attention was so
called to the Cork list, and Mr. Corrie's report was confined,
exclusively, we believe, to our own case.
Mr. Radcliffe, in his letter on behalf of Mr. Corrie, states,
that no inquiry had been made in Ireland respecting these
charges against us. To ascertain this, we went at much per-
sonal inconvenience to 'Cork, whence we have just returned,
and there ascertained, that a person was stationed on the quay
at Cork, EttPLoYED and PAID by cei fain parties sailing steam
vessels in opposition to us, for the purpose of taking an account
of the cargoes of our vessels for the town dues in Liverpool.
Gentlemen, we are not placing either you or Mr. Currie, on
your defence, of the latter gentleman we have seen much, suffi-
cient to claim from us, respect for his honour and integrity ;
we are merely seeking that you will render justice, where you
have hitherto failed. Men's motives are between themselves
and their maker; circumstances, however, will, generally,
enable men fairly to estimate the motives of their fellow men.
If the " Individual interested as the agent of others in the com-
merce of the port," who drew Mr. Come's attention to the Cork
lists, be unconnected with our trade as opponent, if he be one
separated widely front even the suspicion of jealousy towards
its, we do not ask you to furnish his name. But should the
Individual thus interested as the agent of others, be one per-
sonally concerned in opposition to us, should he be one who
would have been personally, and pecuniarily benefitted by our
downfall or degradation, then we do ask you to conceive a rea-
son for withholding his name. This is information which Mr.
Corrie cAN, and if required by you, MUST furnish.
We conclude with again expressing our regret, you should
have refused to give up the name of this Individual, leaving us
no alternative, in vindication of ourselves, but to address you
through the public press, and publish the correspoudece which
has taken place.

We remain, Gentlemen.
Your obedient servants.
J. A. and R. FORSHAW.

11th June, .1838.