The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-03-31 00:00:00

CROWN COURT.—S,tTuRnAy,

- Mr. Justice COLE IDGF, took his place shortly before nine
o'clock, and immediately ordered that the prisoners con-
victed on the preceding day, who had not received sentence,
should be placed, before him.

SENTENCES ON RETURNED CONVICTS.
Charles Dohhus, aged 23, was placed at the bar. The
charge against him was, that, having been convicted, about
four years ago, of burglary, at the New Bailey Sessions, at
Salford, and transported beyond the seas for the term of 14
years, he had, on the 18th of November last, appeared at
large, in the borough of Manchester, without lawful cause.
He pleaded Guilty.
His Lordship was about to pass sentence when the pri-
soner begged to be allowed to address a few words to the
Court. The prisoner's statement was of much greater length
than we have space to publish, his address having occupied
nearly an hour in the delivery. It was, in some parts, ex-
ceedingly touching, and created a powerful sensation in the
court. We should be glad if we could convey, even in print,
a notion of the impressive manner in which the prisoner de-
livered himself. His great and unaffected earnestness ren-
dered him occasionally eloquent; while, in some of the de-
tails, his language became pathetic from the excited state of
his feelings and from the emotions which he was unable to
controul communicating their colour to his thoughts and
words. He commenced by saying, that four years ago, when
he was only nineteen years of age, he was tried for burglary,
and sentenced to fourteen years' iransportation. He did
not then believe, what he had since been so powerfully con-
vinced of, that transportation was so full of misery as he hail
proved it to be from experience. He could assure his lord-
ship, that it was terrible, and those who thought otherwise
were in very great error. He was first sent to the hulks,
where he remained six months, and there, though he suffered
much hardship, which he need not describe, it was nothing
to the misery wnich he had since endured. He was, at length.
sent on board the transport that was to convey him to
Botany Bay ; and he looked forward to this change with
some satisfaction, indulging a hope that it would better his
circumstances ; but he was tearfully mistaken. The severe
regulations of the hulks were exchanged for the military rule
to which the prisoners were subjected ; and he soon found
what it was to be under the strong discipline of a convict
vessel. The prisoner described the manner in which the
several classes of convicts were taken away from the ship on
their arrival. Those who were doomed to the chain gangs for
life were first sent off to their horrible punishment, which he
described as being considered, by all convicts who knew
anything of the matter, as a thousand times worse than death
in its most dreaded form. Many thought they had a chance
of bettering their condition when transported, but they were
dreadfully mistaken. Even the gentlemen who were tran-
sported, he meant those who were well educated, and who
thought their education would prove an advantage to them,
were doomed to suffer equally with the most ignorant and
depraved, for they were ranked amongst those who were in-
firm and invalids, and were, being useless, sent to a quarter
where they were under the command of men whom they re-
garded, in all respects, as their inferiors, so that, instead of
being better, they were absolutely worse off than their fel-
lows. He was attached, he said, to what we believe, he
called the Woolaloo party, with which he continued, for a
time, working under a burning sun by day and subjected to
the most severe discipline. Every thing was under military
regulation, and on the slightest infraction of rule or orders,
the convicts were tied up to the triangles and flogged. At length
a lady and gentleman wished to take a man into their ser-
vice, and he was assigned to them. He behaved well, and
he found his circumstances as good as Ile could expect, or
even better, for he had done wrong and deserved punish-
ment. This lasted only about twelve months, for Mr. —,
—he would not mention the name of that gentleman in juxta-
position with his own, for, he believed, he was iu London at
that moment, and, if he was not, he had a brother there,—
but he told him that he was going to England, and must turn
him over to government. This was done, and he again expe-
rienced a renewal of the hardships to which he had at first
been subjected. 'But even these hardships were nothing to
what he had afterwards experienced, for the governor was
changed, and when Governor Phipps went out it was much
worse for convicts. He was now sent with others to work in
the interior of the colony, amongst the chain gangs, and here
it was that he saw transportation in its true colours. They
were miserably dealt with, indeed, forced, by the most se-
vere treatment, to work, all day, beyond their strength, be-
neath a burning sun, not daring to utter a complaint for fear
of the lash, and with scarcely food enough to support them,
consisting only of a wretched meal of homminy. It was out
of the power of language to describe what they endured. (The
prisoner wept at the recollection of his sufferings during this
period.) The most conspicuous object of their encampment
was the triangles, and for the most trivial errorthey were taken
before a military gentleman, who assigned them a flogging,
which always took place at dinner time ; after which they
were taken to toil again, beneath the scorching sun.
At night they slept in huts. They had no beds, and mere-
ly a covering of a sort of stringy bark. If one word were
spoken during the hours of rest, the sentinel called out the
offender, and he was handcuffed till morning, when lie was
flogged for having violated the regulations by the expression
of even a natural and involuntary complaint. Here his life
became a misery to him, and he had no consolation from the
reflection, that he had deserved the punishment. He assured
his lordship, that his constant, unmitigated sufferings were
unbearable, for they were treated worse than dogs, and were
looked upon as even worse than beasts. One night he awoke
from sleep. He saw before him three hundred men, each of
whom had been the author of some crime. He then felt
deeply his degraded and miserable situation, and he spoke to
a young man named (as we understood) Carney, and they
agreed to escape together. The prisoner merely said they
left the stockade together, without stating the means by
which they effected their liberation. They proceeded far into
the bush, and were well nigh exhausted, when they discerned
a party of the aborigines, who were roasting a kangaroo.
Hig companion was afraid to venture near them, but he, being
pressed by hunger, went to them, and they gave him a piece
of a kangaroo and a piece of an opossum. The prisoner pro-
ds
sleep,
ye fromig
hearingthe t
pro-
ceeded to detail the particulars of their journey till they
daylight
. arrived at a small bay, which he said was called Botany Bay,
a
whole
footsteps districtheu was
hcealslueddd. e
nil
yI eawmueknet mentioned
from
r
his horrorlp, as
they
y sa
would rathervs s
vessel,
whichave h
died e
havingh have,
be e returned. ur n ed .
brought At
pt
to the sea, knew was going out of port, from the blue Peter at
her mast head. She was aboutoi two iles from them, and he
water and swam to her. They c
and his companion, after consultation,et resolvednn bna
onboard,
runa n d
to get into the hold, unperceived,
any risk rather than remain some
twhyerweeeraei:h plunged
agreed itnotothe
con-
ceal himself as he best could. He knew not where his com-
rade concealed himself, but le got into a water tank.
Shortly afterwards the inspector caniboard and examined
the ship, and he was under iucorice onev le dread that they
would be taken, when, by the law the
have been sent to Norfolk Island for fourteen colony, he would
inspector did not find him, but he heard the
s years.ls The
putting
on the hatches and tarpauling, and immediately hisr compa-
nion joined him. A new horror appeared beforethelnTheprisoner stated, that it was customary, when convicts were
suspected of having concealed themselves on board ships, to
smoke the hold, to force them to come forth. To this opera-
tion they became convinced they were about to be subjected.
Believing themselves to be in this fearful extremity, his com-
panion asked
him if he had any memorial which he wished
him to deliver in England, in case he survived him, and ever
reached his country. He replied, no : he had no one in the
world who cared for ham, and, tharefore, no one whom he
wished to be reminded of Mm. His companion (the prisoner
wept at the remembrance) took out a dirty letter, and told
ndon Sobbing as he
him where to find his poor mother in Lo •