The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1845-03-25 00:00:00

to any thing that can be considered as a charge of mur-
der ; but he is charged with having caused the death of
a child by an improper discharge of his duty. As the
law will protect officers in the strict discharge of that
duty, so. the law must be watchful to see that they exer-
cise their authority with discretion and propriety ; and
if, in consequence of the want of due discretion, the
death was in this instance occasioned, the officer must
of course be responsible. In this respect the case must
be considered as one of considerable importance. Gen-
tlemen, there is another case of murder which stands
No. 67 in the calendar, not indeed in the printed calendar,
but in the calendar which lies before me, and which has
been brought in and inserted since the calendar was
printed. In this case a young woman is charged with
the murder of her own offspring. A coroner's inquest
was held ; she has been committed on their verdict; and
the charge will be brought forward against her in that
shape. It is one of those cases which are, unfortunately,
of frequent occurrence, and in which undoubtedly there
appears to have been considerable ground for a serious in-
quiry. How the matter may turn out in the result it is not
possible to anticipate, but 1 am disposed to think there is
sufficient ground to lay the charge as the coroner's jury
thought proper to lay it. Gentlemen, there is another case of
the same kind, No. 29 inthe calendar ; but I should pre-
sume, from the investigation that has taken place below,
that that was not so serious a case as the former, as I per-
ceive the party was only committed for the attempt to
conceal the birth of the child. In that case the bill will
be presented for your consideration. Owing to an acci-
dent, the depositions have not come into my hand, and
therefore 1 have had no opportunity of perusing them ;
but you will take the circumstances into consideration,
and if you think a higher offence than that of concealing
the birth has been committed, you will, of course, find
the bill accordingly. Gentlemen, I am extremely sorry
also to observe that there are in the calendar, two charges
of a nature of which we have, unhappily,:more in this
country than we used to have heretofore—l mean charges
of attempts to administer poison. Gentlemen, the nature
of the charge in both cases appears to be this : the parties
stand accused of having mixed some poisonous ingredient
into what was being prepared for the food of some per-
sons of the family. Fortunately in neither case was any
of the mixture taken, and, therefore, the parties are not,
fortunately for them, liable to the capital charge ; but still
they are liable to be indicted and punished in case they
should be convicted of "having attempted to administer"
—these being the words of the statute. If a party lays
poison in a place where another person is likely to come,
and lie takes it, although the party laying it was ab-
sent at the time it was taken, that is, in point of law, an
administering, and the party is liable to the capital punish-
ment ; and on the same ground if he lays it with the in-
tention that the party should so take it, that would bear
out the charge in the indictment. Gentlemen, there are
several cases of wounding which will be brought before
you. They are not, any of them, of a peculiar sort, with
the exception of two, upon which I should wish to make
a few remarks. There is, undoubtedly, one case of great
importance, for the party is charged with having com-
mitted a very violent and outrageous assault on the per-
son of another, and wounding him; and it would appear
as if the motive had been that the wounded person was con-
tinuing at his work when others turned out, an offence that
must always be looked upon as one of the gravest nature.
There is another case which I mention because of this
peculiarity in it—that the man a•ho sustained the injury
is a deaf and dumb person. 1 apprehend that, probably,
you will find independent persons, besides the individual
himself, who will prove the case sufficiently to warrant
you in exercising your judgments upon it ; but there are,
in
terpret
what am told, some persons in attendance who will
what the deaf and dumb person signifies, so as to enable
you to ascertain what his account of the transaction is,
and, if you find it necessary to have any such interpreter,
he will be sworn in court and sent before you. Gentle-
men, amongst the cases of wounding, or cases analogous
to wounding, there is a charge against a prisoner who
stands No. 66 in the manuse;ipr calender. He is accused
of having thrown vitriol, or some corrosive fluid, upon
the person of a young boy, named Thomas King; and
it is, perhaps, not a case of that description in which
there was any considerable malignity, in a moral sense,
upon the part of the prisoner, who is described iu the
calendar as a boy about the age of fifte-n. He seems to
be charged with using a squirt, and with having squirted
on the young child a quantity of some corrosive fluid—an
actscertainly, of great wantonness. Perhaps he might
not have been fully aware of the mischief to occur in
such cases. However, if he did it designedly, and was
at all aware that it was an injurious act, he would
be liable to be charged with doing it wilfully and mali•
ciously, because malice in law does not mean more than
doing an unlawful act with a knowledge that it was an
improper act. It does not require any extraordinary de-
gree of individual malice. If he does it designedly, and
with the knowledge to which I have ref: rred, that answers
the legal description of malice, although the prisoner in
the prt sent case is certainly very young. Gentlemen,
there are several cases of burglary that will be brought
before you. These, generally, appear not to have been
attended with very much aggravation. There is one case,
No. 31 in the calendar, in which there appears to have
been a good deal of violence used. Four persons were
concerned in the transaction, but one only will be brought
before you, so far as lam aware. There is another case,
No. 28 in the calendar, rather of a peculiar sort, inas-
much as no property was at all stolen. 'I he party seems,
still, to have got into the house at night time, and to have
been caught after he had left. If there be any evidence
to show that he might be considered as having in-
tended to steal, you are aware it is not necessary
there should be any actual theft, if he broke in with
the intent to commit a felony. He alleges that be
only went there to visit the servant maid ; but you
will ascertain whether or not there be sufficient ground
for putting him on his trial on the charge of felony.
Gentlemen. there are unfortunately several cases in the
calendar of injuries to young females. Of course, with
regard to the child upon whom any of these offences may
have been committed, if she is under the age of ten, all
question of consent is immaterial. Between the age of 10
and 12 consent is so far material that the party under
such circumstances is not liable to be found guilty of the
felony but only of a misdemeanour; and you will have
to consider for which of those two offences you will put
the party under charge. And in reference to these cases,
and also to a case which is No. 48 in the calendar, I shall
feel obliged if, when the bills come before you, you will
proceed as soon as convenient to consider them and to
return them into court, b cause it not u
i nfrequently oc-
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curs that when matters of the kind areinvestigated the
petty jury do not think themselves warranted in finding
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bills will be forwarded to you as soon as pos-ible.
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The Grand Jury retired to their room and shortly after
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sent several bills into Court.
STABBING ON THE lIIGH SEAS.
Samuel Brown, 22, remanded from last Assizes, was
indicted for having, on the high seas, stabbed one Lance-
lot Reid, with intent to do grievous bodily harm.
It appeared that the prosecutor was captain of a vessel
called the Sir Charles Napier. and that the prisoner was a
seaman on board. On the homeward voyage from New
Brunswick to Liverpool, on the 18th of November last,
the captain went on deck and directed the watch to reef
the sails. The prisoner, who was one of the watch, re-
fused to obey the order, whereupon a struggle ensued be-
tween the parties, blows were struck, and the captain was
stabbed in the stomach. The mate attended to him and
performed a surgical operation, and after the arrival of
the captain in Liverpool, he was some time confined from
the effects of the wound. A knife was found close to the
place where the struggle took place, and it was proved -
that it belonged to the prisoner, and was spotted with
blood.
The jury found the prisoner not guilty of the felony,
but guilty of the assault. He was sentenced to imprison-
ment and hard labour in the House of Correction for two
years.