The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-01-18 00:00:00

stion of those fiends in human

words o

'hape by whom the d

who find

eed of atrocity was perpetra-

to show a rivalry in wiekeilness—the man
s him says, Give me a blunderbuss to

shoot him, as it was I that got him l' " The victim
rged from his place of concealment and
fled back to his family. and was dragged

was dra
beaten—

family he

back and beaten again. L,,, d "
tinctly each successive blow the unhappy man re-
ceived, and the moaning that followed their inflic-
tion." We quote, now, the words of the judge,
addressed to the convicted culprit :
" The door is again opened, and some of the party en-
ter, and you are one of them. You call for a candle ; you
oblige one of the inmates to hold it for you : you load a
gun in the presence of the family ; you return with • the
loaded gun to the scene in which you and your associates
were perpetrating this outrage; shots are fired, and the
party then retire. The unfortunate man is brought into
the house; he is not yet dead, he breathes, but is sense-
less, and it is found that during the period in which he
was subjected to this process of lingering torture his jaw
was broken and his head fractured in two places. These
were not sufficient to produce his instant death. His
back is broken by a gun-shot wound, his hip is perforated
by another, and in the course of a few hours he dies, pre-
senting a mangled corpse, any one of those injuries proved
before us being sufficient to cause his death. When he
was brought into the house, in the simple but expressive
language of one of the witnesses, ' you could not know
him.'
Now what was the offence which this unfortunate
man had committed to draw down upon himself and
his family this cruel doom ? We give these again
in the words of the judge, addressed to the culprit,
in passing sentence of death :
"Your stepfather, with whom you lived, was in posses-
sion of a farm adjoining that occupied by John M'Eniry.
J. M'Eniry had a servant youth in his employment, a
young person hardly past the age of boyhood. You im-
pounded one of his cattle, as the law allowed you, for
trespassing on your stepfather's farm. This young lad
went to you to beg the restoration of the cattle, and you
gave up the cattle; but you did more. You, a-vigorous
and athletic man, armed with a stick that might have
been a weapon calculated to produce death, from some
animosity you entertained against that boy, struck him a
blow which felled him senseless to the earth ; and a man
of your strength, who could so employ it against a person
.of his youth and feebleness, might well be expected to
have exercised it for the purpose of committing a worse
crime. The master of the boy did what was his duty—he
appealed to the law to protect his servant. He summoned
you before the bench of magistrates. That was his offence
against you. When you were dragging the man to his
dwelling door, where you sealed the doom of death you
had determined on committing, he asked you 'What have
I done ?' and one of the party replied 'Remember the last
court day.' Such was the cause for the perpetration of
this dreadful murder."
The above picture of the temper of an Irish
" athletic youth," and of his evident inclination to
sacrifice to his brutal passion a poor child, whose
only apparent offence was his being the bearer of
an entreaty for the release of his cattle from the
pound, is bad enough. It shows at least the trifling
value of human life in the estimation of these
"finest pisantry" onthe earth. And the subsequently
accomplished murder of poor M'Eniry proves that
the protection, by law, of the life of a dependant is
a crime whioh renders deliberate assassination, by a
banded party, a venial transgression, if, indeed, it
is not regarded as merit on the part of the assassin.
But let us come to a consideration of the state of
mind in which the convicted culprit received his
sentence.. We give the scene in the words of the
report, premising that the sentence was, that his
execution should take place on the 11th February,
one month being given him for preparation for
eternity :
" The prisoner heard the sentence with the most per-
fect coolness. On retiring from the dock he took a piece
of bread from his pocket, and, laughing, said to the other
prisoners, ' By Gor, boys, we must eat whilst we live at
any rate.' !! ! Such," the Report adds, "is the revolt-
ing indifference with which these wretched men regard
their awful situation."
A strange state of mind it must be in which
wretches like this are so callous—so apparently
confident—that they can eat whilst they live, and
have no fears of a hereafter. We shall no doubt
learn that this young man—who, under better
teaching, might have been an honest and a useful
member of society—met his fate boldly, confident
in the absolution given him by the priest. Perhaps
he will deny to the last his guilt ; and appeal suc-
cessfully to the sympathies of the spectators of his
fatal hour. But what an example will thus be set.
Will there be one in a dozen, of those who see this
young man ushered into eternity, who will not be
perfectly aware that the man who professes to have
prepared his soul for eternity, knows he is as crimi-
nal as the law has adjudged him to be, and that he
leaves the world with a lie, uttered in the face of an
avenging God, upon his soul ?

OUR contemporary, the Mercury, whose hos-
tility to the established religion is so notorious
that its arguments are utterly unworthy of
notice, publishes, on Friday, a statement so disho-
nestly false that we cannot permit it to pass without
notice. After speaking of the arguments used by
the advocates of church extension as to spiritual
destitution, the Mercury says :

" This cant ought to be laid aside. It is, indeed, re-
sorted to by some who wish to proselytize the Dissenters
from conscientious motives ; but, by far the greater num!

THE COTTON

IARKET

YESTERDAY

There has been a good attendance of the trade in our
irket to-day, and a fine extent of business has been

les, at the extreme prices of last week ;
rather dearer, particularly in low Ame-
er's accounts had a tendency to make

our market firm and steady, for although t

;tates continued fine ti)r picl
are not at all reduced, we

forivard for sonic time yet

and the estimates of

shall not have much of it

crop, and that prices will rule comparatively low—good
for this and other manufacturing counties—never-
;s, plenty of cotton and cheap money will do us no
ood in the absence of confidence and moderate credit,
without which business will soon come to a " stand still."

On Sunday morning, the body of a newborn male child
was found in an entry at the back of the huusc N. 4,
High-street, Everton, wrapped in a bundle. There were
no marks of violence, and it appeared deceased had died
from want of proper assistance after birth
ST. JOHN'S• CHURCH, BIM

Just Sunday
week, sermons, in aid of the schools connected with this
church, were preached by the Revds. Mr. Knox and Mr.
Fielding Ould, when the sum of sum of £2B. 2s. was
collected.

READ

Dr. Whateley, Archbishop of Dublin, one of the acutest
reasoners of the day, says in his "thoughts," that " it is
very doubtful, to say the least, whether the University of
Oxford can be said to have ever passed any legal, that is,
any real, censure on Dr. Hampden."

•
DISTRICT PROVIDENT SOeIETY.—We are happy to
observe, from the advertisement elsewhere, that this
valuable society, notwithstanding the pressure of the
times, continues to receive a large share of public sup-
port. Its usetiilness during the recent immigration of
Irish into the town cannot and ought not to be forgotten.
THE WEATHER has, since our last, been very variable.
The frost disappeared in the early part of the last week,
and a milder, and sometimes almost vernal, temperature
prevailed. Saturday was fine and sunny, until the evening,
when there was a heavy and prolonged shower. Sunday
was peculiarly fine, and drew many parties abroad who
would othervtim have remained within doors. Early,
yesterday morning. heavy rain fell, and continued until
after daylight, when it became mingled with sleet and
snow, which continued at intervals up to last night. The
wet from above and the mud on the roads and streets
rendered the day one of the most uncomfortable we have
had this winter.
ACCIDENT AT THE NEW DOCKS.—Yesterday, an. in-
quest was held before Mr. Curry, on view of the body of
James Mc. Quade. The deceased, who was thirty-six
years of age, was a labourer, and employed at the new
North Docks. On Thursday afternoon, deceased was en-
gaged in wheeling a barrow, containing a stone of about
five hundred weight, along a balk, down into a 'hollow,
about nine to ten feet, when he lost his hold, and fell
from the balk down into the hollow, the stone falling
upon him. A man went down immediately to his assist-
ance, and found his right leg nearly cut off by.the stone.
He was taken to the Northern Hospital, when every at-
tention was paid to him ; but the fracture was a compound
one, of which he died yesterday morning.
ASSAULT AND ROBBERY.—Yesterday, at the police-
court, a female, named Catharine Nolan, and four men,
Hart, Brannon, Dunlevie, and Murray, were charged by
a man, named John Roughton, with having, in a house
of ill-fame, in a court out of North-street, maltreated,
violently assaulted, and robbed him of 4s. 9d. in money,
and the greater part of his clothes, leaving him with
scarcely the means of appearing in the street to give an
alarm. Some police-officers were at length informed,
and the prisoners were apprehended. After a long hear-
ing of the case, the girl was sentenced to three months'
imprisonment, Murray to the same, and Dunlevie (on
whose person some of the clothes were found) to two
months, under the new act, which gives the magistrate a
discretionary power of summary punishment in some cases
of felony. _

THE MOUNTED POLICE IN TIIE SUBURBS.—We learn
from a correspondent that it is to the exertions of Mr.
Robert Neilson, of Halewood, that we are mainly in-
debted for the augmentation of the county force, by
which that arrangement was rendered still more com-
plete, and also for the additional and valuable protection
of this mounted patrol. As one of the county magis-
trates, Mr. Neilson moved a, resolution, at the petty
sessions at Prescot, on Tuesday, far a temporary augmen-
tation of the county constabulary force—part of which
were to be mounted, and the whole placed under the
control of our efficient chief of police, Captain Wood-
ford. On Wednesday, Mr.. Neilson carried that resolu-
tion to the general sessions at Preston, where, by his
judicious remarks and explanation, he succeeded in re-.
moving the opposition that had been raised to a somewhat
similar resolution proposed by Mr. J. B. Yates. He then
arranged with Captain Woodford for a supply of men,
who had served in the Cavalry or Horse Artillery, bought
the horses and accoutrements, and the following morning
the men were mounted on duty, patrolling the whole
districts from Garston to Bootle, within six or seven miles
of Liverpool. The promptness with which this measure
has been executed will add much to the effect which may
be expected from the augmentation of such a force.
BATHS AND WASHHOUSES.—The inhabitants of Li-
verpool, and especially the lower classes, will regard with
pleasure the important concession which the indefatigable
member for St. Anne's Ward, Mr. Parker, has succeeded
in winning from the Health Committee. We refer to the
resolution of that Committee recommending the Council
to adopt the public Act for establishing baths and wash-
houses, and to raise a sum not exceeding £25,000, for the
purposes of the act, the Council paying the interest
annual/fp or such portion of it as is not covered by the
receipts of the baths and washhouses to be erected.
There has been no step taken hitherto by the authorities
so beneficial to the industrious working-classes, and so
conducive to the improvement of the health of the town, as
the erection of the existing baths ; and their perfect suc-
cess fully warrants the Council in erecting not one or two
additional in the town but, if possible, one in each Ward.
To the zealous exertions of Mr. Parker, we repeat, who
has taken from their opening a lively interest in the
management of these establishment, and_has constantly

urged upon the-Council an extension of their number,
the community are greatly indebted for the advantage
which they are about to reap, in the spread of personal
cleanliness and the improvement of the general health of
the locality, which will result from increasing bathing
faCilitiOt