The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1841-08-27 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

MURDER ON BOARD SHIP. Patrick Cahill, 28, stood charged with the wilful murder of Eli Robinson, at Liverpool, by stabbing him with a knife in the left breast.  The case for the prosecution was conducted by Mr. Crompton ; that of the defence by Mr. Wilkins. Mr. CROMPTON stated the particulars. The deceased was the steward of an American ship called the United States, which, on the Ist of June last, arrived in the Mersey, from New Orleans. The prisoner was a steerage passenger in her; and she was at the Prince's Pier, preparing to go into dock, when the circumstance occurred which caused the death of the deceased. Their happened to have been a woman on the quay at the time who witnessed the act, and who would be called in evidence. It would appear that the prisoner had been seen coming out of the cabin of the ship shortly after the deceased; that some expressions were used, with regard to the exact nature of which the witnesses differed ; and that some dispute arose, the exact aecount of which could not be distinctly ascertained; but that the prisoner followed the deceased round the deck of the vessel twice, put his arm round his neck, and then stabbed him several times with a knife, there could be no doubt. The consequence was that the prisoner was tied to the rigging until a policeman went on board and arrested him, and that the deceased was taken on shore, and died before he got to the hospital. These (acts were fully established by the evidence, a comprehensive summary of which we gave when the case was brought before Mr. Rushton.  Mi. WILKINS then addressed the jury on the part of the prisoner. The case, he said, was a lamentable one, but the prisoner was entitled to their commiseration, inasmuch as he was not responsible for the act committed, having been labouring at the time under mental aberration. There was nothing in the evidence to show that he had a depraved heart, and nothing to account for the occurrence which had taken place. Both the deceased and the prisoner were persons of a quiet and peaceable demeanour. The idea which existed in the mind of the prisoner as to their being figures dancing over the bow of the vessel, showed that he laboured under some mental hallucination. The act had, moreover, been committed in the presence of numbers of persons who stood on the pier as well as the deck of the vessel, when, if he were not the slave of some supernatural agency, he must have known that he would be immediately arrested.  Philip Cahill, the father of the prisoner, who lives in the county of Meath, deposed that the latter had received a fracture of the skull at the fair of Bailiehorough, in 1838. He was then confined to bed for several weeks, and, when he went to work at length, he complained of a lightness in his head. 'Whenever he took whiskey after, he used to throw his hands about him, and appear like a distracted man. He subsequently left Ireland for Ametica, in a most unexpected manner. Witness has seen him in Kirkdale Gaol since this occurrence, where he talked of devils from Yorkshire, and other imaginary matters, which led witness to believe hint of unsound mind.  Andrew Keane, who works for the prisoner's father in Ireland, proved that the prisoner, on one occasion, yoked horses to a plough, and ploughed up several of the drills in a potatoe field. This happened in the month of June, and on remonstrating with the prisoner on the impropriety of his conduct, he said that was the proper month for sowing grain. (A laugh.)  - Mr. Amos, the governor of the gaol, deposed that the prisoner's conduct was odd since his committal. He was singular in his manner, noisy and troublesome. Mr. CROMPTON having briefly replied, His LORDSHIP charged the jury, and, in doing do, gave it as his opinion that the circumstances did not cohere, and that they were calculated to raise suspicion as to the sanity of the prisoner. _  The jury, without leaving the box, acquitted the prisoner on the ground of insanity.